The miracle son of Elizabeth and Zachariah in their old age, he grew up to be a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘prepare a pathway for the Lord is coming.’ (Isaiah 40:3-5)
John was Jesus’ cousin so they knew of each other growing up even though there is no reference to their ever spending time with each other before Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan River.
Some of John’s disciples became Jesus’ disciples with John’s blessing.
John got into a controversy with Herod Antipas over Herod’s marrying his brother, Philip’s wife, Herodias. Herod had him jailed. On Herod’s birthday, Salome, his wife’s daughter, danced provocatively for his birthday guests and he offered her anything her heart desired. Herodias to her daughter to ask for the head of John the Baptist and so John was executed on the spot and his head brought before the guests on a platter. (Mark 6:14-29)