THE BEGINNING: THE ORIGINS OF BAPTISM (PART 1)

THE BEGINNING: THE ORIGINS OF BAPTISM (PART 1)

In the first book of the New Testament, an important event takes place – Jesus Christ’s baptism. This event is so significant that not only is it recorded in the first book of the New Testament (Matthew), but directly in three of the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). Further, reference to Jesus’s baptism is also made in the fourth gospel, John, where he says,

“I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Sprit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He, who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.” (John 1:33-35)

When God states something in the Bible twice, we know it’s important for us to take notice and action, if applicable. When God inspires something to be repeated four times to give abundant witness, we know it is something truly significant, and in this case, a monumental moment in the plan of God. Peter alludes to why this event was so significant in his first epistle,

“He [Jesus Christ] indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you…”
(1 Peter 1:20)

Part of God’s plan is being shown to us through Jesus Christ’s baptism.

Reading through the various accounts of Jesus Christ’s baptism in the gospels, you may notice something perplexing, but noteworthy which occurs with baptism in general. If you had no prior knowledge of the Bible and read through it for the first time from beginning to end, Jesus’s baptism would be the first time you would be formally introduced to the concept and practice. The definition of baptism, what it means, and its representation within the plan of God isn’t explained beforehand, but only after.

The first such instance in the Bible where the purpose of baptism is alluded to is in John 3. Jesus, while talking to Nicodemus, expounds on baptism’s role as being vital for the new spiritual birth that must take place for believers to enter the Kingdom of God. However, the role of baptism isn’t specifically defined until after Jesus’s crucifixion in Acts where we are told that baptism represents “the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38; 22:16).

These verses illustrating the role of baptism were not inspired and written until some 20-30 years after Jesus’s crucifixion. In spite of this, at the time we read about Jesus Christ’s baptism in the gospels, the authors intend for us to immediately understand its significance, importance, and meaning. This is illustrated to us in John, where it says,

“They [the Pharisees] asked him [John the Baptist], ‘Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?’ John answered them, ‘I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even He who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” (John 1:25-26)

The Pharisees don’t ask John what baptizing is or its significance. They grasp the importance since to them only someone of prominence like a prophet or the Messiah has the authority to baptize. They instead ask him why he is baptizing.

This is puzzling because although baptism’s origins can begin to be traced back to the Old Testament, the full concept of burying your old self and becoming a new person through baptism is first recorded by Paul, some 20-30 years after Jesus’ crucifixion. Paul explains baptism’s role to the believers in Rome in his epistle to them,

“Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:3-4)

These examples force us to ask ourselves, why did this occur this way in the Biblical narrative? Is it simply because the authors of the New Testament forgot to explain baptism’s importance? Or perhaps it was because the practice was only adopted right before Jesus Christ, so as a result didn’t appear in the Old Testament? Regardless, we will look at these questions and others. While looking, we will discover that there is so much more to baptism, and its true meaning, then what we may have originally thought.

To fully understand the importance of baptism and its origins, we need to go back to the Old Testament. The practice of baptism doesn’t show up in the Old Testament, but the concept and roots go all the way back to Genesis. However, before preceding it’s important to point out something necessary to our understanding of this topic. Through language, we are able to see what topics are important to different cultures. For example, if you look at present-day English you can see topics that we hold important in our society with the recent creation of more words and phrases revolving around technology. The same concept can be applied to any society or language, and this is especially true of ancient Hebrew. The Hebrew language revolves around God and His law. Such things were an important aspect of their life, so their language was developed and evolved to represent that. Similar to our earlier example regarding present-day English, if we do the same with Hebrew, we see there are three different Hebrew words for describing both sin and love. Both of these words are important to construct a proper relationship with God (contrast this to English where there is only one word for “love”, and ancient Greek where there are four different words for “love” - showing us the priority of these cultures). Knowing what beliefs are important to different cultures at different times will be especially important, as we will see with this concept throughout the Old Testament. The meaning of certain words changes, which gives us a clearer understanding to their original intent, and eventually to their complete meaning.

BAPTISM: WHERE OUR HOPE BEGINS

THE WASHING AWAY OF SINs (Part 2)

The use of water for ritual cleansing was important to the Hebrews. In fact, the practice can be seen throughout Scripture in both the Old and New Testaments. God commanded Moses in Exodus 19:10:

“Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow; and let them wash their clothes. And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the LORD will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.”

This wasn’t a simple process either, but a thorough cleansing as the process would last three days.  David alluded to a cleansing like this in Psalms 51:7 when he says,

“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”

Jesus Christ also references the cleansing that is required for His followers through The Great Tribulation when He says,

“These are the ones who come out of the Great Tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
(Revelation 7:14)

 The practice of ritual cleansing through water to come into God’s presence was not only applied to the washing of clothes. The practice was similarly applied to the washing of oneself to become ritually cleansed as well. In Leviticus 15:21-22, we see that women were commanded to wash themselves after their monthly cycle. Leviticus 14:7-9 shows us that the act of washing was also required after recovering from a skin disease, like leprosy, or when coming into contact with a corpse, as mentioned in Numbers 19:11-13. The act of washing oneself in water was so significant and important to God, that it was even commanded of Aaron and of his sons. In Exodus we read,

“And Aaron and his sons you shall bring to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and you shall wash them with water.” (Exodus 29:4)

Aaron and his sons were required to wash themselves before offering any sacrifices to God, especially on the High Day of Atonement. This washing was so important that failure to not wash properly would result in death. 

 The symbolism of immersing oneself in water to become ritually, and thus, spiritually cleansed was well understood to the ancient Israelites as this concept is pervasive throughout the Old Testament. However, even though God wanted the Israelites to practice this ritual cleansing for what it symbolized (just like how God commanded the Israelites to keep the Passover even though the full meaning wouldn’t be revealed to them until nearly 1,200 years later), He was more interested in their spiritual cleansing. Although Psalm 51:7 was mentioned earlier, washing oneself from sin was on David’s mind throughout Psalm 51 as he correlates this washing to burnt sacrifices and the removal of sin. Jesus Christ also elaborates on the spiritual cleansing He desires from His followers, when He tells the Pharisees,

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.”
(Matthew 23:27)

Even though on the outside the Pharisees appeared righteous and interested in following God’s law, on the inside they were actually ‘whitewashed.’ Their true interest in following God’s law was primarily for their own personal gain. Likewise, major prophets such as Jeremiah, Ezra, and Zechariah also allude to this symbolism throughout their writings.

So, with this background and seeing the pervasiveness of washing throughout the Old Testament, are we now able to begin to see why the concept of baptism, and what it symbolized, was not defined at the beginning of the New Testament? Perhaps, but there is still a missing, and very important piece, related to washing and its link to baptism. After all, we know that the act of washing was only symbolic of the type of spiritual cleansing that Jesus Christ desires of His Followers.

So, what does it symbolize?

We can begin to understand the symbolism more fully through a single Hebrew word – mikveh.

BAPTISM: WHERE OUR HOPE BEGINS

MIKVEH - A NEW MEANING (PART 3)

The first time that mikveh is used in the Bible is in Genesis 1:10, when “God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas.” According to many online sources, including Strong’s Concordance, the word “gathering together” used in this verse is mikveh and means “a collection.” Most online sources, such as Blue Letter Bible, and various Hebrew sources like Mikvah.org, define mikveh as “a collection [of waters]” due to the word’s strong and repeated connection with water. Throughout the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible), the Chronicles of the Kings, (1st and 2nd Chronicles and Kings), and the Books of Wisdom (Job, Psalms, and Proverbs) we see mikveh used in a similar way to mean “a collection [of water].” We see a noticeable example of the usage of mikveh in Leviticus 11:36:

“Nevertheless a spring or a cistern, in which there is plenty of water, shall be clean, but whatever touches any such carcass becomes unclean.” (Leviticus 11:36)

This verse is referring to the cleanliness laws found in the Old Testament and when something should be deemed clean or unclean. Notice that a collection of waters (or, as the verse says, ‘plenty of water’) is always clean. Throughout the early books of the Old Testament, we see the same imagery being conveyed of mikveh as it relates to water.  However, as we progress through the Old Testament, we see mikveh used in a different and interesting way. In Ezra, we see a clear example of the different way mikveh begins to be used. At the end of the verse, Shekaniah is recorded as saying,

“…we have trespassed against our God, and have taken pagan wives from the people of the land; yet now there is hope in Israel in spite of this.” (Ezra 10:2)

(Note: although Ezra is near the beginning of the Bible in most versions, Ezra was written after the exile of Israel from the land by the Babylonians, closer to the writings of the major prophets).

At the time this book was written, the people with Ezra clearly understood they did wrong against God with their actions. However, with all their work in restoring the Temple and Jerusalem, the remark of “now there is hope in Israel in spite of this” is a peculiar usage of mikveh in this context. Why is mikveh, previously only used to mean “a collection [of waters],” now being used in a context to mean “hope?” Jeremiah gives us a more striking example of mikveh being used in this new manner and relates this word directly to God. In order to gain the proper context for what Jeremiah is talking about in these verses, we will begin with the preceding verse,

“O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do it for Your name’s sake; for our backslidings are many, we have sinned against You. O the Hope of Israel, his Savior in times of trouble…” (Jeremiah 14:7-8)

Similar to the verses we read in Ezra, these verses in Jeremiah talk about the iniquities and sins that the people have committed against God. Moreover, similar to Ezra, Jeremiah also incorporates this new meaning of mikveh by calling God “The Hope (Mikveh) of Israel.” This is not a one-time occurrence either, as Jeremiah also makes use of the different meaning of mikveh again later on,

“LORD, You are the Hope (Mikveh) of Israel; all who forsake You will be put to shame.” (Jeremiah 17:13)

According to the Blue Letter Bible and various online sources, the Old Testament already had a word for “hope” that appears 32 times. This word is tikveh, meaning “an expectation” or “to hope for.” This discovery and the preceding verses related to mikveh prompt several important questions. What does it mean that God is the Mikveh of Israel and, therefore, our Mikveh, as Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 14:8? Why does mikveh change from “a collection [of waters] to “hope” rather than employing “tikveh?” Moreover, what connection does mikveh have to the concept of baptism?

BAPTISM: WHERE OUR HOPE BEGINS

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BAPTISM: WHERE OUR HOPE BEGINS (PART 4)

THE INTERTESTAMENTAL PERIOD: THE SILENT YEARS (PART 3)

We have reviewed the term mikveh and see that it has the meaning of “a collection [of waters]” in early Old Testament writings, but “hope” in later Old Testament writings. Both definitions and their usage give us a deeper understanding to what God was conveying when he inspired mikveh to be used in these varying ways. However, although it is not stated in the Old Testament and only came later during the time between the Old and New Testament, another usage of mikveh needs to be understood to recognize its significance and how it relates to baptism entirely. For roughly four hundred years, spanning the ministry of Malachi to John the Baptist, Jewish tradition says no prophet spoke in the land of Israel. Jewish tradition considers this time the silent years from God and scholars refer to this period as the intertestamental period. Even though there were no Biblical writings during this time, many important events happened during this period, which influenced Jewish thinking and prepared the world for Jesus Christ’s arrival and His gospel.

An ancient ritual bath (mikveh pool) outside of Jerusalem. 

One such important event from this period was the adoption of the mikveh pool into Jewish life. Only found in Israel, mikveh pools (or mikvoth) began to appear throughout the land of Israel and in historic communities of the Jewish diaspora, starting in the 2nd century B.C. According to the Britannica Encyclopedia, mikvoth are baths used for ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve ritual purity. They can be found in almost any ancient Jewish community due to their strong ties to ritual purity within the Jewish faith. To give you a sense of their importance, according to the publication The Times of Israel, 700 mikvoth have been discovered throughout Israel. Of the 700 mikvoth discovered so far, 200 are found in Jerusalem, and of these, 50 are located near the Temple Mount. The location of these mikvoth, and their strong presence in Jerusalem and near the Temple Mount, clearly show their role and importance. Jerusalem, and especially the Temple Mount, was the center of the sacrificial system during the Old Testament and through the intertestamental period. As a result, there could be thousands of Jewish pilgrims in need of ritual cleansing at any time of the day, with many more thousands above that in need around the holy days.