James F. McGrath. Christmaker: A Life of John the Baptist

Christmaker: A Life of John the Baptist is a work by James F. McGrath that intends to fill the gaps in John the Baptist’s life and ministry. McGrath believes this to be an important work because it answers the question “How an individual whose contemporaries whose contemporaries thought he himself might be the Christ (Luke 3:15) came to be thought of exclusively as the forerunner” (p. 3). So, McGrath desires to introduce a historical biographical work highlighting the life of John the Baptist and how he influenced Christ’s ministry.Christmaker is styled like a brief theological survey of themes in John’s life. After introducing the necessity for a work on John the Baptist’s life, McGrath presents this survey according to the following subjects: (1) John’s upbringing as the son of a priest, (2) John’s message against the temple, (3) John’s message to the people, (4) John’s message about Jesus, (5) John’s final days, and (6) a revisiting of John’s importance.Perhaps one of the most enlightening chapters of the work is the chapter on John’s upbringing as the son of a priest in the temple. McGrath argues that one may notice John’s rebellion against his father’s (Zechariah) profession by how John’s message contrasted with the religious establishment. For John, it was “promoting a different means of forgiveness while calling people to worship the same God” (p. 15). Granted, like Jesus, only a little information in the biblical text is present to provide insight into the childhood of John the Baptist. McGrath relies on the material from the Mandaean sources to fill in the gaps in this area of John’s life. This part of McGrath’s work illuminates a possible conflict between John and his father that is overlooked.This segues into the chapter regarding John’s message against the temple. McGrath argues that John’s message of water baptism probably created friction between him and the temple establishment. According to McGrath, John’s baptism opposed the temple because “By offering forgiveness without ties to location and purchase of animals, John was providing something that would render the temple obsolete” (p. 56). McGrath’s insight here, while made clear by the Gospels (Matt 21:23–32), still serves as a great reminder to the reader that John’s baptism was a unique experience, even if it was similar to some of the Essene practices.McGrath further points out that John made disciples from the surrounding towns to reach the outcasts of their current society. His message, according to McGrath, set the pattern for Jesus to follow. Jesus likewise reached the outcast. John’s message reached tax collectors and soldiers (Luke 3:7–14). In this particular chapter, McGrath attempts to demonstrate that John formatted his ministry as a paradigm for Jesus to follow later. Indeed, Mark records that when Jesus was doing miracles, Herod thought that John had risen from the dead (Mark 6:7–16). John even established his ministry in the wilderness, which Jesus would later do in a similar fashion after his baptism (Matt 4:1–11).This inevitably leads to a discussion concerning John’s message about the nature of Jesus. According to McGrath, John may have viewed himself as a messianic figure despite serving as a forerunner to Jesus. The Mandeans viewed Jesus as diverging from John the Baptist’s ministry, and McGrath also points this out. Even Herod Antipas feared John (Matt 14:1–5) due to his sway over the people. John’s influence encourages McGrath’s view regarding John’s messianic-type leadership within the Judean community.In light of John’s impact on Herod Antipas and others, McGrath spends a portion of his time writing about the significance of John’s death and its impact on his ministry. McGrath questions some of the historicity of Mark’s account of John’s execution (Mark 6:14–29), and he attempts to use historical data, like Josephus’s account (J.W. 18.116–19), to determine the real reason for John’s execution by Antipas. McGrath indicates that Mandean source material highlights John’s impact on the Christian movement after his death since some of their written traditions convey that he did not die in the same manner as recorded in the Gospels. McGrath aptly points out that Herod Antipas’s concern about the Jesus movement after John’s death “confirms for us very clearly that the activities of Jesus in this period very closely resembled those of John” (132).The final chapter highlights John’s impact on the culture of Christendom. Jesus gave high praise to the ministry of John the Baptist (Matt 11:11), and for good reason. John was indeed a forerunner to the Messiah. In this final section, McGrath once again encourages scholars and students not to overlook the life of John the Baptist.Overall, I enjoyed reading this biographical work on John the Baptist, although some ideas were a bit of a stretch. For example, some of the proposed evidence for understanding John’s ministry through the lens of Mandaean sources is shaky, especially since these sources are so divergent from the orthodox Christian Scriptures and were recognized as Gnostic.Moreover, McGrath emphasizes John’s supposed tutelage of Jesus and even terms Jesus as a “disciple” (p. 115) of John. This reasoning contradicts John’s initial unwillingness to baptize Jesus upon recognizing his superiority (Matt 3:13–14). McGrath parallels Elijah’s ministry transition to Elisha (2 Kgs 2:1–18) with John’s ministry transition to Jesus (pp. 97–115), yet the comparison only partially works because the OT indicates Elijah was superior to Elisha as his mentor. This is different from John the Baptist and Jesus as the Gospels indicate.Despite some of my disagreements with the evidence and views, McGrath rightly exhorts the NT reader to avoid glossing over the account of John the Baptist. Any student and scholar will benefit from reading this work, mainly since only a few of its kind exist in literature today. Reading this work will open the reader’s horizons about John’s life and ministry.