Ironic this discussion since it was John the Baptist seen as the righteous one that even Jesus followed first.
Jesus is the one who had his friend & follower Salome hand John over to be beheaded so he could steal his flock. Can this story just be coincidental or used for the demonization of Jews through Judas which happened to be the name of Rome's threat, the tax revolter Galilean Christ of Herods time period?
Jesus' ministry and end plan really took a different life after John's beheading. He took over for John.
For many John was supposed to be the messiah. Even after his death John was the one invoked and his body parts were held in reverence, even more so than Jesus.
It seems to me----based on casual reading of the NT-----that killing John the Baptist was not all that difficult------no trial, no crucifixtion---just lopped of his
head on a whim, despite the fact that he was a very famous guy------a veritable
Elijah. I still do not understand why killing Jesus was such a COMPLICATED
PROBLEM. According to Christian dogma ------everyone wanted him dead except a few faithful followers--------but one of the reasons that the "everyone" could not kill him is that "the people would revolt" -----seems to me if they were
going to revolt because of a killing-------they would have revolted over the casual
head lopping of John the Baptist