Zechariah (New Testament figure) in the context of St. John the Baptist

John the Baptist (c. 6 BC – c. AD 30) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, Saint John the Immerser in the Baptist tradition, and as the prophet Yahya ibn Zakariya in Islam. He is sometimes referred to as John the Baptiser.

John is mentioned by the Roman Jewish historian Josephus, and he is revered as a major religious figure in Christianity, Islam, the Baháʼí Faith, the Druze faith, and Mandaeism; in the last of these he is considered to be the final and most vital prophet. He is considered to be a prophet of God by all of the aforementioned faiths, and is honoured as a saint in many Christian denominations. According to the New Testament, John anticipated a messianic figure greater than himself; in the Gospels, he is portrayed as the precursor or forerunner of Jesus. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus himself identifies John as "Elijah who is to come", which is a direct reference to the Book of Malachi (Malachi 4:5), as confirmed by the angel Gabriel, who announced John's birth to his father Zechariah. According to the Gospel of Luke, John and Jesus were relatives.

According to the Islamic doctrine, Zakariyyā (Arabic: زَكَرِيَّا‎, Zechariah; 97 BCE – 33 CE) is a prophet of God, and the father of the prophet Yahya.

St John Zachary (meaning "St John, son of Zechariah", i.e. John the Baptist) was a church, first mentioned in official records in 1181, within the City of London, England, on the north side of Gresham Street, Aldersgate. Its vicar from 25 May 1424 to an unknown date was William Byngham, the founder of England's first teacher training college. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 and not rebuilt, with its parish being united with that of St Anne and St Agnes by Act of Parliament in 1670 –an arrangement that lasted until the 20th century. Its site is now a garden, first made by the fire watchers in 1941. Partial records survive at IGI.