John P. Meier, "John the Baptist in Matthew's Gospel," JBL 99 (1980): 383-405. ***

Meier uses (questionable) redaction-critical techniques to reach the conclusion that Matthew imposed his own statements concerning John's inferiority to Jesus onto the pre-existing tradition which made John and Jesus parallel figures, thereby reworking the character of John in order to fit his "three-stage" model of salvation history: Old Testament, Jesus, and the Church.

Questionable methodology, reasonable result.