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W. Barnes Tatum

Who was John the Baptist? What was his relationship to Jesus? What message did John proclaim? Did Jesus repeat John's message or did he devise one of his own? For answers to these questions, the Jesus Seminar considered all the historical evidence found in the gospels, Josephus, the documents known as the Pseudo-Clementines, and the traces of the Baptist tradition preserved in Mandaeism, a baptizing sect that continues to exist in southern Iraq and neighboring Iran. Their conclusions, a summary of the deliberations and votes of the Seminar, and a concise sketch of the historical figure of John the Baptist are found in the pages of this provocative and lucid book.