St. John the Baptist

The Forerunner of Christ, greatest of the prophets born of women.

Preliminaries

• TO THE MOST REVEREND AND MOST ILLUSTRIOUS LORD HENRY FRANCIS VAN DER BURCH, ARCHBISHOP AND DUKE OF CAMBRAI, PRINCE OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE, COUNT OF CAMBRAI. — His words about Christ quoted: "He must increase, but I must decrease"

  "what Saint John the Baptist said of Christ — 'He must increase, but I must decrease'"

Pope Clement VIII, Jerome's Prefaces, On Worship

• ON THE WORSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE SCRIPTURES. — Wished to dissuade Christ from receiving the baptism of penance

  "Jesus Christ who says to his precursor Saint John the Baptist, who wished to dissuade him from receiving the baptism of penance"

• ON THE WORSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE SCRIPTURES. — His voice resounds in the desert calling to prepare the way of the Lord; baptizes Jesus in the Jordan

  "a voice resounds in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord and make straight his paths"

Preface and Praise of Sacred Scripture

• VI. The Old Testament as Forerunner to the New — Like Moses and prophets, went before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways

  "just as St. John the Baptist did to Christ the Lord: for he, just like Moses and the other prophets"

Commentary on the Pentateuch of Moses

• Canons Bearing a Torch Before the Pentateuch — Called Elijah by Malachi

  "Thus John the Baptist is called Elijah by Malachi"

Chapter I (The Six Days of Creation)

• Verse 16: And God Made Two Great Lights — Christ's description of him quoted: "He was a burning and shining lamp"; Bernard's sermon cited

  "as Christ says of St. John the Baptist: "He was a burning and shining lamp," not, "shining and burning," as St. Bernard rightly observes"