What is Baptism? Part 2

In 2 Kings 3:11 we read,

¹¹ But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not a prophet of the Lord here, that we may inquire of the Lord by him?” And one of the king of Israel’s servants answered and said, “Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who used to pour water on the hands of Elijah.”

Recall that the priests were required to wash their hands and feet at the laver before entering into the Holy Place (Exodus 40:31, 32). By extension, the people as a whole were required to cleanse their hands before eating a meal, because in the course of daily life it was assumed that they might have touched something unclean, such as a fly.

Washing one’s hands before a meal was not designed to get rid of dirt, dust or bacteria. It was for spiritual cleansing. Elijah practiced this as well, as seen in the verse above, and Elisha had the honored position of pouring water on the hands of Elijah. This washing was done by pouring, not by immersing one’s hands in a basin of water.

New Testament Baptism

In Mark 7:1-5 we see this custom also practiced in the New Testament,

¹ The Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around Him when they had come from Jerusalem, ² and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed. ³ (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders; ⁴ and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they cleanse [rhantizo, “sprinkle”] themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing [baptismos] of cups and pitchers and copper pots.) ⁵ The Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?”

This “tradition of the elders” is described in terms of cleansing one’s hands by sprinkling (rhantizo). Mark adds that they also baptize “cups and pitchers and copper pots” in order to cleanse them ritually. The clear implication is that pouring water over one’s hands in a cleansing ritual is said to be baptism, and the people did this before every meal.

The Essenes

Years ago, I arranged to hold joint meetings with my archeologist friend, Professor E. Raymond Capt (now deceased). He gave a lecture on biblical archeology, and I then followed with a Bible study on the same topic. In one of the meetings, he lectured on the beliefs and practices of the Essenes, the third main sect of Judaism (after the Pharisees and Sadducees). In the course of his lecture, Ray mentioned that the Essenes baptized themselves before every meal, though he expressed some incredulity that it was really possible for all of them to immerse themselves in a cistern before every meal. After all, water was scarce in the Qumran area where they lived. They had to fill cisterns during the rainy season to have enough water during the dry season.

I told him later, about Mark 7 and the fact that Elisha poured water on the hands of Elijah, and Ray exclaimed, “Well, that explains how they could all baptize themselves before every meal!”

John’s Baptism

The point is that while the Greek word baptizmos might indeed mean “to dip,” this word has to be interpreted according to its Hebrew equivalent and actual practice. Remember that the Greek word was merely the closest equivalent to the Hebrew word. It is clear that baptism was established in the law, but because the priests did not normally immerse themselves, most Christians miss this detail and think that John the Baptist was the first to baptize people.

In other words, many know that the Old Testament priests sprinkled, but they think that John immersed, so they fail to connect John’s baptism with the common practice dating back to the time of Moses.

John the Baptist must have had a dispute with the temple priests, and so he baptized at the Jordan River, where there was “running water.” When John baptized Jesus, we read that “Jesus came up immediately from the water” (Matthew 3:16). Many picture Jesus coming up from beneath the water, having been immersed, but it actually means that He came up to the shore “from the water” to dry land.

If John baptized according to the specification in the law, He would have stood in the Jordan and baptized by scooping up water in a cup, pouring it over the head of the one being baptized.

Baptism on the Day of Pentecost

The same could be said of the 3,000 who were baptized in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. After Peter’s sermon in Acts 2:14-36, explaining the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the people asked what they should do. Acts 2:38 says,

³⁸ Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Acts 2:41 says,

⁴¹ So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.

There is no indication as to how these 3,000 souls were baptized. The book of Acts assumes that the reader already knows how they were baptized, because both Peter and Luke knew how baptism was done in those days. Certainly, Peter did not have to explain how baptism had changed from sprinkling to immersion.

Jerusalem had two pools of water: Siloam and Bethesda. It hardly seems possible that the disciples could have immersed 3,000 people in those two pools within a day. But if the people were sprinkled, this event was certainly possible. The church continued this practice in the following centuries, eventually prescribing three cups of water to be poured over the head of the believer, one for the Father, one for the Son, and one for the Holy Spirit. But this formula was developed after the Trinitarian controversy in accordance with Jesus’ statement in Matthew 28:19.

However, Peter said to be baptized “in the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 2:38). Years later, under Paul’s ministry, the believers in Corinth “were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 19:5).

There are differing views on this formula, each side drawing from different Scriptures. In my view, the mode of baptism is important to get a proper understanding of its symbolism, but in the end, it is one's faith that counts.