John the Baptist Lamb of God!" The two disciples heard him say this, and followed Jesus. John, also, was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there were many streams there; and people were constantly coming and being baptized. (For John had not yet been imprisoned). Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a fellow Jew on the subject of 'purification;' and the disciples came to John and said: "Rabbi, the man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan, and to whom you have yourself borne testimony – he, also, is baptizing, and everybody is going to
John the Baptist "personification" of the Old Testament prophet Elijah. Elijah did not know the True God (as opposed to the Abrahamic God), and thus had to be reincarnated in Gnostic theology. As predicted by the Old Testament prophet Malachi, Elijah must "come first" to herald the coming of Jesus Christ. Modern anthroposophy concurs with the idea that the Baptist was a reincarnation of Elijah, (cf. Mark 9:11–13), Matthew 11:13–14, Luke 7:27 although John the Baptist in the Gospel of John explicitly denies being linked to Elijah (John 1:21). Among the early Judeo-Christian Gnostics the Ebionites held that John, along with Jesus and