Reading the Gospels Together Jesus and John the Baptist – Part 5 As mentioned earlier, there is one more time when Luke will mention John the Baptist and that is in his second volume, the book of Acts. The story comes fairly late in the story. Paul is at Ephesus and there he encounters some followers of John the Baptist who know only of John’s baptism. Paul is successful in providing them with the proper instruction so they are baptized with the baptism of Jesus. That little story does provide readers of the gospels with a bit of very important information. We often think that the story of John the Baptist and his followers must have ended with the story of Jesus. But it is likely that a group of followers of John the Baptist persisted for a time following the death and resurrection of Jesus. We will see that John seems also to be aware of this group. And John is also aware that there is at least some degree of competition going on. Luke shares this perspective regarding such a group of followers of John the Baptist. His awareness of this group may have influenced his presentation of John the Baptist in his gospel and Acts. Overall, though, we can conclude as we did with Matthew that Luke is nearly in complete agreement with Mark regarding John the Baptist. All three synoptic gospel writers proclaim the same message to their readers. John the Baptist is to be understood as Elijah who was to come to make ready a people to receive the coming of God into their midst. All three gospel writers understand that John the Baptist fulfils the prophecies of both Isaiah and Malachi. So we might say they speak as one regarding John the Baptist.