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John the Baptist, who is considered a forerunner to Christianity, used baptism as the central sacrament of his messianic movement. Christians consider Jesus to have instituted the sacrament of baptism. The earliest Christian baptisms seem to have been done either by immersion or by pouring water on the head three times. [1]
Although the term "baptism" is not today used to describe the Jewish rituals (in contrast to New Testament times, when the Greek word baptismos did indicate Jewish ablutions or rites of purification), [1] [2] the purification rites (or mikvah—ritual immersion) in Jewish law and tradition are similar to baptism, and the two have been linked.
Though water baptism is extremely common among Christian denominations, some, such as Quakers and The Salvation Army, do not practice water baptism at all. [20] Among denominations that practice baptism, differences occur in the manner and mode of baptizing and in the understanding of the significance of the rite.
The baptism of Jesus, the ritual purification of Jesus with water by John the Baptist, was a major event described in the three synoptic Gospels of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark and Luke) [a]. It is considered to have taken place at Al-Maghtas (also called Bethany Beyond the Jordan), today located in Jordan .
The Apostolic Constitutions, whose texts date to about the year 400 AD, attribute the precept of using holy water to the Apostle Matthew.It is plausible that the earliest Christians may have used water for expiatory and purificatory purposes in a way analogous to its employment in Jewish Law ("And he shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and he shall cast a little earth of the pavement ...
2 Kings 2, (2 Kings 2:19–22) "tells the story of the prophet Eliseus pouring salt onto Jericho's water springs," [4] to cure the poisoned waters. [5]For centuries since the advent of Jesus, salt, cleansed and sanctified by special exorcisms and prayers, was given to catechumens before entering the church for baptism.
A full-immersion baptism in a New Bern, North Carolina river at the turn of the 20th century. 15th-century painting by Masaccio, Brancacci Chapel, Florence. Immersion baptism (also known as baptism by immersion or baptism by submersion) is a method of baptism that is distinguished from baptism by affusion (pouring) and by aspersion (sprinkling), sometimes without specifying whether the ...
In their view, John's baptism was a baptism of repentance, and the people came to have their sins washed away by the water. Since Jesus had no sin, but was God incarnate, his baptism had the effect not of washing away Jesus' sins, but of blessing the water, making it holy—and with it all of creation, so that it may be used fully for its ...