November 17, 2023 – Does the Bible Say…?

“Does the Bible say John and Jesus were best friends?”

“In the sixth month of Elizabethʼs pregnancy, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, a descendant of David, and the virginʼs name was Mary. The angel came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled by his words and began to wonder about the meaning of this greeting. So the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God! Listen: You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called the Son of God. And look, your relative Elizabeth has also become pregnant with a son in her old age – although she was called barren, she is now in her sixth month! For nothing will be impossible with God.” So Mary said, “Yes, I am a servant of the Lord; let this happen to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her…” Luke 1:26-38

One thing we know about John the Baptist is this: he and Jesus were cousins. As such, since families in the first century Palestine lived together in clans, we can assume that John and Jesus would have spent a lot of time together as children. They would have played together — wandered the hills of Palestine together — talked about G-d together. Perhaps they argued about how we come to know G-d -what a relationship with G-d should really look like. Maybe they even argued about how a prophet or itinerant preacher should dress. So yes, I think we can assume they were at least good friends, not just cousins.

John and Jesus were born six months apart. In essence, they were the same age. As such, they would have gone through major life experiences at about the same time. Jesus was about thirty years old when the Gospels begin to report his ministry. So, we have very little information about most of Jesus’ and John’s lives. Perhaps John and Jesus did spend much of that time growing up together. Perhaps he would be able to tell us things about Jesus — things like “Did he tell jokes?” “Was he funny?” “What was it like to see the Holy Spirit descend into him?”

One of the weaknesses of the Gospels (this is just my opinion) is they leave out so much of Jesus’ day to day life — outside of the teachings, healings and other ministries. John would be able to fill in a lot of those details. So the Bible makes it clear they were relatives, but we have to wonder: were they truly friends?

Pastor Dave