Why was John the Baptist not killed with the rest of the infant boys at Herod's orders?

A:The story of the 'Slaughter of the Innocents' in Matthew's Gospel only requred Herod to have the babies born in or near Bethlehem killed, whereas Luke's Gospel says that John the Baptist was born in Jerusalem. More importantly, scholars can find no historical evidence that Herod ever had the babies killed. They say this was a literary creation intended to draw parallels between Jesus and Moses, and which was needed to explain the flight to Egypt and, years later, to Nazareth where Jesus began his ministry.