Why was Jesus baptized? I thought that was a Christian tradition, not Jewish.?

Question

Were all Jews during his time baptized? I don't understand.

Answer 1

No, you're right, that is a Xtian tradition. But Jews had always had something called a mikveh (ritual bath) which was basically a pool of very clean water that had certain prayers said over it so that it had the quality to make you spiritually clean. Mikvehs DO NOT take away your sins, but they do make your soul clean: (example: you use the mikveh usually on Rosh Hashanah, to enter the new year clean, and (married) women use it once a month to cleanse themselves after their cycles) The ritual prayers having to do with the mikveh (a Jewish practice for thousands of years) had much to do with J*sus being "baptized."

Answer 2

Actually - little known to those outside of the faith - when one becomes Jewish one is required to be immersed in a ritually prepared clean pool. This practice has gone on for centuries.

Women in the Jewish faith took ritual baths after their periods. This was always seen as a sexist thing. Actually the menses was seen as the end of a cycle - a chance of new life lost. The shedding of the womb signified death - dying to create new life. When it was over, women immeresed themselves to start the process - to come out of the water full of the possibility of life.

Water and immersion have always been a practice of Judaism. It is not something new that was thought up by John the Baptist.

What was new in Christianity was that the blood of one could be shed for all sins - intentional and unintentional. And the idea of a type of fire baptism by the Holy Spirit. Christians believe that the Holy Spirit did not indwell in anyway -except a chosen few until the time of Christ. Jews beg to differ - saying the spirit of God always dwelled inside his chosen people.

Answer 3

No, you are able to't be the two Christian and Jewish. the two religions are on an analogous time unique. "Jews for Jesus" (an oxymoron) is frequently funded by potential of church homes and is a manner for Christian communities to proselytize to the Jews. whilst you're baptized, you isn't seen Jewish by potential of everyone different than those pretend synagogues. (maximum Jews flow by potential of matralinial descent, and don't evaluate you Jewish interior the 1st place. in case you do settle on you decide directly to be Jewish, see a rabbi. on the grounds which you have been raised Jewish, changing to alter right into a Jew isn't a situation. do not try this in case you think in Jesus, besides the undeniable fact that.)

Answer 4

Jesus was baptized as an EXAMPLE to us. He had no need to be baptized Himself, but realizing people would have to understand the importance behind an event that looked to be nothing more than some strange ceremonial bath, He allowed himself to be baptized to show that it was a necessary component of salvation. As for Jewish CONVERTS (or any other converts for that matter) to Christianity, they HAD to be baptized as Jesus was.

Answer 5

No, Jesus was not baptised. Jesus went to a mikvah. Although many mikvahs are built indoors, the requirement that there be naturally running water is satisfied by a river.

Men, as well as women, go to the mikvah to be ritually purified. They still do. I suppose someone like Saul/Paul, coming from the Roman mystery traditions would misinterpret the ritual of mikvah as a drowning and rebirth - "born again" - a part of the gentile beliefs he could reinterpret for his purposes.(No, Saul/Paul was not a Jew - he claimed it to better steal the religion from Peter, John, and the others who maintained Jewish law and tradition)

Answer 6

Being a christian is to be christ like and Jesus did this to show by example what all men must do.In other words if Jesus was baptized, the sinless one, the founder of the Christian faith how much more so should we be baptized?

Answer 7

In Jesus time the Jews maintained cleansing rituals before going to the temple and before the sacrifice of animals. This is kind of what Jesus was doing, getting Himself prepared and giving us an example of Himself to us. Also it signified His start and commitment to His ministry. God filled Him with the Holy Spirit and from that time on Jesus relied on, depended on and trusted the Holy Spirit to guide and direct Him in the will of God as an example of what we are supposed to do.

Answer 8

"mourning my dad" is right on! Jesus was a practicing Jew including purification in the ritual mikveh. Paul is the creator of Christianity -- he is the one that made it necessary for Christians to break away from Judaism in order to recruit converts. Romans were not interested in any religion requiring circumcision!

Answer 9

I don't know about Jewish tradition, but Jesus was baptized. Matthew Chapt 3

Answer 10

John the Baptist was baptizing people and people understood what he was doing. John was doing it before Christ's ministry began so it may be a Christian Sacrament but baptism must be pre-Christian since it was done prior to Christ's ministry.