Finding Jesus: The Bones of John the Baptist

Episode Synopsis

John, Baptizer of Jesus Christ in the River Jordan, the man who hails the coming of a new Messiah. John is a prophet and preacher whose message is so powerful that his name is revered for centuries after his death.

So who was the real John the Baptist? We explore John as he has been viewed in Christian tradition, as well as how he is presented in the pages of the Gospels. Operating in the desert wilderness at the edge of Roman civilization, clothed in camel hair, feeding on locusts and wild honey, John has a simple but arresting message: The end is near. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Be cleansed of your sins. Already, John has a following of hundreds, perhaps thousands - enough to gain the wary attention of the authorities.

Using riveting drama recon we’ll trace the incredible relationship between Jesus and the man who is believed to be both his cousin and a kind of spiritual father. More than just a baptizer, John is the lynchpin of a revolutionary movement, chastising and cajoling Jews who have fallen from the high morals God expects of them.

Although he becomes the mentor to the new Messiah, ‘radicalizing’ Jesus and setting him on collision course with the seat of power in Jerusalem, some biblical historians think that John’s ministry is bigger than Jesus’ for years beyond Jesus death and Resurrection. Through the eyes of John the Baptist, we’ll witness Jesus’s transformation from uncertain young man to commanding leader and thorn in the side of the Romans who administer this outpost of Judaea. John’s life also ends at the hands of the Romans when he is decapitated at the request of the local Roman governor.

Alongside this extraordinary drama story, and a decade after the discovery of a buried box in Bulgaria that contained a cache of 2000 year old bones believed to be those of John, we instigate a new DNA investigation into a relic housed in a Kansas museum and revered as one of John’s finger bones. But there are more relics believed to be from the mortal remains of John The Baptist than could possibly have come from John himself. Many were spread around the world during the 6th and 7th centuries, testament to the enduring legacy of his message and personality. From the lab comes news that this bone is only 1500 years old..

Artifact Summary

This relic, believed by Oxford archaeologist Dr Georges Kazan to have come from the hand of St. John the Baptist, is held in the Nelson-Atkinson Museum of Art, in Kansas City. Encased in an elaborate gilded silver Monstrance that dates to around 1400 is, museum curators are sure, a human finger.

The Monstrance and the finger were originally part of the Guelph Treasure, a vast trove of medieval treasure held at Brunswick Cathedral in Braunschweig, Germany. The treasure was added to over the centuries by the House of Guelph, a royal lineage whose descendants include Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.

The Guelph family’s reign over the principality of Braunschweig ended during World War I, and in the 1920s, its members tried to sell the Guelph treasure. In December 1930, an important exhibition and sale of the treasure took place in New York. Items of the treasure were acquired by several museums: the Cleveland Museum of Art, the William Rockhill Nelson Trust for the Kansas City Museum, the Chicago Art Institute, the Pennsylvania Museum and the Fogg Art Museum.

From the Kansas City Museum, the bone made its way to the Nelson-Atkinson Museum.

The finger, despite its provenance, is not from the hand that baptised the Son of God. Instead, it is a medieval forgery from around 1500 years ago. Rather than casting doubt on other relics around the world thought to have come from John’s remains, it is proof both of the power of John’s lasting legacy and a tangible point of worship and contemplation for those who wish to venerate St John The Baptist.