Tag: Baptism

John the Baptist Didn’t Invent Baptism

Before John the Baptist ever called people to the Jordan, the Jewish world already knew something of water and washing. Immersion wasn’t a novelty. It was woven into daily life, into rhythms of purity, preparation, and belonging. John didn’t invent the idea — he simply took it out of the Temple courts and into the wilderness.

The Mikveh: Ritual Purity and Readiness

The Hebrew word mikveh means “a gathering” — often of water — and it came to describe a pool used for ritual immersion. These baths, carved into stone and fed by “living” water (rain or spring), appear throughout first-century Israel. Archaeologists have uncovered mikva’ot (plural) near the Temple Mount, around Qumran, and in Galilean villages — evidence of how normal immersion had become by the time of Jesus.

In Jewish life, immersion in the mikveh wasn’t about moral guilt but ritual status. It restored purity so one could reenter worship or communal life after contact with impurity — things like childbirth, disease, or death (see Leviticus 15; Numbers 19). Priests immersed before serving; ordinary people did so before festivals or Sabbath meals. It was familiar, repeatable, expected.

In other words, the mikveh wasn’t about forgiveness. It was about fitness — being fit to approach God’s presence.

A mikveh near the base of the Southern Steps of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem

Proselyte Immersion: From Outsider to Insider

By the first century, another form of immersion had emerged: that of Gentiles converting to Judaism. A convert underwent three steps — circumcision (for men), immersion, and a temple sacrifice. The immersion symbolized a transition from impurity to purity, from outsider to member of God’s covenant people.

Rabbinic writings later summarized, “By three things did Israel enter into the Covenant — by circumcision, immersion, and sacrifice.” The convert, it was said, became “like a newborn child.” It was a fresh start — but again, a ceremonial one.

Prophets, Purity, and the Promise of Cleansing

Long before mikva’ot were carved in stone, the prophets had used washing language symbolically:

“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean,” Isaiah pleaded (1:16). “I will sprinkle clean water on you,” promised Ezekiel, “and you shall be clean … I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you” (36:25–27).

Water had always hinted at something deeper — not just the washing away of dust, but the cleansing of the heart.

Groups like the Essenes took this seriously. The Dead Sea Scrolls describe daily immersions tied to covenant faithfulness and inner purity. For them, water symbolized moral renewal — a visible act expressing invisible obedience.

A Familiar Form, a Coming Shift

So when John began calling Israel to the Jordan, he wasn’t performing a strange ritual. He was using a symbol everyone already understood. Immersion was a language his hearers spoke fluently.

What was new was the location — outside the Temple system — and the message behind it. But we’re not there yet. For now, it’s enough to see that John’s work grew out of a long Jewish conversation about cleansing, belonging, and readiness before God.

In an earlier post, Baptism, Pickles, and Steel Poles, we compared baptism to both the preserving of cucumbers and the strengthening of steel. Ordinary materials — transformed by immersion. That’s what was happening in Israel’s ritual life long before John: familiar practices pointing toward deeper transformation.

John didn’t invent baptism; he reinterpreted it. He stood in a long tradition of washing and readiness — but instead of pointing people to the Temple, he pointed them toward repentance and the coming King (and His kingdom).

Before the new could begin, the old had to be remembered. And the old, as it turns out, had always been whispering: “Get ready.”

For those who love to learn more, some sources…

On the Mikveh:

On Proselyte Baptism:

Baptism, Pickles, and Steel Poles

During this time of Lent, in preparation to celebrate Easter, I am reading through all four Gospels a couple of times. One of the times is via Audible. There is something quite beneficial in listening to familiar scripture – we hear things that we might easily have glossed over while reading. Listening to the Gospel of John, I became aware of a fair amount of discussion about baptism in the first few chapters – John the Baptist, Jesus’ own baptism, Jesus and John baptizing concurrently, etc.

A question surfaced at Young Life College several years ago as to where the concept of baptism came from. To them, it appeared to have been something new with John the Baptist’s ministry.  So I did some digging and discovered some interesting stuff…

At the time of John the Baptist, baptism was not new to Judaism and was mostly reserved for proselytes (Gentiles converting to Judaism, which was rare).  It appears that first-century Christians borrowed a term used in the Greek world in describing what takes place within baptism.  Two different, though related, Greek words show up in the New Testament:

  • Bapto – which basically means to dip (as in ‘dip into dye’) and is used only three times in the New Testament, one being when Jesus dipped the bread into wine during the last supper (John 13:26).
  • Baptizo – derived from bapto, means to dip repeatedly (so the item being dipped gets washed), immersed, or submerged (as in a sunken vessel).  It also means ‘to overwhelm.’  (cf. Uncharted Waters.) Immersion wasn’t a new concept to first-century Judaism, either. Priests would achieve ritual purity via total immersion in a bath known as a Mikvah.

What is really interesting was the discovery of the use of both words in a Greek recipe for making pickles, dating to about 200 BC.  The text states, “that in order to make a pickle, the vegetable should first be ‘dipped’ (bapto) into boiling water and then ‘baptized’ (baptizo) in the vinegar solution.  Both verbs concern the immersing of vegetables in a solution. But the first is temporary. The second, the act of baptizing the vegetable, produces a permanent change.” (Thayer, 1889)

This is fascinating!  John’s baptism suggested a change of mind (repent) and a respective change in actions leading to fruit-bearing (see Matthew 3 and Luke 3).  He also said that Jesus would essentially take it a step further, baptizing with the Holy Spirit.  In explaining this, the Apostle Paul said “don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (Romans 6:3).   If baptizo implies submersion or sunk to the bottom of the sea (overwhelmed), one can assume death occurs!  I think that’s Paul’s point – baptism isn’t just a ‘ceremonial cleansing’ but rather death to the one being baptized, with reemergence analogous to resurrection and rebirth.

Paul uses “in Christ” language throughout his letters, reminding us “all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes.” (Galatians 3:27) and in 2 Corinthians 5:17 “if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”  Permanent change!

Galvanizing of Steel Poles

I am reminded of the process of galvanizing steel poles that I used to design.  Here’s the galvanizing process in a nutshell:  the steel pole is dipped (bapto?) into an acid bath for cleansing, then immersed and submerged into a vat of molten zinc (about 600 degrees).  The pole remains submerged (baptizo?) until the steel reaches the same temperature as the zinc.  At this point, the steel and zinc molecules fuse together and something new is created.  When the pole is brought back up out of the vat, the molecular structure of the surface of the steel is permanently changed. *

Being baptized into Christ isn’t about cleaning up our act.  It’s about dying to self and being galvanized to Jesus, the result being new creation.  I like how the Amplified Bible treats 2 Corinthians 5:17:

Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!

* An additional, interesting thing about the galvanizing process:  When the finished galvanized product is placed into the environment, the zinc actually sacrifices itself in protecting the steel.  Hmmm.

Reference: Grimm, C. L. W., Thayer, J. H., & Wilke, C. G. (1889). Thayer’s Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament. Grand Rapids, Mich: Associated publishers and authors.