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NASB | Leviticus 8:6 ¶ Then Moses had Aaron and his sons come near and washed them with water. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Leviticus 8:6 ¶ Then Moses brought Aaron and his sons and washed them with water. |
Bible Question: Was the baptism that John the Baptist concucted a radical new ceremony? Or was the baptism a off-shoot of a Jewish ritual of the time? If so, is Jewishy ritul mentioned in the Old Testament? |
Bible Answer: No, John the Baptist was not doing anything radically new in his day. The idea of water being used to make a person or object clean is written about all over the book of Leviticus. See Lev 14:8 and the whole chapter of Lev. 15 for a sample. The temple itself has many, many baptismal pools. (Singular they were called a Mikvah.) You can do a search at google with the word mikvah and find a host of information. They have excavated these pools outside the temple which explains why 3000 could be baptized at one time. The dead sea scrolls have a lot written in their societal order about their Mikvout (I think this is how you spell the plural of Mikvah.) Also the Jewish oral law, the Talmud or Mishnah, has a lot to speak of about these baptisms. John used the Jordan because it was a source of living water. A baptism required a certain amount of living water defined as water that fell from heaven, or water that was moving. A cistern or well (unless also a spring) was not living water. The people usually baptized themselves and did not get dunked by a rabbi or other person; however, that does not mean rabbi’s didn’t physically baptize also. Jesus did not baptize. Many wealthy Jews in Jerusalem has their own Mikvah in their homes. A person immersed themselves for many reasons such as to enter the Temple, to become ritually clean after becoming unclean for any reason, and then to signify a returning back to “Torah” or the written (and probably the Oral) law of Moses. John was calling people back to following Torah, or the books of Moses. To repent was to turn back to something. This something was the “Way” of God. (Way is another interpretation of the word Torah which also means teaching, law, commandments, etc..) “Biblical Archaeology Review” magazine has an in-depth article on this in one of their 1986 issues. Should you be so inclined to study this more, you can check it out at your local college or university library. Also, go to Amazon.com and type Mikvah in the search area and several books on the subject will come up, then check them out at your local library. It is quite fascinating. Too much to post here unfortunately. MJH |
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Questions and/or Subjects for Lev 8:6 | Author | ||
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RogerB | ||
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MJH |