The Promise (Passion play) warned Joseph to flee to Egypt with baby Jesus. After Herod dies, the angel directs them back to Nazareth, where Jesus grows up in Joseph's carpenter shop. Jesus learns His earthly father Joseph's business, but Joseph reminds Him that he is God's son ("Little Yeshua"). Jesus grows up, and his cousin, John the Baptist, calls for sinners to repent and be baptized in the Jordan River ("The Kingdom of Heaven/One Voice"§). Jesus comes to John to be baptized, and though John bows before Jesus and insists that it is not right for him to baptize Jesus, Jesus asks him to
John the Baptist (Caravaggio) detail which is seen in the contemporary still life "Basket of Fruit", while the melancholy self-absorption of the Baptist creates an atmosphere of introspection. The grape leaves stand for the grapes from which the wine of the Last Supper was pressed, while the thorns call to mind the Crown of Thorns, and the sheep is a reminder of the Sacrifice of Christ. Caravaggio's decision to paint John the Baptist as a youth was somewhat unusual for the age: the saint was traditionally shown as either an infant, together with the infant Jesus and possibly his own and Jesus's mother, or