John the Baptist and the “Baptist sect” question

Says John 1:6–8 introduces John as a man ἀπεσταλμένος παρὰ θεοῦ (apestalmenos para theou, "sent from God") who came εἰς μαρτυρίαν (eis martyrian, "for witness"), and states οὐκ ἦν ἐκεῖνος τὸ φῶς (ouk ēn ekeinos to phōs, "he was not the light," 1:8). In 1:15 John confesses that the one coming after him ranks ahead of him, "because he was before me."

Outside the NT, Josephus describes John as a good man who called Jews to righteousness and baptism and was executed by Herod Antipas at Machaerus (Ant. 18.116–119). Acts shows that disciples who knew only John's baptism were still found at Ephesus about two decades later (Acts 18:24–19:7).

Uncertain Wilhelm Baldensperger (1898) argued that the prologue is partly a polemic against a sect that exalted the Baptist. The supporting evidence is thin. The Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions report that some of John's disciples proclaimed him the Christ (Rec. 1.54, 1.60), but this is a late compilation (probably fourth century, drawing on earlier sources), preserved in Rufinus's Latin, and weak evidence for the first century. The Mandaeans, who revere John, are known from much later texts, and their value as first-century evidence has been strongly challenged (Yamauchi).

Implies Whatever the setting, the text's purpose is positive. John is the model witness who points away from himself (1:20; 3:28–30). Those denials would also correct anyone who overrated him, such as the Ephesian disciples of Acts 19.