History Of Baptism

John the Baptist, who is considered a forerunner to Christianity, used baptism as the central sacrament of his messianic movement. Christians consider Jesus to have instituted the sacrament of baptism. The earliest Christian baptisms were by immersion. By the third and fourth centuries, baptism involved catechetical instruction as well as chrismation, exorcisms, laying on of hands, and recitation of a creed. In the West, affusion became the normal mode of baptism between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, though immersion was still practiced into the sixteenth. In the sixteenth century, Martin Luther retained baptism as a sacrament, but Swiss reformer Huldrych Zwingli considered baptism and the Lord's supper to be symbolic. Anabaptists denied the validity of infant baptism, which was the normal practice when their movement started and practiced believer's baptism instead. Several groups related to Anabaptism, notably the Baptists and Dunkards, soon practiced baptism by immersion as following the Biblical example.

Background in Jewish ritual

Although the term "baptism" is not used to describe the Jewish rituals, the purification rites in Halakha, Jewish law and tradition, called ''tvilah'', have some similarity to baptism, and the two have been linked. The ''tvilah'' is the act of immersion in naturally sourced water, called a ''mikva''. In the past Hebrew Bible and other Jewish texts, immersion in water for ritual purification was established for restoration to a condition of "ritual purity" in specific circumstances. For example, Jews who (according to the Law of Moses) became ritually defiled by contact with a corpse had to use the mikvah before being allowed to participate in the Holy Temple. Immersion is required for converts to Judaism. Immersion in the mikvah represents a change in status in regards to purification, restoration, and qualification for full religious participation in the life of the community, ensuring that the cleansed person will not impose uncleanness on property or its owners. It did not become customary, however, to immerse converts to Judaism until after the Babylonian Captivity (586–539 BCE). This change of status by the mikvah could be obtained repeatedly, while Christian baptism, like circumcision, is, in the general view of Christians, unique and not repeatable. Even the so-called rebaptism by some Christian denominations is not seen by them as a repetition of an earlier valid baptism and is viewed by them as not itself repeatable.

During the Second Temple period ( 516 BCE–70 CE), the Greek noun ''baptmos'' was used to refer to ritual washing in Hellenistic Judaism.

Hemerobaptists

Hemerobaptists (Heb. ''Tovelei Shaḥarit''; 'Morning Bathers') were an ancient religious sect that practiced daily baptism. They were likely a division of the Essenes. In the ''Clementine Homilies'' (ii. 23), John the Baptist and his disciples are mentioned as Hemerobaptists. The Mandaeans have been associated with the Hemerobaptists on account of both practicing frequent baptism and Mandaeans believing they are disciples of John.

Mandaeans

Mandaeans revere John the Baptist and practice frequent full immersion baptism (''masbuta'') as a ritual of purification, not of initiation. Mandaeans abhor circumcision and are possibly the earliest people to practice baptism and may have originated Gnosticism.Drower, Ethel Stefana. The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran. Oxford At The Clarendon Press, 1937. Early religious concepts and terminologies recur in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and ''yardena'' (Jordan) has been the name of every baptismal water in Mandaeism. The Mandaic language is a dialect of southeastern Aramaic with Palestinian and Samaritan Aramaic, as well as Akkadian influences and is closely related to Syriac and especially Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. They formally refer to themselves as ''Nasurai'' (Nasoraeans).Drower, Ethel Stefana. The Haran Gawaita and the Baptism of Hibil-Ziwa. Biblioteca Apostolica Vatican, 1953 According to Mandaean sources such as the Haran Gawaita, the ''Nasurai'' inhabited the areas around Jerusalem and the River Jordan in the 1st century AD.Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen (2010). Turning the Tables on Jesus: The Mandaean View. In (pp94-11). Minneapolis: Fortress Press

Elkesaites

The Elkesaites were a Judeo-Christian baptismal sect that originated in the Transjordan and were active between 100 and 400 CE. The members of this sect, like the Mandaeans, performed frequent baptisms for purification and had a Gnostic disposition. The sect is named after its leader ''Elkesai''.

Sethians

The Sethians were one of the main currents of Gnosticism during the 2nd and 3rd century CE. According to John D. Turner, it originated in the 2nd-century CE as a fusion of two distinct Hellenistic Judaic philosophies and was influenced by Christianity and Middle Platonism. The Sethian baptismal rite is known as the Five Seals, in which the initiate is immersed five times in running water. According to Buckley (2010), "Sethian Gnostic literature ... is related, perhaps as a younger sibling, to Mandaean baptism ideology."

Valentinians

Valentinianism was one of the major Gnostic Christian movements. Founded by Valentinus in the 2nd century CE, its influence spread widely, not just within Rome but also from Northwest Africa to Egypt through to Asia Minor and Syria in the East.
A Mandaean baptismal formula was adopted by Valentinian Gnostics in Rome and Alexandria in the 2nd century CE.

Early Christianity

John the Baptist adopted baptism as the central sacrament in his messianic movement, seen as a forerunner of Christianity.

Baptism has been part of Christianity from the start, as shown by the many mentions in the Acts of the Apostles and the Pauline epistles. Christians consider Jesus to have instituted the sacrament of baptism. How explicit Jesus' intentions were and whether he envisioned a continuing, organized Church is a matter of dispute among scholars.

There is a scholarly consensus that the earliest Christian baptism was normally by immersion, or at least that this is probable. Some interpret this as meaning total immersion or submersion beneath the water. Among those who take this view are Thomas Schreiner, Everett Ferguson

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases