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Photo by Scala/Art Resource, New York

ON THE COVER: A somber John the Baptist appears on a detail from a 13th-century mosaic from Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey. John the Baptist recently garnered headlines worldwide after the discovery of a cave in Israel that the excavator believes was used by John for ritual immersion. The cave also contains graffiti that are said to depict John and crosses. Though the cave was clearly carved to hold water, its connection to a key figure in early Christianity is a very open question, as explained in “John the Baptist’s Cave???”