Life was difficult. It always was for prisoners. Meager rations. Hard labor. Sometimes restrained and tortured by the stocks or collar. Left with festering wounds in damp, abandoned cisterns converted to maximum security dungeons. Why was he here? His only crime was criticizing the king for stealing his own brother's wife, Herodias. Herodias wanted John killed, but Herod Antipas was reluctant - he knew the people thought highly of John.

John's ministry had begun in the wilderness where he subsisted on an ascetic diet of locusts and wild honey. He wore the dress of a prophet, camel's hair and a leather belt. John preached the need for repentance in preparation for the coming of the Messiah, the Christos, the anointed one, and called on people to be baptized in recognition of their cleansin…