Living at the dawn of the coming of Messiah, John the Baptist was a unique man for a unique time. According to Luke 1:15, he was “filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.” He rightly can be called the last of the Old Testament prophets. He also could be called the first of the New Testament preachers. Indeed, John the Baptist occupied a unique place in Bible history.

John’s miraculous birth was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy in passages such as Isaiah 40 and Malachi 4. His priestly father Zecharias was visited in the Temple by the angel Gabriel. There Zecharias, aged and childless, heard the angel’s announcement that he would have a son, and his son would be the forerunner of the Messiah. His wife Elisabeth conceived John in her old age. Also miraculously, the unborn John leaped in the womb for joy when he heard the voice of Mary, who was with child with the Messiah! When Zecharias and Elisabeth’s son was born, he was given the name John, meaning “Jehovah is gracious.”