The history of baptism does not actually begin with the New Testament and the baptism of John, but many thousands of years earlier.
Baptism Did not Originate with Christianity
Baptism is not a uniquely Christian rite. Early Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Eastern religions practiced various forms of baptism. A form of baptism is also a central religious rite in Hinduism, various Indigenous American religions, and of course, in Judaism. Other types of washings and purifications by water are practiced in nearly every other religion in the world, including Islam, Buddhism, and Shintoism.
In nearly every case, the washing with water represents purification and a movement toward holiness so that the individual worshipper may approach God to offer sacrifices or pray.
Of great interest to some historians is the fact that the ancient Sumerians, at their temple in the city of Eridu, worshipped the water god Ea. Astrological religions equate this deity with Capricorn, which is the sign of the zodiac that indicates winter solstice, the death of the previous year and the rebirth of the new year.
Of even more interest is that in Greek Hellenistic religion, the god Ea was called Oannes, or Ioannes. In English, we would say “John.” As a result of this, some have taken this to mean that the accounts in the Gospels of John the Baptist were fabricated, or “borrowed” from the ancient Sumerian myths. John does, after all, preaching that the old way is dead, and the promised Messiah is coming who will usher in a new era of peace for the entire world, and that those who want to participate in this new era must show it by going through the waters of baptism, much as the followers of Ea would have done 3000 years earlier.
John Really did Baptize
It is best, however, to realize that John the Baptist was a real historical figure, and he really did come to the region of the Jordan preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And many people came from Jerusalem and Judea to listen to him preach, and to be baptized by him in the Jordan River. And Jesus Himself came to be baptized by John in the Jordan (cf. Luke 3:1-22).
The fact that John is preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins does not seem to fit with the fact that Jesus, who was sinless, would need to get baptized by John (Matt 3:14-15). But this dilemma fades away once we begin to understand the cultural and theological significance in baptism.
To understand this significance, let us begin by looking at the word baptism. Like the word “church,” much of the problem surrounding baptism can be done away with simply by properly defining the word itself. This we will begin to do tomorrow.
But for now, does it concern you to know that baptism was (and is) practiced by other religions in other times and cultures? Do you think this helps or hinders the significance of baptism?
It does not concern me at all.
If you understand ancient history and religion, you clearly see that The Bible, specifically the Old Testament, is all about Polemics aka Our God is better than yours and this is why.
The creation account in Genesis attacks other religions with a very similar creation account. (Enuma Elish)
The flood account is similar to others of it’s time.
Sacrifice was performed to other gods, however Jesus became our sacrifice.
Jesus and other mythological characters have a lot in common. However, Jesus is the only deity who spills blood for His people on earth.
To summarize: Even if religious ceremonies in the Bible possibly originated from other “religions” it should not matter. The action in the Bible and still today was/is done to Jesus, our Savior, to show their commitment to the one true God, His Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit with us.
Yes, yes, yes, yes!
So many do not recognize the polemic side of Scripture. Yet in every case, God does it not to show His similarity, but to show His differences, as you have pointed out.
Thanks!
Be careful because the Most High actually is against human sacrifice for sins (Deut. 24:16, Ezekiel 18:20, and Psalm 49:7-9) as well as the consumption of blood (Leviticus 17:10-12, Deuteronomy 12:23, and Psalm 16:4-5) which jc requires his believers partake of his blood as the binding of a “new covenant”, which does not line up with the New Covenant that was prophesied to the Israelites in Jeremiah 31:31-34. Christianity is the occult. Using, cannibalism (symbolically eating the body and blood), and consciousness/ascension (through baptism symbolic death to the gods). Jc is the ultimate sun god, not the son of god. The Most High said that Israel is His first born son (“Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son,’ ”Exodus 4:22).
Also, the Most High says He is the ONLY Savior, not jc (and we already know they are separate beings because the Most High said there is NO ONE besides Him and that He is one God in Deut. 6:4 and Zechariah 14:9 and that the word “trinity” is not in the Bible and the NT again has paganism in it) but the Most High is the Savior of Israel not jc of christians:
“For I am the Lord [Most High] your God [Elohim], the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.” Isaiah 43:3
“I, I am the Lord [Most High], and besides me there is no savior.”
Isaiah 43:11
“But I am the [Most High] your God [Elohim] from the land of Egypt; you know no god but me, and besides me there is no savior.”
Hosea 13:4
And the Most High is going to redeem His son, Israel from the power of Sheol, not jc.
“I shall ransom them [them = Israel read the full chapter] from the power of Sheol; I shall redeem them from Death. O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion is hidden from my eyes.”
Hosea 13:14
Shalawam.
I agree with Josh. We, mankind have been doing blood sacrifices for thousands, maybe millions of years to to deities. The use of animals changed to people, especially virgin girls. When God decided enough was enough he told his people not to copy the ways of other nations.
When Abraham was told to sacrifice his son Isaac this was against Gods own commands. When Jesus said you must eat my flesh and drink my blood, that also was against Gods commands, and many of the Jewish followers fell away.
Again the act of Baptism comes from other religions and like the Church that decided to build on past pagan ground and to hijack the old pagan festival dates like Christmas and Easter, God draws us to Himself in a gentle way as He turns our old attitudes and ways upside down.
Whatever we do whether it be prayer, sacrifice, good works, sing worship songs, God looks at our heart, it’s not what we do it’s why we do it that matters to Him. Are we honoring God or ourselves, are we honoring his creation or abusing it.
When we attend a Mass/Holy Communion are we receiving a blessing or a curse. Scripture says when you bring your offering make sure everything is OK with your neighbor, Matthew ch5 v23 to 24, it’s a heart thing.
Repentance comes before sacrifice. When Jesus was baptised he was showing us that no one is free from sin, it was an example to us that even though He was sinless he was still subject to temptation like all mankind. Anyone who followed Him could not say about Jesus “he’s no better than me”. In John ch6 v56 we are told to eat and drink Him. The woman at the Well was told to take His life giving water.
Jesus was not saying literally eat me drink me he was saying, enter into me by following me, “I Am the Way the Truth and the Life, unless we take Him into our lives we can not be alive. In a way we have to become Him. When we are transformed, people meet Jesus when they meet us, it’s His light that shines out from us, admittedly dimly, but it’s still there.
In North Korea and other such places, the light is so strong in Christians there, they are feared and suffer torture and death.
Lets not go back to basics again and again, Hebrews ch 6 v 1.
Clive
We were discussing John the Baptist in our church group on Tuesday and where baptism came from came up. We couldn’t find any reference to baptism prior to John the Baptist. I’m going to forward to this to my church because this answers the question, thanks Jeremy 🙂
Glad it helped! Yes, rather than look for “baptism” look for ceremonial washings and in other Jewish literature, the mikveh.
After God brought Israel out of Egypt and slavery, He told Moses in Exodus 19 (read the chapter for details) to ask Israel if they would agree to a covenant between Israel & Jehovah (covenant is the same word used for testament or contract). The rewards to Israel would be they would be “a peculiar treasure” above all people. Israel responded positively and affirmed they would agree. God then told Moses to have all the people wash their clothes in preparation of meeting God who is Holy and who is the supreme creator, whose composition is Spirit (John 4:24). God is light (energy), He is love, He is the Father of all life. This meeting was a big time event that would take place 3 days after the washing.
Washing with water was not only a symbolic act of purification and repentance (repentance means changing one’s thinking), but it was also an act of preparation to meeting the Creator, just as we would put on our best to meet in a high level meeting.
Zoom forward about 2500 years to John the Baptist and one will see his ministry of preparing Israel again to meet Jesus, the only begotten son of God, and his Father’s royal ambassador of His Kingdom ( Note Mat 21:33-41 and note to whom Jesus is speaking).
Once again water was used to symbolize purity and repentance to meet and understand a new covenant that was going to be introduced. John the Baptist baptized with water. Jesus was baptized with water to authenticate John’s ministry and to prepare himself for the spirit of his Father God; which was received as soon as he was water baptized. But John said “one greater than himself” ie., “Jesus” would baptize with holy spirit (Mark 1:7 & 8). Jesus never baptized anyone with water, even though his disciples who were also previous followers of John the Baptist did (John 4:1 & 2).
Even after the Day of Pentecost (or known to Judaism as the Feast of Weeks) a first fruits of harvest feast; Jesus’ disciples were a little confused on the use of water in baptism. In Acts 10 Cornelius, the first Gentile was born again by accepting Jesus as Lord and believing his Father God raised him up from the dead (Rom 10: 9 & 10).
In Acts 10: 48, Peter and other Jewish witnesses, after seeing Cornelius manifest his spiritual baptism by Jesus, commanded they should also be water baptized. However, this was never carried out because of Acts 11:16 & 17.
The Devil is a counterfeit. His three fold mission is to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10) He does this through confusion. The better the counterfeit, the more trained the eye needs to be to spot it.
The Bible never uses the term “God the Son” or the “ultimate sun god”. He was and is of the seed of David through Mary his mother. He was and is of the seed of God too. God created the sperm cell that impregnated Mary’s egg. The bloodline comes from the Father. This made Jesus a new and perfect bloodline (the second & last Adam – ICor 15:45) worthy of being the Passover Lamb. He was crucified the same day (14th day of Nissan) as all Judaism were preparing their lamb for Passover. He was crucified on the very spot that God asked Abraham to offer Isaac and then said to Abraham He was Jehovah-Jireh (God our provider). He told & showed Abraham He would provide His only begotten son!
Jesus is a the way to God his Father, the truth and life. No one gets to the God without being baptized by Jesus the Messiah and the baptism of holy spirit. If Judaism is so good at understanding the Law, Why can’t they see and understand how Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled it?? As Paul, the Hebrew of Hebrews wrote, The law is a stumbling block to them. Yet, the Children of Israel are still special to God who still has a held-in-abeyance covenant with them.
So much more……..
Great comment, Clive.
Of course, the author of Hebrews said they should not have to go back to basics, but they did have to because they hadn’t learned the basics.
I wonder if the church today has to go back to the basics because we haven’t learned them either?
I am going to link this article to one which I will post, great insight and I love how God transcends all human and spiritual aspects of life to get our attention to the majestic nature of His love, grace, and awe. Only a Creator God, who is omniscient can think these things up–amazing, use John as counter to the Greek Ioannes–it’s almost laughable, like the 10 plagues–thanks for sharing!
Glad it helped! God does transcend our thinking, but amazingly, He also enters into our humanity and becomes one of us! Incredible, right?
Amen yes yes yes
All the bible was copied from sumarian cuneiform teachings that predate the bible however even these teachings are false and assumptions of the time
Creations was written to explain something that is assumption
My proof for this is the fact in over 2000 years at least man as taken away bits of the bible from their daily life so by example if the heads of all religions have changed stuff from the old days then clearly they don’t fear god so he must be false
I know if I was given clear instructions from god to do something a certain way and if I didn’t I knew I would goto hell then I wouldn’t change a thing
Just because you have figured out that the Bible isn’t the “inerrant word of God” doesn’t mean all religion is false, and that God doesn’t exist.
Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. The Bible in this case is the bathwater 🙂
The Jewish people don’t have a monopoly on God, and this is clear when you look at something such as baptism. The practice was around long before Judaism, and Jesus decided to submit himself to it. God anointed Jesus with the Spirit while engaged in a non-Jewish sacrement(sp?). Furthermore, the things Jesus was teaching completely blew the minds of the religious authorities of the time. What sort of people came to see Jesus at his birth? Astrologers from Persia. Zoroastrian Priests.
The Spirit of the true God has always been present in the world, and has found ways to communicate Love and Light to every culture across history. Jesus’ blood sacrifice made sense to a people that had always practiced blood sacrifice. To a different culture, God would find a different way to communicate that would make sense to that specific culture.
Do we need to believe this blood sacrifice stuff today? It depends on entirely on your own mind. If that is what you need to believe in order to accept the Love of God, then by all means believe it.
Each human being has the capacity to experience divine Love. It is within all of us, you just need to find it. The kingdom is within you. Know yourself.
This post does not say that Jeremy has “figured out that the Bible isn’t the ‘inerrant word of God'”. Nor do any of the other posts or comments Jeremy has written say that. In fact, in numerous posts and comments Jeremy specifically says that he does hold to inerrancy. Nor does Jeremy say that “all religion is false, and that God doesn’t exist.” Maybe you’re thinking of someone else’s blog.
I was replying to the comment made by Jason Holloway.
Sorry. I missed that you were replying to Jason, rather than to Jeremy. In that context, your comment makes sense to me.
Are babies to be baptized ? Did the Jews practice baptism before Jesus?
So, is baptism something humans came up with or is it from God? Jesus (Yeshua) got baptized but for other reasons which I’m not sure I understand. He said, “it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” What does that mean? Was baptism already a sacrament people were required to do? And now Christians, starting with St Peter, have made baptism almost mandatory for salvation and it may not even be of God to start with.
Hello, I am working on an article on baptism and found your article very enlightening. Can you tell me the resources you used in this presentation? It would be a great help and blessing to my studies and project.
I would appreciate any help you can give.
It seems it has a continuation. Where is it?
Regarding the question: “…does it concern you to know that baptism was (and is) practiced by other religions in other times and cultures? Do you think this helps or hinders the significance of baptism?”
Yeah, I would love to know its real origem. The reason is simple: the contemporanean church has transformed everything in a relious ritual disconected from its original mean.
Hi there, following up on Jotta’s comment. Is there a way to follow this series of posts on the history of baptism? It seems there is a second and probably a third or more posts in this series.
I’ve tried some google searches and then making up URLs, but to no avail.
Happy new year, and hoping you see this.
Andy