Backgrounds

Mikveh (ceremonial bath) at Masada

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, ¹² having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. ¹³ And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, ¹⁴ by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Col 2:11–14

Someone asked me what the background to baptism is. Were there historical examples of baptism before Jesus?  

I said, there are often two different ways people talk about the historical examples of baptism. One example was just that the Jews washed in ceremonial baths to cleanse themselves after becoming ritually impure. They are called mikvehs. The second example is that there were some examples of conversion baptisms when someone joined a small group like John the Baptist’s group. 

What do these historical examples have to do with baptism? Oh, something. But, it’s important to be careful with historical cues. When I was in college, I went to Israel to study for a year. Many, many people go to Israel to study historical backgrounds, and one of the helpful things a person can do there is study things that we thought were hidden and forgotten. We imagine we’re the first people coming across this new data about Jewish backgrounds, Babylonian backgrounds, Roman backgrounds, and Archeological backgrounds. There’s a lot that’s helpful, I love history, but none of these historical backgrounds are keys to scripture. I had a friend fall so in love with Jewish backgrounds to Christianity, he became a Jew! And another friend became a Muslim! 

We can’t let historical examples overtake how we read scripture. Scripture must be the key through the lens of life and work of Jesus Christ. And so in addition to these backgrounds, I’d suggest that at least one key to understanding baptism historically is to read Colossians. Baptism is a sign of death and resurrection. Meditate on the passage I wrote above in addition to the historical background of the 1st century.