Story of the Body of John the Baptist

Corpus Ioannis Baptistae

Standard abbreviation: Story Bapt.

Other titles: none

Clavis numbers: ECCA 410

Category: Hagiography

Compiled by Tony Burke, York University, based on work by Sergey Minov

Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Burke, Tony. “Story of the Body of John the Baptist.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. \https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/story-of-the-body-of-john-the-baptist/

Originally posted October 2026.

1. SUMMARY

The text opens with an encomiastic summary of the John’s early life, including his birth, his upbringing in the desert (where he played with animals and was attended to by angels), and the beginning of his preaching career. Then follows an expansion of Matt 11:2–19//Luke 7:18–35, where John inquires about Jesus from prison and Jesus tells his messengers to report to John what they have seen about his healing activities. The author then compares John to Elijah and describes John’s baptism of Jesus.

New traditions enter the narrative with the retelling of the death of John. Here Herod plots with the younger Herodias, instructing her to ask him for John’s death so that he would seem reluctant to kill the baptist. After John is decapitated, she places John’s head on hers so she resembles a lampstand. Her mother Herodias throws the head on the ground and is struck blind. The author praises God’s restraint in not immediately killing the whole family with lightning, an earthquake, or fire from the sky. But the younger Herodias does not escape judgment. In a much expanded account of her death (as told in several other Baptist apocrypha), she falls through ice and is stuck up to her head. Her would-be rescuers try in vain to melt the ice, so she pleads with them to cut off her head with the sword used to decapitate John. Herod orders it to be done and sends the daughter’s head to her mother on a plate.

As for John’s remains, his disciples take his body and his head is buried by Herodias in the courtyard of her house. During the reign of Constantine, the empress Helena searches in Jerusalem for the cross and other relics. Mention is made of a cross appearing over Golgotha—a detail found in a letter by Cyril of Jerusalem who wrote about a cross appearing over Jerusalem in 351. When Julian becomes emperor he takes John’s body, burns it, and scatters the ashes. In John’s tomb are found three sprigs of myrtle and a small tree never seen before that becomes known as “Fair Odour.” The Jews take the sprigs and plant them but they wither. However, under Holofernes (an anachronistic reference to the beheaded Assyrian general from Judith) they grow and many people are healed by them, including a man named Simcha from the tribe of Caiaphas. He is related also to Judas Cyriacus who aided Helena to find the True Cross. The miraculous sprigs dry up when a man named ‘Alqma rapes a woman at the tomb of John on a certain Sunday. The couple are discovered by Holofernes and cut into pieces. The myrtle is never seen again and the location of John’s tomb is no longer known.

Named historical figures and characters: Abiram, Ahab, ‘Alqma, Amalekites, Caiaphas, Constantine (emperor), Dathan, Elijah (prophet), Elizabeth, Gabriel (angel), Gamaliel, Helena (empress), Herod Antipas, Herodias, Holofernes, Jezebel, John (the Baptist), Judas Cyriacus, Julian (emperor), Matthias (apostle), Moses (patriarch), Nebuchadnezzar, Nicanor (disciple of John), Nicodemus, Philip (tetrach), Salome (daughter of Herodias), Simcha, Simon (of Cyrene), Stephen, Titus (emperor), Vespasian, Zechariah (priest).

Geographical locations: Bethlehem, Gologotha, Jerusalem, Judea, Lystra, Mount of Olives, Sebaste, Sodom, temple (Jerusalem), Tishbe.

2. RESOURCES

3. BIBLIOGRAPHY

3.1 Manuscripts and Editions

3.1.1 Syriac

Kirkuk, Chaldean Archdiocese Library, 213, fols. 273^v–279^r (1723)

Minov, Sergey V. “The Syriac Story of the Body of John the Baptist.” Bible and Christian Antiquity: English Supplement 8 (2026): 13–59 (Syriac text and parallel English translation, pp. 20–33).

3.2 Modern Translations

3.2.1 English

3.3 General Works

Minov, Sergey V. “The Syriac Story of the Body of John the Baptist.” Bible and Christian Antiquity: English Supplement 8 (2026): 13–59 (commentary, pp. 34–53).