We have previously seen that Jews practiced baptism, and Jesus underwent this Jewish baptism. What does all this mean, and how did Christian baptism develop?
Jewish Rebirth through Baptism
In Judaism, baptism in water represents a death to the past and a new birth to a completely different future.
It symbolizes death, burial, and new birth. The coming up out of the water did not symbolize resurrection (for many Jewish people did not believe in the resurrection), but of being reborn out of water, like a newborn babe.
This partly explains why Jesus is incredulous that Nicodemus does not understand about being โborn againโ (John 3:10). Baptism as a means of being โborn again by waterโ was a common practice among Judaism. Entering the water was a way of identifying oneself with the purity of a newborn infant, and indicated that a person was turning away from something in their previous life and making a fresh start in a new direction.