Water Baptism

[Joe]

Why did John the Baptist immerse in the Jordan for a remission of errors?
Is it somewhere else in the Old Testament or part of his own message?

[Nayto]

Mark's series on baptism is a good start: http://kinsmanredeemer.com/church-slam-dunk-part-1

To answer the question in short, it is unlikely that they were fully immersed. It was a washing symbolic of some Levitical ordinances.

[Joe]

And he was a Levite, so that makes sense. He must have decided to work in the desert instead of the temple. That is amazing.

[Kentucky]

And he was a Levite, so that makes sense. He must have decided to work in the desert instead of the temple. That is amazing.

Bill mentioned last weekend that a common misperception is that ancient Israel was a desert as it is today. There were many rivers and creeks etc that have since dried up. White Nationalists are fond of characterizing CI as followers of a desert religion, however that was simply not the case. Nayto's link to 'Church of the Slam Dunk' took me 6 months to research and several questions, such as yours, IMHO have been resolved. I would read it along with Bill's article 'Baptism In What?'

Mark

[wmfinck]

Why Christ was baptized, and why John the Baptist was baptizing, I explained at length in a presentation of Malachi I did a few years ago which is found here:

http://christogenea.org/podcasts/malachi-christogenea-talkshoe-09-30-2011

I never put it in writing, because the program was extemporaneous and I will probably redo it more formally, meaning by writing out the notes, at the end of my Minor Prophets series.

Christ was baptized to fulfill the Levitical law requiring the priests to wash the sacrificial lambs. Therefore John proclaimed "Behold, the Lamb of God ..." See Leviticus chapter 1.

John the Baptist was baptizing to fulfill the Levitical law which concerns the cleansing of the Levitical priests before the Passover sacrifice. See Malachi 3:3 and Exodus chapter 30 from verse 17.

It is all symbolic of the fact that Yahweh God keeps His Own law.

Anyone else John may have baptized is collateral, because the law was nevertheless fulfilled.

[Joe]

Thank-you Brothers.