Today is the Feast of The Baptism of the Lord.

[hrmjustin]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptism_of_the_Lord

[No Vested Interest]

1. Was there baptism before John the Baptist?

Correct me if I don't have it correct:
John the Baptist was baptizing people before he baptized Jesus, IIRC.
Did other Jews practice baptism?
What became of the persons John baptized?

I'm presuming they were Jews. Immediately after their baptism, were they any different, religiously, than other Jews of their time?

[hrmjustin]

2. I think baptism was a form of worship before John.

I always wondered why the do the baptism of the lord before the feast of the presentation.

[Schema Thing]

3. I think there must have been.

This is a question or epiphany I also had, late in my time as a believer - "what the heck was baptism about anyway, especially since it already existed when Jesus came around?". Where and why did it start?


It would be interesting to learn more about the beliefs, wrt this, of the baptizing sect of Iraq, the Mandaeans (if they exist there anymore, the war may have finished them). They are a religion that revere John the Baptist, and are not Christian.

"Its adherents, the Mandaeans, revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enosh, Noah, Shem, Aram and especially John the Baptist, but reject Abraham, Moses and Jesus of Nazareth.[3][4]


I see from Wiki that they are mostly gone from Iraq into Iran.

[hrmjustin]

4. I never knew they existed. I hope they still exist.

[Agnosticsherbet]

5. Baptism is related to the ritual bathing, or Mikve in Judaism

So, yes, there was Baptism, they just didn't use that word. The word Baptism comes from Greek.

[rug]

6. That's a very good question. I was curious about it too.

http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2456-baptism

[No Vested Interest]

7. Thanks to all for responses - very helpful.

Obviously, it's a big subject - may be more than I want to go into at this time.

I'm not as aware as many re various Jewish practices. -
I think I learned more from "Seinfeld" than I knew otherwise. - Not really, but Judaism is very deep and complex.

Just as I'm aware many here and elsewhere do not know much re Roman Catholicism, there's surely at least as large a gap re knowledge of Judaism.