John of History, Baptist of Faith, James F. McGrath. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802883995) 2024.

Summary: A historical-critical study of New Testament and Mandaean sources, developing a historical portrait of John.

James F. McGrath has recently made a certain scholarly “splash” in focusing our attention on the neglected figure of John the Baptist, who he argues played a significant role in history. He’s not just the forerunner of Jesus who fades from view, an idea he argued in Christmaker (reviewed here). This work goes further in developing his ideas, delving into a historical-critical study of the sources we may draw on to arrive at “the John of History.”

First of all, McGrath argues in Chapter 1 for the Q sayings source as one of the historical sources for information about John. Given that it begins with John’s preaching and ends with an apocalyptic sermon, it may stand to reason that the teaching found here reflects continuity with John that sheds light on his message. Then in Chapter 2, McGrath assesses the Mandaean sources, the other major body of texts to consider, arguing neither for wholesale acceptance or rejection but critical assessment. He likens their value in understanding John to the Nag Hammadi or rabbinic sources.

From here, McGrath asserts that Jesus was a disciple of John as reflected in the continuity between the ministries of the two men. These continuities include baptism, the preaching of the kingdom, the ethical teaching, and the threat against the temple. In addition, there is the high esteem by Jesus for John. It is an intriguing suggestion, though I am not persuaded that Jesus was a disciple under John for any significant period. Apart from the baptism of Jesus, the two appear to operate separately in the gospel accounts, though aware of each other.

Chapter 4 turns from the relation of Jesus and John to the nativity narratives of Luke. Along with Luke, he considers the Protevangelium of James and the Mandaean Book of John. Drawing on these sources, he suggests a nativity narrative of John that includes Elizabeth and Zechariah as inspiration for the parents of Mary and the Magnificat as a prayer of Elizabeth, and that Luke reworked these materials. This seemed interesting but speculative to me.

Above all, John was known as the Baptizer, and chapters 5 and 6 concern baptism. Chapter 5 considers where John may have gotten the idea of baptism from. Instead of priestly sacrifices, John draws on ritual ablutions signifying cleansing. Then Chapter 6 turns to the baptism of Jesus, particularly as it became caught up in Mandaean polemics about john and Jesus.

I found Chapter 7 particularly intriguing as McGrath explores Jesus’ use of “the Son of Man.” He connects this with John’s references to one “greater” or “stronger” than himself. He also notes John’s use of “the one” to come. Linguistically, “the one” and “the Son of Man” are synonymous.

Given the gnostic character of Mandaeaism, Chapter 8 weighs what aspects of John’s ministry may have given rise to this. While John was no gnostic, his followers Dositheus and Simon Magus may have been. I personally wonder how Gnosticism might have arisen from Hebraic sources and think Hellenist ones more likely. But these two worlds intersected during this time.

Finally, McGrath considers the prayer of John. He notes the reference by Jesus’ disciples to John teaching his disciples to pray. Then he argues that the Our Father may have roots in John’s prayers.

Overall, what McGrath does is make a strong case for both the significance of John and his influence with Jesus. He raises a number of interesting questions for further scholarly work. I do wish he could have included translations of the Mandaean Book of John and the Protevangelium. Non-scholars like myself do not have ready access to them. That said, I look forward to seeing how other scholars interact with this work and how McGrath builds on this work. Clearly, he has demonstrated that this is a fruitful (and neglected) field of inquiry!

Addendum: The author wrote the following in comments below that I wanted to include in the review:

“There are open access translations of both works online, which was one reason I didn’t think it necessary to include them. When I worked with Charles Haberl on the Mandaean Book of John, we made sure the translation would be available. You can find that here: https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/facsch_papers/1065/

A couple of translations of the Protevangelium (Infancy Gospel) of James can be found here: https://www.earlychristianwritings.com/infancyjames.html“

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.