John the Baptist
Also known as: Yochanan, Yahya
Prophet who prepared the way for Jesus, preaching repentance and baptizing in the Jordan River. Son of the priest Zechariah and Elizabeth, his birth was announced by Gabriel (Luke 1:11-17). Living ascetically in the wilderness, wearing camel’s hair and eating locusts and wild honey, John called Israel to repentance: “Prepare the way of the Lord” (Matthew 3:3). At Jesus’s baptism, he identified him as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Imprisoned by Herod Antipas for condemning his marriage to Herodias, John was beheaded at her daughter’s request. Jesus declared: “Among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11). In Islam, Yahya is honored as a righteous prophet.
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