From whence Christian baptism?

During last year’s Advent and Hanukah season, my wife and I partook a dinner with a good friend and his Jewish family. Knowing me to be a seminarian, my friend asked about the possible historical connection between the Jewish cleansing ritual called the “mikveh” and Christian baptism. His father, who converted to Judaism from Roman Catholicism, adamantly denied a connection based on the understanding of their meanings by their respective faiths today. The early patristic authors of Christianity also emphasized the differences between Jewish “baptisms” and Christian baptism, declaring the former to be carnal and the latter to be spiritual. They argued for a greater theological meaning for Christian baptism, but their arguments betray the fact that they share a similar semantic meaning. While Judaism no longer uses the term and the Christian understanding of “baptism” has evolved over the centuries, the two practices are unmistakably linked: specifically, the Christian rite of baptism grew out of the Jewish practice of similar baptisms.

There are several “meanings” for βαπτίζω, probably the most literal and immediate is related to dipping, submerging, or plunging. In many sources, the term was used metaphorically to connote a sense of being “overwhelmed” or “flooded.” Hellenistic literature and the early church fathers used the term to describe a “sinking” ship or a “plunging” sword. It also can describe being overwhelmed by calamities (Moulton-Milligan, 102) or in mental anguish (Lampe, 283). In this sense, we can see how the term would be used as a metaphor for the Passion of Christ (Mk 10:38-39; Lk 12:50). The term’s more significant meaning as it relates to our understanding of the Christian practice of baptism, however, stems from the Jewish use of the word to refer to ritually washing, cleansing, and purifying. Baptism in the New Testament relates to repentance, preparation for Christ, forgiveness of sins, and entrance into the community of believers. These meanings are tied with the Jewish understanding of ritual cleansing, while the term also finds a life of its own in early Christian usage.

In its primary definition for βαπτίζω (to “wash ceremonially for purpose of purification”), BDAG connects the term to texts from the Community Rule (1QS) found in the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS). The Community Rule is not written in Greek, of course, but it gives some helpful conceptual background to the kind of “washings” we might find in Second Temple Judaism. In 1QS 5:8-23, “all the men of injustice who walk in the way of wickedness” must turn from their wickedness first and then they can be cleansed in water in order to partake of the community meal. In this passage and others (cf. 1QS 2:25–3:12; 4:20-22), we see the importance of the ritual cleansing for preparation of entrance into the community and the need to be pure in order to be “cleansed.” This understanding reminds us of Peter’s declaration to “Repent, and be baptized,” which precedes the “breaking of bread” of the early community of believers (Acts 2:38-47). Even earlier, we see John the Baptist admonishing the baptism-hopeful to turn from all kinds of wickedness and “bear fruits worthy of repentance” (Lk 3:3-17; cf. Mt 3:5-12; Mk 1:4-8). In his A Patristic Greek Lexicon, Lampe highlights the fact that the patristic authors continued to emphasize the need for preparation: “remission [of sins] effective only if candidate [is] not in [a] state of sin” and that “baptism [is] insufficient without perseverance in good living” (286). The preparation may look different from earlier Jewish practices from which the Christian practice stems, but it is preparation nonetheless.

In Mark 7:1-23, we have a good example of one “Jewish” understanding of “baptism” regarding ritual cleanliness before eating that shares some themes with the DSS texts (cf. Heb 9:10). This passage and others collectively illustrate the fact that baptism meant more to Christians than simply “immersing” into water. A survey of this material shows us that the Greek word for “baptizing” had a plethora of symbolic meanings, but it found a specialized religious meaning in Judaism and Christianity. In Judaism, there is a deeper meaning regarding cleanliness and purity, connected to preparation, and (it seems) leaving wickedness. It appears that the earliest use is simply a Greek translation for the Hebrew word for washing: “βαπτίζω” of the LXX for “טבל” in 2 Kings 5:14 (cf. Pesach 8:8; 4Q274 2:4, 5). Marianne Meye Thompson suggested in class that the earliest meaning within Christianity was not about initiation into the faith, but purification. It eventually became a new sort of technical term for purification as the church understood it: as a rite of initiation into the church, as a symbol that unites the believer with the death of Christ. That understanding of “baptism” is sometimes anachronistically read back into the biblical text without validity, particularly in John the Baptist’s ministry.

Many Jews might see this as one more thing that Christianity stole from them and corrupted. Many Christians may interpret any Jewish beginnings of the “meaning” associated with baptism to be incomplete. This term, however, was borrowed as a symbol from its use in the wider Hellenistic culture. It is a powerful symbol in both Judaism and Christianity. And when he suggested the tie between the mikveh and baptism, I think my friend was more right than he knew.

Some additional sites online that speak of the link between this practice in Judaism and Christianity (not that I agree with everything they say, but they are making the same basic point… and no, this is not where I did my research; my research was from lexicons, concordances, and the biblical text):