Why didn't JB join JC?

[Rev. Rye]

Some of the Gospels claim that Jesus was God and that John the Baptist was aware of that, so why didn't John the Baptist disband his cult and join Jesus's cult and become his apostle? I mean would you not rather be in the cult ran by an actual God than in someone's who is not a God?

Because Jesus didn't exist, so his inventors used the extant (but dwindling) cult of John to give their cult a false legitimacy.

Well, that's a good Doylist explanation.

A Watsonian explanation would likely point out that this little event got in the way of John and Jesus doing much.


When I think about the stranger parts in the Bible, I tend to look for both explanations, if only because it makes shit more interesting.

And, yes, I did choose that one specifically because it belongs to my local, The Art Institute, which also has a few other paintings by the same artist covering the whole beheading saga.