John the Baptist was baptizing people in the Jordan River?

Question

What do you think people thought of John the Baptist?
What culture was baptizing people before Christianity?

Answer 1

Some native American religious ceremonies have included baptism, and Judaism included ceremonial hand and feet washing, but when John started his form of baptism, it was pretty much new to the Middle East.

John was probably an Essene -- a sect of Judaism.

A rabbi once said there were as many different sects of Judaism as there are Jews.

-- An interesting aside, in many ways Jesus appears to be a student of John the Baptist, and Jesus begins his ministry only after John is arrested.

By the way . . .

The Essenes are NOT the Gnostics. . . . Essenes are a sect in Judaism, and Gnosticism was a sect of Jesus followers -- two very DIFFERENT groups.

Essenes (probably) produced the Dead Sea Scrolls -- All OT writings.

Gnostics produced the Nag Hammadi Scrolls -- All NT writings.

Godspeed.

Answer 2

To me the key is that baptism was done IN the Jordan River, not with a bowl of water for sprinkling on heads.

It is unintentionally funny when Jesus is portrayed in Hollywood films, wading into the water up to his chest in order for John the Baptist to wet his hair christening-style.

If John really made people get wet up to their chest to have a bit of water sprinkled on their fool head, people would have thought John the Baptist was a crazy person. He could've used a bowl of water, on dry land!!!

My mom was a Jew and my dad was Catholic. As a baby, oblivious and sleeping, water was sprinking put my head in an Eastern Orthodox Catholic Church, in a baby dedication that Catholics call "baptism".

I became a born again fundamental bible believing protestant, and got baptised the right way, full emersion, in a conservation area pond, at our Sunday School picnic.

Going into the water, then rising up again, symbolized the death, burrial, and ressurection of our Lord. Now THAT was a baptism ceremony, as He commanded that we do.

Answer 3

Jews practiced a form of baptism for spiritual purification. So, St. John the Baptist would have been breathing new life into a common practice.

Dr. Merrill Tenney, the editor of the Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible said, "Baptism as a rite of immersion was not begun by Christians but was taken by them from Jewish and pagan forms...."

The mikvah was used and is used today for ritual purification within Judaism.

Answer 4

John the Baptist was a zealot and believed that revamping of the Jewish religion was needed to be favored by God. The Egyptians baptized people in the name of one of their gods. I can't remember which one.

Answer 5

John spoke with authority.
The ones sent from God always do. Even the Pharisees saw that in him.
What culture? Good question, I never thought to look beyond the Jewish laws for purification. A Mikvah, I think it was called, for the cleansing of the priests.
I'll leave this answer up, but I have to warn you, my memory is giving me trouble. It would be good to not take my word for it, and look it up. I think I am correct, but I cannot say.

Answer 6

As I understand it, the word used for baptism comes from those who dye material, they dunk the fabric into a pool of dye so that they come out a different color. So I think that John the Baptist immersed Jesus all the way into the water, he didn't just sprinkle Jesus with water.

Answer 7

John was the first to "baptize" - he followed God's instructions of the New Covenant.
People who knew God recognized the powerful thing God (and John) were doing, and he knew he was ushering in the Messiah (he baptized Jesus when Jesus started his ministry).
I am sure those who did not recognize God thought he was crazy - would have been on CNN and all today.

Answer 8

John the Baptist happened to have been Jewish. Many folks thought he was eccentric; however, others thought he was anointed.

Answer 9

What Paula said....

If you visit Israel, you can still see many ancient mikvehs. My favorite was the one near the steps to the Temple entrance where Jews (including Jesus and all the apostles) purified themselves before entering the Temple.

As Paula said, Mikvehs are still in use today.
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Answer 10

The Essenes.

They were Gnostics, and the Dead Sea Scrolls show us that they had specific stories found in the New Testament 100 years before the birth of Christ, making it very likely that all we thought we knew about Jesus was actually compiled from older stories and that he was never a literal person.