They were also given a mandate that they repeated in their writings to serve the Messiah and to know him by his works:

This is why when John the Baptist asks Yeshua is he the one to come or if they should expect someone else [Matthew 11:2-3 & Luke 7:18-20] Yeshua responds with a message that says

There are two parts of Matthew 11:5 that are not mentioned in any part of the Old Testament Tanakh in regards to the Messiah: cleansing the sick and reviving the dead.

This is an inclusion that John the Baptist and his Essene followers would have known was a prophecy (see Dead Sea Scroll 4Q521 for reference) directly tied to the Messiah. It would have caried great weight with them.

Possible Rightful Zadok High Priest

John the Baptist was not only a prophet of the Zadok Qumran Temple but was quite possibly the High Priest at that time. We have no documents pertaining to this but this would explain the level of access that John the Baptist had not just in the Herodian court but also with the High Priest of Jerusalem. John son of Zebedee his direct follower had access to the High Priest that he used to get Peter into the Temple that could only have come from John the Baptist.

This would explain what was mentioned above that Yeshua wanted John to baptize him to complete righteousness/”Zadock”. Yeshua was just recently 30 years of age. This is the minimum age to become an active priest of God [Numbers 4:3]. To be a priest he had to be from the correct lineage and be unblemished. This is why it is repeatedly said he is a priest-king from the line of Melchizedek and not Aaron or Zadok.

The process of Ordination and Cosecration into the priesthood requires:

1. Washing and purification with water [Matthew 3:13-17 Mark 1:9-11 Luke 3:21-22 John 1:32-34]
2. Anointing with Oil [John 12:3-8  Matthew 26 Mark 14]
3. There was a sacrificial Offering [Matthew 27 Mark 15 Luke 23 John 19]
4. Blood from a ram was applied to the right earlobe, right thumb & right big toe to symbolically sanctify the whole being (what they hear, do and where they go) to the service of God [Leviticus 8:23-24]
5. They had an important sacrificial meal and had to stay near the Temple for seven days [Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22]

John the Baptist quite possibly acted as the rightful and chosen High Priest of God in this situation washing and purifying Yeshua. An act that was continued by Mary of Bethany in the anointing his feet with oil, an act that was heavily noted by Yeshua to be remebered for all time. That left Yeshua to fufill the other requirements with him being the sacrificial offering, blood from his own body sanctified his right earlobe, thumb and toe and he organized his own last scrificial meal.

Summary Breakdown of the Evidence

The evidence for John the Baptist being the rightful High Priest who anointed Yeshua as the Melchizedekian Priest King isn’t straight forward as shown above. To summarize it with historical insights:

John is explicitly presented as a Zadokite-line priest:

• His father Zechariah serves in the Temple (Luke 1:5–9).
• Zechariah belongs to the division of Abijah, a recognized priestly course.

This places John firmly within the Aaronic priesthood, not as a lay prophet. A priest outside the Temple is not illegitimate per se if the Temple leadership is corrupt — a position well attested at Qumran.

Wilderness Ministry as a Priestly Protest, Not a Departure

In Second-Temple Jewish thought, the wilderness is where priesthood is restored, not abandoned:

• Aaron is consecrated outside the land (Leviticus 8).
• Ezekiel’s future Zadokite priests are purified before Temple service (Ezekiel 44).
• Qumran texts describe wilderness priesthood as truer than the Temple’s.

John’s location and activity match this logic precisely. John is not rejecting priesthood, he is re-founding it.

Water as a Priestly Medium of Consecration

Oil anointing (shemen ha-mishḥah) was:

• Lost or no longer used by the late Second Temple period
• Already replaced for priests by investiture + purification

John’s baptism is therefore best understood as:

A priestly purification rite functioning as a symbolic anointing

This fits:

• Levitical washings [Exodus 29; Leviticus 16]
• Qumran’s repeated water-based priestly purifications
• Prophetic expectations of eschatological cleansing (Ezekiel 36:25)

Thus, John performs the only viable priestly “anointing” available in his era.

Why Yeshua, Specifically, Can Be Read as a Melchizedekian High Priest + King

A. High Priest

• Yeshua is declared God’s “Son” at the baptism — language used of both kings and priests [Psalm 2; Exodus 4:22].
• The descent of the Spirit substitutes for oil [Isaiah 61:1].
• The Jordan crossing echoes priest-led transitions [Joshua 3].

Later, Epistle to the Hebrews explicitly interprets Yeshua as:

• A non-Levitical High Priest
• Operating in a heavenly sanctuary
• Superseding the Temple cult without abolishing priesthood itself

B. King

• John explicitly identifies Yeshua as the Coming One (Malachi 3–4).
• The Jordan marks entry into the land, echoing royal enthronement motifs.
• Spirit-anointing fulfills Davidic expectation without oil.

Thus John’s act and the subsequent markers mentioned earlier can be read as a dual consecration:

• Priestly (purification + Spirit)
• Royal (public designation + divine acclamation)

John the Baptist can be credibly argued to act as a legitimate priestly figure in exile, performing an eschatological purification-anointing that inaugurates Yeshua as both priestly and royal Messiah — but only within a prophetic, non-institutional Second-Temple framework.