J the B Mentality

John the Baptist wore camel hair and a leather belt. He ate locusts and wild honey.

Camel hair - rough clothing. Ancient prophets did the same.

leather belt - typical for ancient prophets. Elijah’s prophetic dressing.

Locusts - plague, nasty, but can taste like shrimp.

Wild honey - normally found in hollowed trees or cleft of the rocks where wild bees would . Sweet but a reminder of earth and death.

Only child of a pastor. He could be taken care of but chose a simple life in constant awareness of his purpose.

The only prophet since Malachi.

Baptizing? Where did he learn it from?

“John used such a diet and such clothing as was cheap and easily obtained. He drank no wine, and frequently fasted, not through poverty, for he was the only son of a priest, but of his own free-will, as well that his severe and mortified manner of life might correspond with his doctrine, which enjoined frequent fasting to his disciples, as that in this way he might fortify both his body and mind, and prepare himself to undergo dangers, imprisonment, and death undauntedly. As the months of April and May are the time when locusts abound, it has been conjectured that John began his ministry about that season of the year, which might also seem more convenient for receiving, and especially for baptizing, so great a number of people, than the winter could have been.”