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The Murder of the Beloved Son

The Murder of the Beloved Son

Last updated on: June 24, 2026 at 7:18 pm by James F. McGrath

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The Murder of the Beloved Son 2026-06-24T19:18:42-04:00 James F. McGrath

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A Suggestion about the Parable of the Tenants

What did the parable of the tenants mean when Jesus uttered it? I found myself sharing thoughts about this as I made a guest appearance in James Tabor’s book club. They are a wonderful group, astonishingly insightful and well-informed for a group of people who do not have the luxury of reading primary and secondary literature about early Christianity for a living, and so must do so in their free time. They read and discussed my book John of History, Baptist of Faith and had so many interesting questions and points to make in conversation with me.

In the course of my conversation with them, I suggested that in the context of Jesus’ life as well as the context in which the story appears in the Gospels, Jesus might well have been talking about John the Baptist rather than predicting something about himself.

I mentioned this possibility in passing in John of History, Baptist of Faith. On p.147 I wrote, “The parable of the tenants (Mark 12:1–12) could originally have been about the treatment of John by those in authority, given its location immediately after a discussion focused on John’s authority.”

The book is full of these sorts of tantalizing suggestions. When one brings John into focus as originally the center of attention, it opens up more avenues of research, and raises more interpretive possibilities, than I am likely to be able to pursue in the remaining years of my life. I hope that the book will inspire and motivate others to investigate them.

A Suggestion about the Martyrdom of John (and/or Zechariah)

The Gospels link this parable of martyrdom with the judgment that Jesus predicts will come upon this generation because of the martyrdoms of all the prophets down the ages, starting with Abel. The mention of Zechariah created confusion. The Zechariah who was murdered “between the temple and the altar” (Matthew 23:35) was Zechariah son of Jehoiada, but Matthew mistakenly has son of Berekiah, meaning the different individual whose oracles are the focus of the Book of Zechariah. It is perhaps no surprise then that someone was inspired to turn these references into a story about the martyrdom of Zechariah the father of John the Baptist. We find that in the Protevangelium of James. I offered some preliminary thoughts on this in a guest post on Bart Ehrman’s blog, as I was gearing up to spend a year working on the John the Baptist books.

In a later tradition in the Islamic world, it is not Zechariah who is martyred in this way by Herod the Great, but his son John. The tradition in al-Tabari is confused, but it reflects the fact that there was a story Christians told about Zechariah the father of John the Baptist, which Jews also told about the prophet Zechariah, with the martyrdom leading God to send Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Jerusalem. There is a tangled web of borrowing. Al-Tabari appears to be aware of a version (which may have inspired the others) in which the prophet whom God vindicates is John the Baptist. This might connect with the tradition in Josephus that the defeat of Herod Antipas and conquering of Machaerus was considered divine retribution for John’s death.

Ultimately it is impossible to know for certain whether the tradition we find in the Protevangelium of James was originally about John the Baptist. At the very least, in the transformation of Jesus’ words about Zechariah into a story about John’s father, we see awareness that his statement about a final martyrdom that would bring judgment for all of them upon this generation had to do with John the Baptist.

In the case of the parable of the tenants and the judgment on this generation because of martyrdoms, we have things that Jesus could have said about John. After Jesus himself was killed, these would have seemed like predictions of his own fate, and provided a resource for his followers who were trying to make sense of why the death of the messiah would be part of God’s plan. The death of John helped make sense of the death of Jesus, and vice versa, for those who persisted in their allegiance to both.

Recent Reviews

On a related note, there is a new review of John of History, Baptist of Faith in Review of Biblical Literature. In it Richard Francis D’Souza writes:

The scholarly rigor of the volume is matched by its clarity of style; McGrath guides the reader through complex methodological questions without oversimplification, balancing critical caution with constructive proposal. He demonstrates an impressive command of the primary languages and the secondary literature, yet his prose remains engaging. The volume’s structure is logical, moving from the earliest literary strata to later reception, and, finally, to a synthesis of John’s historical impact. One of the book’s greatest strengths is its ability to make the historical John feel like a flesh-and-blood revolutionary rather than a static theological symbol… John of History, Baptist of Faith represents a landmark achievement in the study of early Judaism and Christian origins. By recentering John as a multifaceted figure whose legacy cannot be reduced to a preparatory role, McGrath has produced a work that is both methodologically sophisticated and historically illuminating. The volume serves as an essential point of reference, reminding scholars that, to understand the origins of the Jesus movement, one must first come to terms with the man who stood in the river. It is a work of profound depth that will undoubtedly shape the trajectory of future research on the religious world of the first century. McGrath has not only written a book about John the Baptist; he has written a manifesto for a more diverse and inclusive history of the origins of Western religion. The historical Baptizer has finally found a voice that is no longer crying alone in the wilderness but speaking clearly to the modern world of scholarship.

D’Souza’s one minor criticism is that I did not offer more by way of synthesis in the conclusion of the book. As I mentioned to James Tabor’s book club group, that is because I offer that in a standalone separate book, a biography of John the Baptist, Christmaker: A Life of John the Baptist.

Paul Foster also praised the book. He wrote in Expository Times:

McGrath’s volume is to be commended for offering various genuinely new interpretations of the figure of John his origins, his religious self-understandings, his relationship to Jesus, and his deep personal piety. There is little doubt that this impressive work of scholarship will occasion much discussion, debate, and even dissension. However it is equally clear that all future studies focused on the figure of John the Baptist must engage McGrath’s ideas and his analysis of key texts. This study will become one of the key reference points for all future work on the perennially fascinating figure of John the Baptist.

Returning to the main topic of this post, I end with a couple of questions. First, what do you think about this possibility related to the parable of the tenants? (Do note that Diana Butler Bass also just blogged about that parable!)

Second, what other sayings of Jesus that were applied to his life and death might originally have been statements of Jesus about his mentor John the Baptist?

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