What is the religion of John the Baptist?

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JamesM

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In a previous question of mine, someone stated that a person cannot be Jewish if he believed that someone was the Messiah and that person died. I asked about Rabbi Akiva. Another person stated that, if Rabbi Akiva continued to believe in Bar Kochba long after he died then, under Jewish law, Rabbi Akiva would have been deemed converted or apostate. I want to compare Rabbi Akivah to John the Baptist. John the Baptist believed Jesus was the Messiah but died before Jesus died. He also died before the movement was called Christian. There is no scriptural support that he worshiped Jesus or thought of him as God. Under Jewish Law, would John the Baptist still be considered Jew or apostate? (Thank you in advance for all of your advice. I am only trying to understand this clearly)
 
Firstly, John the Baptist was not a real person just as Jesus was not a real person. The Romans wrote that fictional story and since they made it into catholicism first then your answer would have to be catholic if they had been real persons.
 
You are certainly on the right track. He was the leader of a breakaway sect from mainstream Judaism with a small but growing band of followers.
 
John the Baptist may have been a member of the Essene sect of Judaism. Several of the disciples of Jesus may also have been members. Jesus himself may have been an Essene prior to receiving his mission, as in the Book of Mark.
As for the legal state of John the Baptist, again staying with Mark's version, he was beheaded prior to Jesus receiving his mission, there was no christianity to convert to until after the crucifixion, leaving John a full fledged member of the Essene sect of Judaism. Even if John did accept Jesus as the Messiah he died without being aware that Jesus would die. Had he lived longer than Jesus and not refuted Him legal woes occur.
John is a controversial character in the New Testament. In the Gospel of Luke before visiting Joseph and Mary to announce the miraculous virginal birth Mary will have, an Angel visits John the Baptist's father to announce the upcoming birth of John. John's Mother is Mary's sister. John the Baptist and Jesus are cousins, according to the Gospel of Luke.
In the Book of Acts the Apostle Paul is forced to abandon his planned missionary route in order to hurry to a church he established previously because the membership there is falling into the worship of.............John the Baptist. What the heck? Paul's second mission occurred around 20 years after the crucifixion of Jesus.
Back to the Essenes, they were a very liberal sect of Judaism greatly influenced by the Persian faith, Zoroastranism. They returned to Jerusalem 200 years after their ancestors had been taken captive in the Babylonian Exile, paving the way for Christianity. The Essenes believed in an afterlife, resurrection of the dead, heaven and hell and an adversarial relationship between Satan and God, all foreign to Orthodox Judaism and the religion of Moses. They also believed God was surrounded by an endless number of Angels. There was an even more radical cult of the Essenes, a monastic cult which stayed away from civilization, taking up residence in caves where they studied the Old Testament Prophets and eagerly awaited the coming of "The Teacher of Righteousness" and were intensely interested in literature concerning Angels. These monks were the people of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
 
I understand that there are a group of Jews who believed in the forgiveness of sin through baptism and John carried to it to the limit. As for Jesus he wanted Jesus to baptism him (John) but Jesus asked him to do it.
 
just remember, the Old and New Testaments are still God's 1 story... John the Baptist came at the time when Christ was coming... and then showed up. John was of course Jewish and he was teaching God's message from the Scriptures. If he was apostate - it wasn't because he was parting from Scripture, it was because he was going against the religious hypocrites of the day.

With that context, you can see he was a Jew and there's no conflict.

One thing to correct, though, John did think of Jesus as God. He says so:

Read John 1:29+
 
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