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The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas

The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.

Ritual washing and convert immersion

Jews washed often for purity, but one immersion happened only once: the bath a Gentile took on becoming a Jew. John's baptism and the church's took that shape.

Jewish life and lawTemple, synagogue and festivals

First, in plain English

You take the citizenship oath once, and from that day you belong to a new country. Jews in Jesus' day washed and bathed often to be ritually clean. One immersion happened only once: when a Gentile turned to Israel's God, he was immersed in water as part of becoming a Jew. So when John called Jews to be baptized, and when Jesus' followers baptized new disciples, people understood it as a turning to God and a new start.

What it meant then

Like many ancient peoples, Jews practiced ritual washings. Their only once-for-all washing was the immersion a non-Jew underwent on converting, probably watched by a religious expert, and John's baptizing fits that model (Keener). The immersion washed converts clean of the defilement of idol worship, which some Gentile writers of the first and second centuries attest. Sects such as the Essenes immersed new members too, but as the first of many washings. John's single baptism marked a turn to a new life. For Keener, the ultimate example of repentance was a non-Jew choosing to obey Israel's God, so John treated his Jewish hearers on the same terms as pagans. Josephus, describing John's baptism, says the washing would please God if used "for the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness." Many Jews welcomed Gentile converts, and some outside the land sought them out, but there was no organized mission. When Jesus sends his followers to baptize the nations, baptism gave them a way of showing conversion that anyone would understand. The CSB Study Bible calls it the mark of entry into the faith community. Jewish teachers spoke of converts at their immersion as starting life again like newborn children, much as a Roman adoptee left his old family behind. Keener hears that background in the talk of new birth in John 3. Teachers expected Gentile converts to be baptized, and "these converts were baptized naked" and then dressed again, as later rabbis required. Jewish authors sometimes pictured a person clothed in the Spirit or in virtues.

The bridge to today

An analogy: a naturalization ceremony. Citizens renew licenses and papers all the time, but the oath that makes a foreigner a citizen is taken once, and everyone knows what it means.

What it changes in the reading

Because Jews immersed Gentile converts, a baptism offered to Jews, as in Mark 1:4-5, treated them like outsiders who needed to turn. Baptism in Jesus' name marks entry into his people, as in Matthew 28:19 and Acts 2:38.

Where the analogy breaks

Not a legal ceremony. Naturalization changes a person's papers. The convert's immersion was a washing that cleansed from idolatry and marked a turn to Israel's God. John offered it to people who were already Jews, as if citizens were asked to take the oath again.

Where scholars disagree

Was convert immersion practiced as early as John? The cultural backgrounds article on baptism notes that some have doubted it. It answers that the rite appears in various sources, the Stoic Epictetus among them. The rabbis of a later age were unlikely to take a practice over from Christians, it argues, and conversion without purification is hard to imagine. Strauss, in the Zondervan backgrounds commentary, takes the other side. The Talmudic evidence for convert immersion is late, so whether it reaches back to the first century is questionable, and he reads John's rite as an end-time use of Jewish washing.

Passages where it appears

{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-3-13-4-11\/","n":"Matthew 3:13-4:11, Baptism and the test in the desert","s":"Jesus is baptized and hears the voice from heaven, then is led into the wilderness for forty days, where the devil tests him three times.","r":"Matthew 3:13-4:11"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-28-16-20\/","n":"Matthew 28:16-20, Make disciples of all nations","s":"On a mountain in Galilee the risen Jesus claims all authority in heaven and on earth and sends the eleven to make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching them.","r":"Matthew 28:16-20"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-1-1-13\/","n":"Mark 1:1-13, John in the wilderness","s":"John preaches and baptizes at the Jordan, dressed like Elijah. Jesus is baptized, hears the voice from heaven and is driven into the wilderness for forty days.","r":"Mark 1:1-13"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-3-1-20\/","n":"Luke 3:1-20, John's answers for toll men and soldiers","s":"In the fifteenth year of Tiberius, John preaches repentance around the Jordan. He tells the crowds to share, tax collectors to take no more than is set, and soldiers not to extort, and Herod Antipas shuts him in prison.","r":"Luke 3:1-20"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-1-19-34\/","n":"John 1:19-34, Not the Messiah, not Elijah, not the Prophet","s":"Priests and Levites from Jerusalem ask John who he is. He denies being the Messiah, Elijah or the Prophet, calls himself the voice in the wilderness, and points to Jesus as the Lamb of God.","r":"John 1:19-34"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-3-1-21\/","n":"John 3:1-21, Born from above","s":"Nicodemus, a Pharisee and ruler, comes to Jesus at night. Jesus tells him that no one sees God's kingdom without being born from above, of water and Spirit, and speaks of the Son of Man lifted up like the serpent in the wilderness.","r":"John 3:1-21"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/acts-2-14-41\/","n":"Acts 2:14-41, Peter's sermon: the Spirit poured out","s":"Peter explains the scene from Joel: God has poured out his Spirit, the crucified Jesus is raised and exalted as Lord and Messiah, and three thousand are baptized in his name.","r":"Acts 2:14-41"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/romans-6-1-23\/","n":"Romans 6:1-23, Slaves of a new master","s":"Baptized into Christ's death, believers are dead to sin. Once slaves of sin, they have been set free to become slaves of God, whose gift is eternal life.","r":"Romans 6:1-23"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/galatians-3-23-29\/","n":"Galatians 3:23-29, The law as a guardian until faith came","s":"Before faith came, Paul says, we were held in custody under the law, which served as a guardian until Christ; now all who have been baptized into Christ are God's children, one in him, Abraham's seed and heirs.","r":"Galatians 3:23-29"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/titus-2-11-3-8\/","n":"Titus 2:11-3:8, Grace has appeared, be subject to rulers, and the washing of rebirth","s":"God's grace has appeared, training believers to live with self-control now while they wait for Christ's glorious appearing; they are to respect rulers and be gentle to all, because God saved them by his mercy, giving them new birth and new life by the Holy Spirit.","r":"Titus 2:11-3:8"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/hebrews-5-11-6-12\/","n":"Hebrews 5:11-6:12, Milk, solid food and no way back","s":"The readers should be teachers by now but still need milk, so the writer urges them past the elementary teachings. Those who have been enlightened and shared in the Holy Spirit and then fall away cannot be brought back to repentance, though he is confident of better things for his readers.","r":"Hebrews 5:11-6:12"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/hebrews-10-19-25\/","n":"Hebrews 10:19-25, Through the curtain, bodies washed, meeting together","s":"Because Jesus' blood has opened a new and living way through the curtain, believers may enter the most holy place with confidence. With hearts sprinkled and bodies washed with pure water, they are to hold fast, spur one another on, and not give up meeting together.","r":"Hebrews 10:19-25"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/1peter-3-8-22\/","n":"1 Peter 3:8-22, A defense, and the spirits in prison","s":"Peter calls for harmony and for blessing in return for insult, and tells his readers to be ready to make a defense of their hope. Christ suffered once for sins, was put to death in the body and made alive in the Spirit, and went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison who disobeyed in Noah's day; the flood that saved eight people prefigures baptism, and Christ has gone into heaven, where every angelic authority and power is subject to him.","r":"1 Peter 3:8-22"}

Sources

Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 3:5-6, 23:15 and 28:19-20, and on Mark 1:4-5
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Matthew 3:11, 23:15 and 28:19, note on Mark 1:4, and NT Glossary, entry Baptize, baptism
CSB Study Bible, note on Matthew 28:19
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 18.5.2, trans. William Whiston
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on John 1:24-25, 3:3-4 and 3:5
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Galatians 3:27
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Galatians 3:27
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, article Baptism
Mark L. Strauss, Luke, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Luke 3:3

All ideas