Baptism as a Jewish institution was well known and in common practice in the NT era. The Pharisees baptized themselves often. It was customary to baptize themselves before eating a meal. Also after coming from any market place, they baptized their hands.
We certainly can refer to these baptisms in English as "immersing hands in water" or "washing hands in water" as they are linguistic equivalents.
We make two distinctions between Jewish baptism and Christian baptism.
- Mark 7:2, 3, 5: The Pharisees had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with unclean hands, that is, unwashed. 3 For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders; 4 and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they baptize (βαπτίσωνται) their unclean hands.
- Also Luke 11:38: The Pharisee was astonished that “Jesus had not first baptized (ἐβαπτίσθη) [his hands] before dinner."
We certainly can refer to these baptisms in English as "immersing hands in water" or "washing hands in water" as they are linguistic equivalents.
We make two distinctions between Jewish baptism and Christian baptism.
- Jewish baptisms were repeated over and over again many times a day. Christian baptism is done once.
- Jewish baptisms were performed by the individual himself, whereas in Christian baptism, another Christian baptizes the recipient.
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