posted on Nov, 9 2009 @ 03:13 AM
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).