Which saint baptized Jesus in the Jordan River?

Saint John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan River. The event appears in the Synoptic Gospels and marks the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry in Christian tradition.

John was a Jewish preacher who called people to repentance and used baptism as the central sign of his movement. According to the Gospel accounts, Jesus came to John, who initially objected that he was not worthy to baptize him. After the baptism, the heavens open, the Spirit descends like a dove, and a heavenly voice identifies Jesus as God’s beloved Son.

The baptism is generally placed in the early first century, often around AD 28 or 29. The traditional location is associated with Bethany Beyond the Jordan and the modern site of Al-Maghtas, on the eastern side of the river in present-day Jordan, although the precise historical location has been debated.

A common mix-up is to say that the Gospel of John narrates the baptism in the same direct way as Matthew, Mark, and Luke. John’s Gospel does not explicitly depict the act, but it presents John witnessing the Spirit descend on Jesus and is understood by many readers as referring to the same event.