St John the Baptist’s Bones? Again

The Huffington Post has some not so new – for those of us following things archaeological – news:

London – It’s a tantalizing find in a Biblical mystery – Oxford University researchers have concluded that a set of skeletal remains which many Bulgarians attribute to John the Baptist probably belonged to a first century male from the Middle East.

While that doesn’t prove that the bones belonged to the man revered by Christians as the forerunner to Jesus, it does mean that those who believe the relics are the remains of the first century saint have a scientific case.

The discovery of a sarcophagus containing a knuckle bone, a tooth, a skull fragment and other remains under an ancient church on an island off Bulgaria’s coast – paired with a small urn bearing a Greek-language reference to John the Baptist – drew enormous interest when it was announced in two years ago.

Officials didn’t wait for scientific evaluation before offering the relics up for public view; thousands waited for hours to catch a glimpse of the bones when they were displayed in Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital.

Oxford professor Thomas Higham, whose lab subjected the bone fragments to radiocarbon dating and DNA sequencing, said he was skeptical at first.

“We didn’t expect results that would be consistent with the expected – or hoped for – results of our Bulgarian colleagues,” he said in a telephone interview.  But he promised that the find, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, would stand up to scrutiny.

“We’re very confident about the genetics,” he said.

According to Christian tradition, John the Baptist foresaw the coming of Jesus and baptized him in the River Jordan. The ascetic desert-wandering prophet was later imprisoned and beheaded after criticizing the ruler of Galilee, Herod Anitpas.

Higham’s Oxford colleague Georges Kazan, who has traced the tortured history of John the Baptist’s remains, said it was possible that his relics could have ended up under the fourth century monastery on St. Ivan’s Island (Ivan is the Slavic word for John.)

Nearby Constantinople – now known as Istanbul – was then at the center of the Christian world and the surrounding area was “full of monks and holy relics,” he said. St. Ivan’s Island, along an important Black Sea trade route, would have been made sense as a place to store the saint’s bones.

Then again, Kazan said he had identified more than 25 purported relics of John the Baptist scattered across the world, including 11 purporting to come from his head. Most appear to be bone fragments – i.e. part of a jaw – although some pieces are large enough that they they’re unlikely to be from the same person.

Higham said that, inevitably, some of the relics wouldn’t stand up to scientific scrutiny.

“There are about eight or nine skulls of John the Baptist out there,” he said. “They can’t be all John the Baptist.”

Higham’s research was funded with a grant from National Geographic, whose channel is due to air a documentary on the find, entitled “Head of John the Baptist,” this Sunday.

 

An Icon of the Beheading of John the Baptist

Via An Reader’s Guide to Orthodox Icons:

The 29th of August commemorates the Beheading of John the Baptist and Forerunner of Christ. Above is an icon of The Head of St John the Forerunner (Глава Cв Иоанна Предтечи), a type of icon which flourished within the Russian Empire during the 19th century.

A few other examples of this icon can be found here, here, here, and here (all images hosted on the Cirota forum).

The Birth of St John the Baptist

Today, the Church recalls the birth of St John the Baptist:

Jesus called John the greatest of all those who had preceded him: “I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John….” But John would have agreed completely with what Jesus added: “[Y]et the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Luke 7:28).

John spent his time in the desert, an ascetic. He began to announce the coming of the Kingdom, and to call everyone to a fundamental reformation of life.

His purpose was to prepare the way for Jesus. His Baptism, he said, was for repentance. But One would come who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. John is not worthy even to carry his sandals. His attitude toward Jesus was: “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30).

John was humbled to find among the crowd of sinners who came to be baptized the one whom he already knew to be the Messiah. “I need to be baptized by you” (Matthew 3:14b). But Jesus insisted, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15b). Jesus, true and humble human as well as eternal God, was eager to do what was required of any good Jew. John thus publicly entered the community of those awaiting the Messiah. But making himself part of that community, he made it truly messianic.

The greatness of John, his pivotal place in the history of salvation, is seen in the great emphasis Luke gives to the announcement of his birth and the event itself—both made prominently parallel to the same occurrences in the life of Jesus. John attracted countless people (“all Judea”) to the banks of the Jordan, and it occurred to some people that he might be the Messiah. But he constantly deferred to Jesus, even to sending away some of his followers to become the first disciples of Jesus.

Perhaps John’s idea of the coming of the Kingdom of God was not being perfectly fulfilled in the public ministry of Jesus. For whatever reason, he sent his disciples (when he was in prison) to ask Jesus if he was the Messiah. Jesus’ answer showed that the Messiah was to be a figure like that of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah (chapters 49 through 53). John himself would share in the pattern of messianic suffering, losing his life to the revenge of Herodias.

Comment:

John challenges us Christians to the fundamental attitude of Christianity—total dependence on the Father, in Christ. Except for the Mother of God, no one had a higher function in the unfolding of salvation. Yet the least in the kingdom, Jesus said, is greater than he, for the pure gift that the Father gives. The attractiveness as well as the austerity of John, his fierce courage in denouncing evil—all stem from his fundamental and total placing of his life within the will of God.

Quote:

“And this is not something which was only true once, long ago in the past. It is always true, because the repentance which he preached always remains the way into the kingdom which he announced. He is not a figure that we can forget now that Jesus, the true light, has appeared. John is always relevant because he calls for a preparation which all men need to make. Hence every year there are four weeks in the life of the Church in which it listens to the voice of the Baptist. These are the weeks of Advent” (A New Catechism).