[Footnote 2: Luke i.]
[Footnote 3: Matt. iii. 14, and following; Luke iii. 16; John i. 15, and following, v. 32, 33.]
[Footnote 4: Matt. xi. 2, and following; Luke vii. 18, and following.]
The school of John did not die with its founder. It lived some time distinct from that of Jesus, and at first a good understanding existed between the two. Many years after the death of the two masters, people were baptized with the baptism of John. Certain persons belonged to the two schools at the same time—for example, the celebrated Apollos, the rival of St. Paul (toward the year 50), and a large number of the Christians of Ephesus.[1] Josephus placed himself (year 53) in the school of an ascetic named Banou,[2] who presents the greatest resemblance to John the Baptist, and who was perhaps of his school. This Banou[3] lived in the desert, clothed with the leaves of trees; he supported himself only on wild plants and fruits, and baptized himself frequently, both day and night, in cold water, in order to purify himself. James, he who was called the "brother of the Lord" (there is here perhaps some confusion of homonyms), practised a similar asceticism.[4] Afterward, toward the year 80, Baptism was in strife with Christianity, especially in Asia Minor. John the evangelist appears to combat it in an indirect manner.[5] One of the Sibylline[6] poems seems to proceed from this school. As to the sects of Hemero-baptists, Baptists, and Elchasaïtes (Sabiens Mogtasila of the Arabian writers[7]), who, in the second century, filled Syria, Palestine and Babylonia, and whose representatives still exist in our days among the Mendaites, called "Christians of St. John;" they have the same origin as the movement of John the Baptist, rather than an authentic descent from John. The true school of the latter, partly mixed with Christianity, became a small Christian heresy, and died out in obscurity. John had foreseen distinctly the destiny of the two schools. If he had yielded to a mean rivalry, he would to-day have been forgotten in the crowd of sectaries of his time. By his self-abnegation he has attained a glorious and unique position in the religious pantheon of humanity.
[Footnote 1: Acts xviii. 25, xix. 1-5. Cf. Epiph., Adv. Hær., xxx. 16.]
[Footnote 2: Vita, 2.]
[Footnote 3: Would this be the Bounaï who is reckoned by the Talmud
(Bab., Sanhedrim, 43 a) amongst the disciples of Jesus?]
[Footnote 4: Hegesippus, in Eusebius, H.E., ii. 23.]
[Footnote 5: Gospel, i. 26, 33, iv. 2; 1st Epistle, v. 6. Cf. Acts x. 47.]
[Footnote 6: Book iv. See especially v. 157, and following.]