John the Baptist in History and Theology

[...]the role of the opening chapter's thesis about competition between the followers of the Baptist and the followers of Jesus is to guide the recovery of the historical reality buried within the Gospels' "tendentious" presentation of John as a forerunner of Jesus, the Messiah. According to Marcus, however, John does more than prophesy the end of the world. [...]for Marcus, first-century disciples of John managed to innovate messianic claims about an executed figure who did not make such claims for himself. [...]the embarrassing fact of John's baptism of Jesus remains. [...]they insist on it, as evidenced by its presence throughout the tradition.