Outline
- Introduction
- New Testament Jewish Baptism
- The ceremonial law of ritual cleansing
- Further evidence that water baptism was a ritual of purification
Introduction
The purpose of this study is to look at the historical view of baptism. When we talk about historic baptism, we are referring to what the Jews believed about baptism. You may think that the Jews didn’t believe in baptism, or even know what it was, as it’s a New Testament doctrine, but you would be mistaken.
Remember that baptize is a transliterated Greek word that means to be dipped, where X is put into Y in order to identify with or take on the traits of Y. In the New Testament, baptized is very often used to describe being washed to purify or be made clean (Mark 7:4; Luke 11:38; Heb. 6:2, 9:9-10; Acts 22:16).
Since baptize is a transliterated Greek word, you won’t find the word in the Old Testament. What we must do is look at the Old Testament for the act of washing to purify or cleanse, or where one thing is symbolically put into another to take on its traits.
Let us first explain that even the Jews at the time of Jesus knew about water baptism.
New Testament Jewish Baptism
Matthew 3:4-6
Now John himself had a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea and all the district around the Jordan; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins.
This passage refers to John the Baptist. He was on the outskirts of Jerusalem preaching the gospel - repentance and faith to receive the forgiveness of sins. He used the symbology of water baptism to foretell the spiritual truth of our future baptism by the Holy Spirit. Now look at John chapter 1:
John 1:19-25
This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am A VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, ‘MAKE STRAIGHT THE WAY OF THE LORD,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.” Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, and said to him, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
The leaders of Israel came out to question John. The priests and Levites were the leaders of the synagogues and of the temple. They were the authority in temple worship. John was baptizing people in the river who wanted to repent and put their trust back in God for the forgiveness of their sins. Notice what they asked him:
“Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
They didn’t ask him what he was doing, but why “he” was doing it. They didn’t have to ask him what kind of ritual he was doing, because they knew exactly what he was doing.
The ceremonial law of ritual cleansing
John’s water baptism was, on the outside, the same ritual cleansing all the Jews were familiar with, because it was commanded by God and had been observed by them for over 1,000 years. The priests and Levites performed ritual cleansings (water baptisms) regularly, in order to ritually clean those who were spiritually defiled, and in order to perform the ritual cleansing of the priests enabling them for service.
The priests and Levites were questioning John’s authority to perform what they considered a priestly and Levitical ordinance. These washings (baptisms) were described and commanded in the Law (see link to full scriptures).
Baptisms by water were water purification rituals commanded by God and performed by the priests at the temple to make someone who was deemed as unclean back into being ritually clean and presentable in the eyes of God. These washings were a type of consecration; a figurative cleansing of sin.
The priests performed this ritual washing on those who touched someone that was unclean, after dealing with the dead or diseased, being with a woman during menstruation, or any number of other things that the Torah had determined as ‘unclean’.
The ritual had the person being cleansed bring the appropriate offering, such as doves, lambs, or sometimes simply just grains, to the priest and having the priest say the appropriate words to God before ‘washing’ the unclean person in the waters, oils, and/or perfumes at the temple.
Being ritually washed and cleansed by the priests in no way cleansed anyone of sin (Heb.9:9-10), just like the animal sacrifices in no way atoned for sin (Heb.10:11-13). These were all shadows of Christ. It was Christ’s death and atonement on the cross that paid for the transgressions of those of faith under the first covenant (Heb.9:15-16), and it is His atonement that covers those of faith today. Being dipped in water cannot supernaturally take away the sin in your body, or even in your spirit.
It was faithfulness to God and His word that credited the Old Testament saints as being forgiven of sin, blameless, and righteous. This is the same with us; it is by faith that God credits us as being forgiven of sin, blameless, and righteous. God has always justified by faith (Rom.5:1; Gal.3:11). For more on our credits by faith, see our study here.
John was offering a ritual cleansing of sin, which was only possible by the priests (or anyone with higher authority than them).
“Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
Their question is to see if John claimed to be someone that had more authority than them. If he had more authority than them, then he could obviously perform ritual cleansings of sin.
We must also note here that they didn’t believe John was actually forgiving and cleansing of sin, because they knew only God can forgive sins (Is.32:45-26; Micah 7:18-19; Mark 2:7; Luke 5:21).
Further evidence that water baptism was a ritual of purification
Later in the book of John we see that John the Baptist’s water baptism was explicitly cited as a ritual of purification the Jews were familiar with:
John 3:23-26
John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people were coming and were being baptized— for John had not yet been thrown into prison. Therefore there arose a discussion on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about purification. And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him.”
John was performing water baptisms and a discussion arose about purification with a Jew. This word means:
- a cleansing, purification, a ritual washing
- of the washing of the Jews before and after their meals of
- Levitical purification of women after childbirth
- a cleansing from the guilt of sins wrought by the expiatory sacrifice of Christ
You can see this word means two things; to be ritually purified or washed, or to be washed and purified through Christ. The Jews here referred to John’s baptism as a purification ritual.
John is the messenger of Christ who leads us to the true substance of our purification. It is by Christ and His blood that we are able to be cleansed of all sin. We will be looking at this further later in our study.
The ceremonial laws for ritual water cleansing within the Law were even referred to as baptisms:
Hebrews 6:1-2
Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.
The word for washings here is baptismos, or baptisms (and is translated that way in the NET, NIV, NKJV, and others). The ceremonial washings (baptisms) within the Law were elementary, and were to teach us and point us to Christ. The Law and the ceremonies were our tutor:
Galatians 3:24-25
Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
Notice the theme in Heb.6:1-2 and Gal. 3:24-25. The Law was to teach us truths about Christ, and now that we have the truth revealed, we are no longer under the Law and its rituals. We have no need to perform rituals that were teaching us that Christ was going to cleanse us, when Christ has come and by faith we are cleansed.
Summary
At this point, you may be wondering what was John’s purpose, why did he use water baptism, and why was Jesus baptized by water. Likewise, what did Jesus command in the great commission? Was Jesus commanding us to baptize people in water? What was Peter talking about in 1 Peter 3? All these questions will be answered in this study, so please be patient.
In our next part we will discuss John the Baptist, his ministry, and why Christ was baptized by water.