More on the Christening Cake

The Text

1. While Jesus was living in the Galilean hills, John, called “the Baptizer,” was preaching in the desert country of Judea.
2. His message was simple and austere, like his desert surroundings: “Change your life. God's kingdom is here.”
3. John dressed in a camel-hair habit tied at the waist by a leather strap. He lived on a diet of locusts and wild field honey.
4. People poured out of Jerusalem, Judea and the Jordanian countryside to hear and see him in action.
5. There at the Jordan River those who came to confess their sins were baptized into a changed life.

Matthew 3:1–2; 4–6, The Message

A very common belief is that the “locust” of the biblical text refers not to the insect, but to the locust tree, the most dominant in all the terrain, planted and nurtured for its shade as well as for its very desirable fruit, the carob.

Biblical Passage Notes

Other than the parents of Jesus, John the Baptist,whom tradition names as the son of the Virgin Mary's cousin, Elizabeth, is perhaps the best-known member of Jesus' family in the scriptures. Like Jesus, he was a descendant of Aaron on both sides, a member of the priestly tribe known as the Levites. His name is derived from Hebrew and means “the Lord is gracious.” Tradition says that hewas born in the hill country of Judea, in a town known today as Ein Karem, in Israel.
The scriptures tell us next to nothing of his early life, and by the time he appears in the gospels as a grown man, he has taken on the mantle of a prophet, wandering in the wilderness, eating off the land, and uttering apocalyptic pronouncements that often place him at odds with the religious leaders of his day.
When he dares to criticize King Herod Antipas for an adulterous and incestuous marriage, he is sent to prison and eventually murdered in fulfillment of a cruel and vengeful promise (see Matthew 14:7–11).
In the passage cited above, we encounter John in the “desert country of Judea.” It was a barren, often brutally dry place, inhabited in biblical times by wild animals and nomads, some of whom, like John the Baptist, were ascetics searching for wisdom and solace away from the crowds of the larger cities and towns of southern Israel. It appears that John might have been Nazir, and like his ancestor, Samson, subjected by vow to certain abstinences. Nazirites are Jewish men who refrain from cutting their hair, abstain from wine and meat, have no contact with the dead, and are known to be celibate—vows taken usually for only a short time (see Numbers 6). These characteristics may help to explain John's appearance and diet. His clothing evoked visions of Elijah, another ancestor and Nazir. In fact, those who first encountered John asked if he were Elijah, as it was the expectation and hope of the day that Elijah himself would return and restore the fortunes of the Jewish people. In John the Baptizer—prophetically calling the people to repentance, acting like a hermit, living in the wilderness—many saw the realm of God, i.e., the end days when judgment would be laid upon those who did not believe in God, to be at hand. If John were neither Elijah nor the Messiah, he surely spoke as if he were. But John, prophet that he was, pushed all this aside, and is quoted as saying that there was yet one to come who would be even greater than he, whose sandal he would not even be worthy to untie. Just a few biblical verses after this proclamation, Jesus, his cousin, appears at the river to be baptized, and it becomes clear from then on that the mantle of Elijah, the ascetical camel-garb symbol that John wore with authority, would soon be passed to Jesus. Very quickly John's role in the story decreases, and as quickly, Jesus' ascendancy increases.

John the Baptist would have really enjoyed a good, hearty bread with many of the foodstuffs from the land he traveled, such as this loaf made with raisins, rosemary, and camel's milk yogurt. It's a great taste if you're tired of carob and honey!

The Preparation

There is much to learn in this cameo appearance of the great New Testament prophet. The mere fact that the Matthean text mentions the eating habits of John the Baptist should be a clue to us of their importance, both to history and to John's character; it is not merely passing commentary. The writer of the Gospel of Matthew informs us that “John lived on a diet of locusts and wild field honey.” The Greek word for locust, akris, is used four times in the New Testament and seems to refer to the class of insect known as Orthoptera, or “straight-winged.” By Mosaic law they were reckoned “clean,” so John could not have been accused of doing anything illegal by claiming them for food. And we do know that dried locusts were a rather common staple of many ancient Near Eastern communities, most particularly the Essenes, a religious sect of which many scholars believe John was a member. To this day, locusts are prepared as food in the Middle East and Africa in various ways: sometimes they are pounded and mixed with flour and water to be baked into cakes; other cooks boil, roast, or stew them in butter for eating. Dried and salted locusts have long been part of the diet of many nomadic tribes.
Still, biblical scholars, anthropologists, and other scientists have reached no consensus as to whether these foods could have sustained the Baptist in the wilderness. A very common belief, which we have adapted here for our purposes, is that the “locust” of the biblical text refers not to the insect, but to the locust tree (in Greek, keration), a plant species that is widespread in Israel. In many areas, including the Judean desert, the locust tree is the most dominant in all the terrain, planted and nurtured for its shade as well as for its very desirable fruit, the carob.
Given its ubiquity, and its connection to the Judean wilderness of the Baptist, it may be no surprise that the carob fruit is known throughout the Middle East as St. John's Bread. It has been dried and used as a food for cattle, people, and most especially swine (see the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:16), and as many as eight hundred pounds of seed pods can be harvested yearly from a single tree.
Carob has a long and distinguished history dating back to the ancients who accorded it such high respect that the weight of its seeds are most likely the original measure for what is today a goldsmith's karat.
Supposing (for the sake of argument) that John the Baptist was dining on carob fruit, and not locusts, as the King James Version insists, what new understanding might this bring to the interpretation of the text? Because carob powder can be used in place of cocoa at levels up to 50 percent, and it has a natural sugar content of up to 48 percent, one might begin to understand the somewhat manic and strange appearance attributed to John in the iconography of biblical art. Eating a lot of carob as a regular diet could have your hair standing on end by sunset! And although John might not have been aware of all the benefits of carob, he probably had some idea that it provided a lot of nutrients, and it was a good, all-around substitute for whatever else was lacking in his daily food regimen. “Carob contains as much vitamin B1 as asparagus or strawberries, the same amount of niacin as lima beans, lentils or peas, and more vitamin A than eggplant, asparagus and beets. It is also high in vitamin B2, calcium, magnesium and iron.”³ All of which is to say that though scholars might not be able to agree on whether locusts could sustain the Baptist in the wilderness, surely locust tree fruit, aka “carob,” would do the trick!
And what of honey (in Greek, meli)? The word itself is used only four times in all of the New Testament, in contrast to the nearly fifty times we encounter it in the Hebrew scriptures (in Hebrew, debhash). The Promised Land where the Israelites finally settled was known as a land “flowing with milk and honey,” which gives us some idea of the high esteem it too was given by our biblical forebears. Yet it was rare enough to be considered somewhat of a luxury, typifying sumptuous dining and finery of preparation. In the translation used for this chapter, “wild field honey” is the type stored by bees in rocks or in trees. Particularly in the wilderness of Judea, honey bees were known to build their hives in the crevices of rocks and in rotting lumber. The honey, oozing from between the stone formations or out of a log, gave it the appearance of flowing (hence the coining of the phrase), and some biblical commentators think that this is what the wandering Israelites encountered in the desert, naming it manna, remarking how sticky and sweet it was, like “food of the gods.” John the Baptist undoubtedly came across lots of honey in his travels; and because it was an excellent source of nutrition and was a curative for many ailments (including stomach upset), it provided a good balance to his other dietary choices.
John's fashion sense—he was “dressed in a camel hair habit tied at the waist by a leather strap”—gives us some insight about the animals he came in contact with as he went preaching from one location to another. Obviously, he was aware of the generous uses for all parts of the camel: skin for clothing and liquid storage, milk for cheeses and other dairy needs, meat to complement vegetarian choices. Perhaps the leather was from the hide of a camel; or it might have been fashioned from the tough skin of some other domesticated animal (a steer, ox, lamb, or goat). Wherever his clothing products came from, it is clear that he was familiar with more than just the products of the land.
Keeping his appearance and his food opportunities in mind, we have included recipes that encompass a whole range of possibilities, including whatever fish John might have encountered at the Jordan River, baptizing and fishing for converts and all else his wide prophetic net might bring to shore.