John the Baptist, the Wilderness and the Samaritan Mission

The study of John the Baptist has long had its blind spots. Many of these blind spots had to do with geography. This chapter shows that many of the desert-wilderness traditions can be better understood if they are explained as relating to the "Desert of Samaria", and perhaps some of the other geographic traditions. The Judean Desert identification is so entrenched in the reconstruction of John's activities that it is first necessary to show that there is no reason at all to automatically accept this view. The Samaritan mission of John also explains a number of strange developments in the late Roman and Byzantine periods. The re-evaluation of the "desert traditions" also makes the Samaritan mission of John and the Byzantine traditions relating to John in Samaria much more comprehensible. John's mission in the western part of the Land of Israel was Samarian-oriented and his desert was that of Samaria.