Mark 1:6

This description of John would have identified him as a typical "holy man" of the ancient East who lived in the desert. His clothing was woven camel’s hair held in place with a leather belt (cf. 2 Kings 1:8; cf. Malachi 4:5-6). This is how prophets typically dressed (cf. Zechariah 13:4). His diet consisted of dried locusts and the honey of wild bees. This was clean food for the Jews (cf. Leviticus 11:21-22). John may have been a lifelong Nazirite, or he may simply have lived an ascetic life out of devotion to God (Luke 1:15). His personal appearance and behavior encouraged the Jews who came to him to abandon self-indulgent living in preparation for Messiah’s appearing.

"A careful comparison of the Qumran Covenanters with John the Baptist . . . reveals differences so extensive as to make the possibility of contact unimportant." [Note: Ibid., p. 48.]

"At last that solemn silence was broken by an appearance, a proclamation, a rite, and a ministry as startling as that of Elijah had been. In many respects, indeed, the two messengers and their times bore singular likeness. It was to a society secure, prosperous, and luxurious, yet in imminent danger of perishing from hidden, festering disease; and to a religious community which presented the appearance of hopeless perversion, and yet contained the germs of a possible regeneration, that both Elijah and John the Baptist came. Both suddenly appeared to threaten terrible judgment, but also to open unthought-of possibilities of good. And, as if to deepen still more the impression of this contrast, both appeared in a manner unexpected, and even antithetic to the habits of their contemporaries. John came suddenly out of the wilderness of Jueaea [sic], as Elijah from the wilds of Gilead; John bore the same strange ascetic appearance as his predecessor; the message of John was the counterpart of that of Elijah; his baptism that of Elijah’s novel rite on Mount Carmel. And, as if to make complete the parallelism, with all of memory and hope which it awakened, even the more minute details surrounding the life of Elijah found their counterpart in that of John." [Note: Edersheim, 1:255.]