Where is the Head of John the Baptist?

Many people have an interest in chasing down religious artifacts.

We hear so many stories about the escapades of tracking down the ark of the covenant, the holy grail, remnants of Noah's ark, the crucifixion robe, etc.

But what do we know of the whereabouts of the head, or skull, of John the Baptist?

This man initiated a religious ritual that seemed to be an alternative to animal sacrifice, and yet there seems to be little focus on this as his intention.

Is the head of John the Baptist an important artifact?

Where is it?

I doubt very much that Herod was careful with what he did with the head. He probably tossed it, once it started going bad. I've never seen anything that discussed what actually happened to the head or the body for that matter.

John the Baptist didn't initiate a ritual that was an alternative to animal sacrifice. If you're talking about the "baptism", that is an ancient ritual found in the Old Testament. All John was doing was performing this ritual; he didn't invent it.

According to Christians, it was Jesus dying on the cross, serving as the one sacrifice, that was the "alternative" to animal sacrifice. John had nothing to do with that part of it. It was Jesus's sacrifice that atoned for the sins of the world, making animal sacrifice unnecessary. At least, according to the Christians.

As for the Jews, once the Temple was destroyed (I think in 70 CE), there was no place to perform the animal sacrifices, so such sacrifices were no longer permitted (they could only be done in the Temple, nowhere else).

reply to post by chiron613


I think Salome cut off the head of John the Baptist, and carried it somewhere on a plate.

Poor old Herod has enough on his plate (geddit?) without John the Baptist's head.

Are you searching for the head based on legend that the Knights Templar or the Masons had the head in Europe?

It is in my closet of the house i own in la la land. Well i guess now it would be a skull and anyone could get a skull from that time period and say it was his. So if you want an old skull I can get ya one.

or it is here



[edit on 9-11-2009 by zaiger]