All About Mormons

To my knowledge, God has not revealed how John received the authority to baptize. I can imagine two possibilities. First, he may have received it from his father, who as a temple priest and so may have had the priesthood authority. I question this possibility, however. I'm no Biblical scholar, but I tend to think that the Jews had lost the true priesthood of Aaron long before Christ came to earth. Certainly, the office of High Priest had been politicized and corrupted. Whether or not the loss of priesthood authority extended down to the temple priests, I cannot say for sure.

If we assume the Jews had lost the priesthood authority by John's day, another possibility presents itself. Perhaps John received the priesthood directly from God by way of an angelic visitation. That's how God chose to restore the priesthood to Joseph Smith. Why couldn't he use the same method in ancient times as well?

Of course, all this is just speculation. The bottom line is that, to my knowledge, the answer to your questions is not yet known.

As a side note, the first person I tracted into as a senior companion while I served as a missionary in Brazil was named John the Baptist. Ironically, he had no apparent interest in being baptized. :)

In the 2008 teachings of the presidents of the church: Joseph Smith manual, there is a section of text quoted from the history of the church (found on page 81-82). It tells us that "John, at that time, was the only legal administrator in the affairs of the kingdom there was then on the earth, and holding the keys of power...Christ himself fulfilled all righteousness in becoming obedient to the law which he had given to Moses on the mount... "

This text confirms that John the baptist held the priesthood and that the Jewish leaders recognized this (suggesting that he held it because of his lineage). It is important to note that if the priesthood is conferred upon a person but that person fails to live in a manner acceptable to God, they will not be able to use the priesthood. The priesthood itself is not corrupt, merely the person. It is the worthiness of the priesthood holder that is important. John was worthy of the priesthood and we know that his father Zacharias was a worthy man as well, so if the priesthood was bestowed on him by his Zacharias, it would be valid, as long as John lived worthily.

Webmaster: Not sure if I would give this answer with such certainty, but it certainly does seem to be a reasonable possibility.

The answer about who gave John the Baptist the authority--priesthood authority is answered in Doctrine and Covenants 84:25-28. I'll only quote verse 28: "For he[John] was baptized while he was yet in his childhood, and was ordained by the angel of God at the time he was eight days old unto this power, to overthrow the kingdom of the Jews, and to make straight the way of the Lord before the face of his people, to prepare them for the coming of the Lord, in whose hand is give all power."

Hope this give a little more light on the subject.