Between the jingle bells, the gifts, the alcohol, and the festive sweaters, people don't always remember to stop and think of the person who is celebrated in Christmas. The RAS History Club will gather this December to discuss one aspect of the story of Jesus, not from a religious perspective, but from a historical one. The New Testament is a book of faith, but also an important historical document written over 1800 years ago.

It contains several different accounts about the relations between John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth, raising an important question: what was the real attitude of these two historical figures towards each other? Did John and Jesus ever meet, as the Gospels claim? And how do historians of religious texts separate faith from history? Aryeh Amihay, a historian of Second Temple Judaism, will guide us through the various sources on the path to a possible answer.