Is baptism essential unto salvation?

[Sam]

Originally Posted by Aquila

Sam, we Christians make a big deal about "mikveh" and declare it the root of our baptismal practices... but I have a few questions...

Where is mikveh mentioned in the Law?

What is the origin of the Jewish mikveh as we know it?

When did the practice of mikveh begin?

These are very important questions.

from what I understand, the word "mikveh" means gathering as in gathering of waters and the word is found three times in the Hebrew Scriptures so that's where the threefold self-immersion comes from. It is a Jewish "cleansing ritual" which developed some time after the Jews returned from Babylonian captivity. It was practiced by the Essenes on a regular basis and it is believed that John the Baptist was part of the Essene community from his youth until he appeared "baptizing" people in the wilderness (ref Luke 1:80). There is no Old Testament command for the mikveh/immersion. It is a Jewish tradition. Cleansing by water in the Old Testament were by pouring or sprinkling.

At the time John the Baptist was practicing his baptism/mikveh, it was a common experience among Jews. Some "holy" people practiced regular mikveh washings. A new convert was required to undergo circumcision, offer a sacrifice, and self-immerse as a convert to Judaism. John's baptism was a ritual cleansing for people to prepare for the Messiah. It made a statement that the people were not clean enough to welcome the Messiah --that like a gentile convert, they needed to wash in the mikveh.

John's converts would self-immerse in the Jordan. Then when he pointed them to Jesus as the Lamb of God and Messiah they would follow Him. As far as we know, if they had been baptized by or under the supervision of John or "in his name" they did not get re-baptized by or under the supervision of Jesus or in His name when they began to follow him. But those who had not been previously baptized by John would self-immerse when they became followers of Jesus. We don't know just when the threefold immersion became a single immersion. In the Didache, a book which may go back to as early as 60 AD or as late as 250 AD, baptism was stipulated to be a threefold immersion if enough water was available or if not, water was poured three times on the person's head. What we call the Didache (Teaching of the Twelve) is also called The Limuda and is included in at least one Bible translation as the letter from the elders in Jerusalem in Acts 15:25-29.