The Gospel of John

Baptism

I got curious about baptism while reading chapter one. Well, actually I'd been curious for a long time.

John suddenly shows up and starts baptizing people, and they seem to accept that. There's no history of it in old testament, so where did the idea come from? Why did John start doing it?

I did some research. It seems that in the period between old and new testaments, people had started doing something like baptism. Ritual washing with water had always been a part of the Jewish tradition, so it wasn't much of a step to baptism.

Apparently John took this idea and went farther with it, making it an act to show obedience to God. He baptized with water for the remission of sins. My guess is that this prefigures Jesus' actions.

It seems an odd sort of act. There are few visible acts one takes when becoming a Christian, so this would be the first act of following Jesus. Showing everyone that you're serious. It doesn't wash away sin, but it does show that a person is interested in following. A simple act that prefigures the more difficult ones that life leads toward.

posted by Larry @ 3:04 PM