What are the antecedents of baptism? What does baptism signify? Why is it important?
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What is baptism?
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ephraimanesti
Senior Veteran
MY SISTER,
Briefly and superficially, the antecendent of Baptism is coming to a belief in, and an acceptance of the fact that Jesus Christ is our Lord, God, and Savior, and entering into a personal relationship with Him on that basis.
Baptism signifies that the believer has been crucified with Christ, that the old sinful man has died and been buried, and that the new creation in Christ--the fledgling Christian--has been resurrected with Christ to begin life anew.
Baptism is all-important in that it is the key to the Kingdom. May you find it soon!
A BOND-SLAVE/FRIEND/BROTHER OF OUR LORD/GOD/SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST,
ephraim
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Bible2
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Greetings.
Christian baptism is a symbolic act by which believers in Jesus are
fully-immersed (buried) in water in order to bring them into spiritual
connection with Jesus' death for their sins: "Know ye not, that so
many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his
death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that
like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been
planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the
likeness of his resurrection" (Romans 6:3-5); "as many of you as
have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Galatians 3:27).
"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16);
"baptism doth also now save us" (1 Peter 3:21). "And now why
tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins,
calling on the name of the Lord" (Acts 22:16). "Repent, and be
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the
remission of sins" (Acts 2:38). "See, here is water; what doth hinder
me to be baptized?" (Acts 8:36).
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Thank you for your replies. I was actually asking something much more prosaic ... historically, how did the practice of "baptism" arise? Is there a Jewish purification ritual out of which it grew? The NT gospels start telling the story of John the Baptist, but at that point there were no Christians and Jesus had not yet come into his own as a leader. What did "baptism" mean for the Jewish people that John was baptising?
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ephraimanesti
Senior Veteran
Unfortunately, the Spiritual and the "much more prosaic" do not interpenetrate or interrelate. Apples and oranges.
Mere "information" about Spiritual realities is of no value, being second-hand data and not the reality itself. Spiritual realities must be experienced before they are understood, not studied in the hope of experiencing that which is being studied.
Come on in--the water's fine!
ephraim
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Bible2
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Greetings.
The whole point of John the Baptist's ministry was to point to Jesus:
"John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of
God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I
said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he
was before me. And I knew him not: but that he should be made
manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water"
(John 1:29-31).
Baptism meant repentance from sins: "In those days came John the
Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent
ye ... Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the
region round about Jordan, And were baptized of him in Jordan,
confessing their sins" (Matthew 3:1,2,5,6). Baptism still means
repentance from sins: "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the
remission of sins" (Acts 2:38).
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thank you for the replies.
Was there any regular Jewish practice of baptism before John the Baptist and the advent of Jesus? Was baptism a normal Jewish ritual for repentance of sins, historically speaking?
Was there any regular Jewish practice of baptism before John the Baptist and the advent of Jesus? Was baptism a normal Jewish ritual for repentance of sins, historically speaking?
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Bible2
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Greetings.
No. It doesn't seem that there was any regular Jewish practice of
"baptism" before John the Baptist and the advent of Jesus. But there
was a Jewish practice called "mikvah", which was a ritual immersion
in water in order to regain ritual purity under the Mosaic law, after
the excretion of certain bodily fluids had made one ritually unclean,
such as during menstruation, childbirth, sexual intercourse, or
nocturnal emission, or from pus-emitting sores or ulcers of the skin.
Mikvah can also be employed in some other ways such as a sign of
conversion to Judaism, as a way to ritually prepare a dead body for
burial, in the ritual consecration of priests, ritually dealing with
leprosy, or ritually preparing oneself for a sacred holiday.
No. It doesn't seem that mikvah was about repentance from sin, in
the sense of one deciding to turn away from willful, impure actions
which one has commited by the lusts of one's own heart. Instead,
mikvah seems to be more about washing oneself physically for ritual
purification, when one is made ritually unclean under the Mosaic law,
in some manner that doesn't necessarily involve any sin on one's
part. Under the Mosaic law, the way sins were dealt with was
through the shedding of the blood of animals and offering them in
sacrifice to God (Leviticus 17:11). Just as the New Covenant's
(Jeremiah 31:31-34) shedding of Christ's blood on the cross for our
sins (Matthew 26:28) has forever replaced all of the Old Covenant's
(Mosaic law's) animal sacrifices for sin (Hebrews 10), so the New
Covenant has entirely replaced the Mosaic law (Hebrews 7:18-19)
with all of its "diverse washings" (Hebrews 9:10), which would
include mikvah.
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Thank you very much for the information, Bible2. 
Do you know anything about the derivation of the word "baptism"?
Do you know anything about the derivation of the word "baptism"?
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Bible2
Guest
Greetings.
You're welcome. Thank you for the motivation to do the
research.
The Biblical Greek word translated as "baptism" (Matthew 3:7) is
transliterated as "baptisma", which is from "baptizo", which means
to submerge (Mark 1:5) or wash (Mark 7:4). "Baptizo" is from
"bapto", which means to dip in a liquid (Luke 16:24, John 13:26,
Revelation 19:13). A related word, "baptismos", derived from
"baptizo", and can refer to either baptism (Colossians 2:12) or
washing, as in Hebrews 9:10, which refers to "diverse washings"
(baptismos) which Jews practiced under the Mosaic law. In this
case, it could be said that (in one's words) "there was a regular
Jewish practice of baptism", including mikvah, but not in the sense
of a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38),
which seems to have started with John the Baptist in the time of
Jesus (Mark 1:4-9).
Indeed, the Jews recognized that the particular baptism of John
the Baptist was not any regular Jewish practice, but something very
special indeed, for "they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest
thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?"
(John 1:25). This suggests that the Jews had some expectation that
a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins would come, but
that it would be instituted only by the Messiah himself, and the
returned Elijah (Malachi 4:5), and the special prophet foretold by
Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15). While John the Baptist denied being
Elijah himself (John 1:21), John the Baptist did come in the spirit and
power of Elijah (Luke 1:17), so that Jesus said that John the Baptist
was a fulfillment of the prophecy regarding the return of Elijah
(Matthew 11:14). And, of course, John the Baptist pointed to Jesus
as the Messiah, the Son of God (John 1:34, cf. Mark 14:61-62).
Jesus is at the same time the special prophet foretold by Moses
(Acts 3:22-26).
So if, based on John 1:25, the Jews were looking forward to the
institution of a special baptism of repentance for the remission of
sins, and they expected it to be instituted by the Messiah, and the
returned Elijah, and the special prophet foretold by Moses, then
Christian baptism is that special baptism.
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Bible2
Guest
Greetings.
You're welcome. Thank you for the great questions. It's so
easy, even as Christians, to just take baptism for granted, without
knowing what exactly it is; or to ignore baptism altogether, and
never undergo it, mistakenly thinking that it's not that important. But
this is to forget (or to be unaware) that the Bible says: "Repent, and
be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for
the remission of sins" (Acts 2:38); "baptism doth also now save us"
(1 Peter 3:21); "For if we have been planted together in the
likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his
resurrection" (Romans 6:5).
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