What was the nature and source of the baptism of John the Baptist?

Answer 1

A couple passages on John from New Testament scholar, John Crossan:

John was ... an apocalyptic prophet .... John went ... out into the Trans-Jordanian Desert and submitted himself to the Jewish God and Jewish history in a ritual reenactment of the Moses and Joshua conquest of the Promised Land. He became part, thereafter, of a network within the Jewish homeland awaiting, no doubt with fervent and explosive expectation, the imminent advent of God as the Coming One. Presumably, God would do what human strength could not do—destroy Roman power—once an adequate critical mass of purified people were ready for such a cataclysmic event. (Crossan, 1994, "Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography," pp. 45-46)

John was offering a radical alternative to the Temple cult as an apocalyptic visionary announcing the cataclysmic advent of God to restore an evil world to justice and holiness. ... [In preparation for this, John called on persons to repent of their sins and undergo baptism as the way to purify themselves:] he was offering a free and populist alternative to the Temple’s purification process for sin. (Crossan, "Who Killed Jesus?", 1995, p. 43)
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Answer 2

In Acts 19, Paul called the baptism of John as "the baptism of repentance" indicating that those who received it were to "believe on him which should come after him [John], that is, on Christ Jesus."

The New Testament does not equate Christian baptism with the baptism of John the Baptist, but it does link New Covenant baptism with Old Covenant circumcision. (Matthew 28:16-20 and Acts 2:39)

The Old Covenant rite of circumcision was administered both to Old Covenant believing adults and to the infants of Old Covenant believers. So also the New Covenant rite of baptism is to be administered both to New Covenant believing adults and to the infants of New Covenant believers.

Answer 3

His coming as a forerunner to the Messiah was prophesied by the Prophet Isaiah 700 years earlier:
"This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
"A voice of one calling in the desert,
'Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.' "
Matthew 3:3; Isaiah 40:3

Foretold by the angel Gabriel:

"Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." "
Luke 1:11-17

and acknowledged by all of the people of Israel, with the exception of the religious leaders:

"Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. "By what authority are you doing these things?" they asked. "And who gave you this authority?"
Jesus replied, "I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. John's baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or from men?"
They discussed it among themselves and said, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will ask, 'Then why didn't you believe him?' But if we say, 'From men'—we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet."
So they answered Jesus, "We don't know."
Then he said, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things."
Matthew 21:23-27

John's baptism was a baptism of repentance; and its source was God:

"While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?"
They answered, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit."
So Paul asked, "Then what baptism did you receive?"
"John's baptism," they replied.
Paul said, "John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus." On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus."
Acts 19:1-5

Answer 4

“Baptism” was a common word in Jesus’ day. It was used when dying fabrics. It meant complete immersion into water. Imagine dipping white fabric into blue dye... the fabric comes out changed – the fabric was in the dye and now the dye is in the fabric. They have become ONE. When we are baptized into Christ, we become one with Him!

“Repentance” means to “change your thinking”. John and Jesus both preached “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

At the time, Jerusalem was controlled by the Romans. The people were slaves. They needed to lose that slave mentality and change their mindsets to start to think the way of the Kingdom of God ... In God’s Kingdom they were free, they were sons of God, they were a holy nation and a kingdom of priests - NOT slaves.

John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. It was a complete immersion into a new way of thinking.

John’s water baptism announced to the world that things were going to change all over the Earth. The very first picture of baptism we see is in Genesis 1 where the waters covered the Earth... but the best picture is possibly the Flood. The flood waters killed everything and everyone that moved on the face of the Earth. When the waters receded the dry land appeared and the survivors stepped out of the Ark. That is a picture of resurrection. Thus, baptism speaks of death and resurrection.

Therefore, for us Christians today, even although we are still alive, baptism is a sign that we identify with Christ and died and rose again in Him.

But what did John’s baptism mean to Jesus?

The author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is now our High Priest.

Hebrews 3:1-2 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house.

But when did the priesthood transfer from the Levite tribe to Jesus?

Well, the interesting thing to me – is that baptism was the method used to transfer the priesthood from one Levite to another.

Exodus 29:4 “And Aaron and his sons you shall bring to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and you shall wash them with water.

Sometimes we forget that John the Baptist was actually a priest. His mother and father were both Levites – remember that Zacharias was actually performing priestly duties when the angel appeared to him.

Thus, it appears that step number one of transferring the priesthood to Jesus happened when John the Baptist baptized Jesus.

Step number two happened when the High Priest tore his garments at Jesus’ trial.

The priest’s tunic was very interesting. It was woven in one complete piece without seams. The hem was never to be torn. If the hem was torn it was symbolic of the covenant being broken. The penalty for breaking a covenant is death.

Exodus 39:22-24 He made the robe of the ephod of woven work, all of blue. And there was an opening in the middle of the robe, like the opening in a coat of mail, with a woven binding all around the opening, so that it would not tear. They made on the hem of the robe pomegranates of blue, purple, and scarlet, and of fine woven linen.

Leviticus 21:10 ‘He who is the high priest among his brethren, on whose head the anointing oil was poured and who is consecrated to wear the garments, shall not uncover his head nor tear his clothes;

Leviticus 10:6 And Moses said to Aaron, and to Elemazar and Ithamar, his sons, “Do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes, lest you die, and wrath come upon all the people.

And so we see that the high priest tore his clothes at Jesus’ trial.

Mark 14:63 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “What further need do we have of witnesses?

When this happened, the priestly office was taken away from the Levitical tribe.
Interestingly enough, Jesus also wore a seamless garment:

John 19:23-24 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His garments and made four parts, to each soldier a part, and also the tunic. Now the tunic was without seam, woven from the top in one piece. They said therefore among themselves, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be,” that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says:


“ They divided My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots.”

Therefore the soldiers did these things.

Jesus’ garment was never torn... that is because the priesthood would belong to Jesus forever and ever!

Hebrews 8:1-2 Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.

Answer 5

Next to the Temple the Jews had a 2 places where people could enter and baptize them selves before entering in to the Temple (one for men and the other for women).

Answer 6

John recognized who Jesus was (the messiah). He wanted Jesus to Baptise him, but Jesus refused and made John baptise him. There also was some connection with houses of Israel, and John who came from the priestly class legitimizing Jesus (who came from David) as king or something like that, but I forget the details.

Answer 7

John baptized with water;it sybolized a commitment to die to yourself and live for God

"but one cometh who the latchet of who's shoes I am not worthy to unloose."

Answer 8

Chances are Beth made it up and told him to do it that to people that his aunt Mary had this plan and they were to be a part of it. She got herself pregnant and if Joseph finds out he won't marry her and her mom and dad are counting on it plus she wants to get out on her own. Sorry, the devil make me do this. You will be glad to know that some of these questions have me reading the Bible. I will check this out later.

Answer 9

probably something that he thought up. probably after a startling experience of falling into some cold water.