might be suspected. For though his description of John is obviously ‘dressed up’ for the benefit of his Roman readers, it is clear from his description that John was known as one who linked his baptism closely to the ‘excusing’ of the sins of those baptized (epi tinōn hamartadōn paraitēsei, Ant. 18.117).96 In fact it is Josephus’s language which points us to the really innovative feature in John’s baptism. For the phrase just cited is cultic in character.97 That is to say, it reminds us that the