My take is that both John and Jesus were apocalyptic eschatologists. Jesus started as a follower of John and, when John was killed, Jesus went off on his own with some of John's followers. Both were viewed as threats to Rome and both were executed. All else is window dressing added later.I have read all kinds of stuff about what IT IS SAID that JOHN THE BAPTIST SAID-----but the stuff seems
to me to be legend. I believe that it is well established that John was a cousin of Jesus----up there in the Galil and seemed to accompany him sometimes. The christian thrust seems to be that John was a ELIJAH DOPPELGANGER which made him
a herald for THE MESSIAH -----seems kinda contrived to me