Modern biblical scholars view the baptism of Jesus as a historical event to which a high degree of certainty can be assigned.

[6] The baptism is one of the events in the narrative of the life of Jesus in the canonical Gospels; others include the Transfiguration, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension.

Matthew's account is unique in several respects: He asserts that Jesus left Galilee for the purpose of being baptized by John (πρὸς τὸν Ἰωάννην τοῦ βαπτισθῆναι ὑπ’ αὐτοῦ).

It forms a verbal thread (Leitwortstil) with the rending (ἐσχίσθη, eschisthē) of the Temple veil in Mark 15:38, inviting comparison between the two episodes.

Gabriel also announces to Mary the coming birth of John the Baptist to her kinswoman Elizabeth, who is the wife of Zacharias.

Luke strongly contrasts the reactions of Zacharias and Mary to these two respective births; and the lives of John and Jesus are intertwined.

[21][34][35] One of the disciples is named Andrew, but the other remains unnamed, and Raymond E. Brown raises the question of his being the author of the Gospel of John himself.

[28][29] generally considered to be the town of Bethany, also called Bethabara in Perea, on the eastern bank of the Jordan river, near Jericho.

[41] In the 4th century, Eusebius of Caesarea stated that the location was on the west bank of the Jordan, and following him, the early Byzantine Madaba Map shows Bethabara as (Βέθαβαρά).

The site of Al-Maghtas (baptism, or immersion in Arabic) on the East side of the River in Jordan has been deemed the earliest place of worship.

[46] The valley around the Dead Sea, which the Jordan River flows into from the North, is also the lowest place on planet Earth.

[52][53][55][56][57] Nearly all scholars believe that John the Baptist performed a baptism on Jesus, and view it as a historical event to which a high degree of certainty can be assigned.

[5] In the Antiquities of the Jews (18.5.2) 1st-century historian Flavius Josephus also wrote about John the Baptist and his eventual death in Perea.

[58][59] The existence of John the Baptist within the same time frame as Jesus, and his eventual execution by Herod Antipas, is attested to by 1st-century historian Flavius Josephus and the overwhelming majority of modern scholars view Josephus' accounts of the activities of John the Baptist as authentic.

[60][61] Josephus establishes a key connection between the historical events he recorded and specific episodes that appear in the gospels.

He gave us thereby a lesson in humility and obedience, and has taught us that we too must fulfil all justice, i. e. promptly obey all the ordinances of God.

He therefore takes leave of His divine Mother, who, although she grieved at the absence of such a Son, rejoiced that the redemption of Israel was at hand.

[78][79] Depictions of the baptismal scene typically show the sky opening and the Holy Spirit descending as a dove towards Jesus.

The reasonably coherent 6th-century mosaic image in the Arian Baptistry, Ravenna, with the water hemmed in by two banks, when used in many generations of copies in Western Europe, by artists unskilled in depicting visual recession, led to images like that in the Psalter of Eleanor of Aquitaine, where there appears to be a standing mound of water.