Now in paperback Volume I and Volume III

From the The Buddhist Essene Gospel of Jesus, Volume I:

So the man John explains, "There was a man, one sent from God, whose name was John: This man came for a witness, to bear witness concerning the Light, that all might believe thru him." (Jn.1:6-8)

"I baptize with water; but in the midst of you there has stood one whom you do not know. While you have the Light, believe in the Light, that you may become Sons of the Light." (Jn.1:27, 12:36)

Josephus says John lived on carob,
eating neither bread of any kind
nor the flesh of animals, beside refusing
wine and intoxicating beverages.

But the Gospels now read he ate
“locusts and wild honey.”
The Locust tree and fruit are carob,
otherwise known as “ St. John’s Bread” or food,
because Luke ( 7:33 ) says he ate no bread.

However, the words “wild honey” the Hebrew scholars in the Soncino Chumash translate as “fruits that exude sweet juices”, such as “dates and figs”. But the place where John was at the Jordan crossing at BETh ANIA ( Bethany ) means garden of the figs. 

MShIkHA means Messiah of the Jews, Christ or Anointed, but the same word means Measured, or better understood as the Exemplar that Christians must measure up to.

Thus, we have the Angel-Messiah that Justin Martyr wrote about, which manifested with the illumination of John and his disciples on the Jordan.

He was not the Messiah that the Jews looked for,
and he frankly told them just that,
but he did have a Measure or Exemplar
which his disciples must comply with.

So it is the Spiritual Presence of Jesus
in John’s flesh that the disciples followed
seeking to find out “from whence” he was.