About the year 28 of our era (the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius) there spread throughout Palestine the reputation of a certain Johanan, or John, a young ascetic full of zeal and enthusiasm. John was of the priestly race,[1] and born, it seems, at Juttah near Hebron, or at Hebron itself.[2] Hebron, the patriarchal city _par excellence_, situated at a short distance from the desert of Judea, and within a few hours' journey of the great desert of Arabia, was at this period what it is to-day--one of the bulwarks of Semitic ideas, in their most austere form. From his infancy, John was _Nazir_--that is to say, subjected by vow to certain abstinences.[3] The desert by which he was, so to speak, surrounded, early attracted him.[4] He led there the life of a Yogi of India, clothed with skins or stuffs of camel's hair, having for food only locusts and wild honey.[5] A certain number of disciples were grouped around him, sharing his life and studying his severe doctrine. We might imagine ourselves transported to the banks of the Ganges, if particular traits had not revealed in this recluse the last descendant of the great prophets of Israel. [Footnote 1: Luke i. 5; passage from the Gospel of the Ebionites, preserved by Epiphanius, (_Adv. Haer._, xxx. 13.)] [Footnote 2: Luke i. 39. It has been suggested, not without probability, that "the city of Juda" mentioned in this passage of Luke, is the town of _Jutta_ (Josh. xv. 55, xxi. 16). Robinson (_Biblical Researches_, i. 494, ii. 206) has discovered this _Jutta_, still bearing the same name, at two hours' journey south of Hebron.] [Footnote 3: Luke i. 15.] [Footnote 4: Luke i. 80.] [Footnote 5: Matt. iii. 4; Mark i. 6; fragm. of the Gospel of the Ebionites, in Epiph., _Adv. Haer._, xxx. 13.]