# John the Baptist Day
Today, in the Christian calendar, it is John the Baptist day. Every Christian will known the story of John’s birth, John’s baptisms and John’s death as explained in the canonical bible. We celebrate this day as a remembrance of the wonderful life of John the Baptist.
However!!! Little does the average Christian know (and those of other spiritual paths) that John the Baptist is not just a Christian Character!
John the Baptist appears in Mandaeanism, Islam and Bahaism.
In Mandaeanism, John the Baptist is a key figure in scripture. His Mandaean name is Yahya/Yahia. Mandaeanism has quite different theology to Judeo-Christianity, but it does actually detail the baptism of Jesus. Here is one of the fantastic quotes from Mandaean Scripture:
“Bring fire and burn me; bring sword and hew me in pieces.” But the priests in Jerusalem answered to Yahy?: “Fire does not burn thee, O Yahy?, for Life’s Name has been uttered o’er thee. A sword does not hew thee in pieces, O Yahy?, for Life’s Son rests here upon thee.” -
Mandaean John the Baptiser
John the Baptist can be found in Islam too. His Islamic name is also Yahya. Here is one quote from the Koran:
“O Yahya! take hold of the Book with strength, and We granted him wisdom while yet a child” -
The Koran
And also (but not finally) he is mentioned in the Baha’i faith. John is one of the prophets, and is mentioned here:
“As to the list of the prophets with whom Bahá’u'lláh identified Himself in the passage found on pages 26 and 27 of ‘The Dispensation of Bahá’u'lláh’, their names are as follows: Abraham, Moses, Joseph, John the Baptist, Jesus, Imam Husayn, on whom Bahá’u'lláh has conferred an exceptionally exalted station, (and) the Bab.” -
Lights of Guidance
There are also various other spiritual reference to John the Baptist in various Gnostic and Apocryphal-Christian writings.
But it doesn’t stop there… if you dig deep enough you’ll find references to John the Baptist in writings about Anthroposophy, Theosophy and even Freemasonry. But maybe that’s a topic for another time.
So I hope you all have a joyous John the Baptist Day! Christian, Mandaean, Muslim, Baha’i, Gnostic, Anthroposophic, Masonic and otherwise!
December 2nd, 2009 at 7:01 am
https://tothegloryofchristsgrace.blogspot.com/2009/12/yahuna-yahya-john-baptist-as-destroyer.html
Mandean book of John the Baptist:
“Woe unto you, all of you priests, for Elisabeth shall bear a child. Woe unto you, Mistress Torah, for John shall be born in Jerusalem.”
“John continued, saying: Who is my equal? Who is my equal, that thou shouldst look on him and forget me? Before my voice and the voice of my proclamations the Torah disappeared in Jerusalem. Before the voice of my discourse the readers read no more in Jerusalem. The Wantons cease from their lewdness, and the women go not forth to the…”
Compare with Jesus’ statement that the Torah was until John. (Luke 16:16)
When Jesus said “Think not that I am come to destroy the Torah” (Matthew 5:17) did he really mean the Torah was still in effect and would remain so (as Judaizers still interpret it) or did he mean essentiall “Why would I do what John has already done? The Torah was until John.”?