CHAPTER VI.

JOHN THE BAPTIST—­VISIT OF JESUS TO JOHN, AND HIS ABODE IN THE DESERT OF JUDEA—­ADOPTION OF THE BAPTISM OF JOHN.

An extraordinary man, whose position, from the absence of documentary evidence, remains to us in some degree enigmatical, appeared about this time, and was unquestionably to some extent connected with Jesus.  This connection tended rather to make the young prophet of Nazareth deviate from his path; but it suggested many important accessories to his religious institution, and, at all events, furnished a very strong authority to his disciples in recommending their Master in the eyes of a certain class of Jews.

About the year 28 of our era (the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius) there spread throughout Palestine the reputation of a certain Johanan, or John, a young ascetic full of zeal and enthusiasm.  John was of the priestly race,[1] and born, it seems, at Juttah near Hebron, or at Hebron itself.[2] Hebron, the patriarchal city par excellence, situated at a short distance from the desert of Judea, and within a few hours’ journey of the great desert of Arabia, was at this period what it is to-day—­one of the bulwarks of Semitic ideas, in their most austere form.  From his infancy, John was Nazir—­that is to say, subjected by vow to certain abstinences.[3] The desert by which he was, so to speak, surrounded, early attracted him.[4] He led there the life of a Yogi of India, clothed with skins or stuffs of camel’s hair, having for food only locusts and wild honey.[5] A certain number of disciples were grouped around him, sharing his life and studying his severe doctrine.  We might imagine ourselves transported to the banks of the Ganges, if particular traits had not revealed in this recluse the last descendant of the great prophets of Israel.

[Footnote 1:  Luke i. 5; passage from the Gospel of the Ebionites, preserved by Epiphanius, (Adv.  Haer., xxx. 13.)]

[Footnote 2:  Luke i. 39.  It has been suggested, not without probability, that “the city of Juda” mentioned in this passage of Luke, is the town of Jutta (Josh. xv. 55, xxi. 16).  Robinson (Biblical Researches, i. 494, ii. 206) has discovered this Jutta, still bearing the same name, at two hours’ journey south of Hebron.]

[Footnote 3:  Luke i. 15.]

[Footnote 4:  Luke i. 80.]

[Footnote 5:  Matt. iii. 4; Mark i. 6; fragm. of the Gospel of the Ebionites, in Epiph., Adv.  Haer., xxx. 13.]

From the time that the Jewish nation had begun to reflect upon its destiny with a kind of despair, the imagination of the people had reverted with much complacency to the ancient prophets.  Now, of all the personages of the past, the remembrance of whom came like the dreams of a troubled night to awaken and agitate the people, the greatest was Elias.  This giant of the prophets, in his rough solitude of Carmel, sharing