Saint John the Forerunner and Baptist was the Forerunner of Christ who baptized Jesus in the Jordan. When the multitudes began to wonder whether he himself might be the Christ, how did he find the strength to speak immediately, step aside, and send his own disciples to follow another?
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, a man emerges from the Judaean desert and breaks four hundred years of silence. This volume traces the arc of his public life, beginning on the banks of the Jordan River where he preaches repentance to Pharisees and Sadducees alike. The narrative follows him into the waters to baptize Jesus of Nazareth, recording the day the whole of creation held its breath. The account then moves from the living waters to the dark fortress of Machaerus, where a bold rebuke of Herod Antipas over an unlawful marriage with Herodias leads to imprisonment and a fatal birthday feast. The volume leaves the reader at the threshold of Hades, watching the Forerunner descend to announce the coming of the Lamb of God to the dead.
- The Jordan waters: an immersion into the ritual washings of Second Temple Judaism and the radical newness of a baptism of repentance.
- Seven saving words: the distillation of the Gospel given on successive days to point his own disciples toward the Lamb of God.
- One final question: the message sent from a dark dungeon to ask Jesus of Nazareth if He is the Coming One.
Book Two of The Voice That Ran Before: A Life of Saint John the Forerunner. Arise in the Wilderness examines his divine preparation and the miraculous events surrounding his birth; More Than a Prophet explores his lasting spiritual influence and his permanent role as a guide for the faithful.
Readers seeking context for his preaching to the Pharisees and Sadducees, a closer look at his baptism of Jesus of Nazareth, and the circumstances of his imprisonment and death at the fortress of Machaerus.
