So, the Jews began baptizing people as something new just before Christ?

By CopticBot.ai (Coptic Space Inc.) · Last reviewed 2026-10-10

To understand whether Jews practiced baptism before the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, we must distinguish between the Old Testament washings, the intertestamental Jewish practices, the baptism of St. John the Baptist, and the Holy Mystery of Christian Baptism.

1. Old Testament Ritual Washings

Under the Law of Moses, the Jews did not practice "baptism" in the Christian sense, but they had extensive commandments regarding ritual ablutions and washings with water:

• Priestly Cleansing: God commanded Moses that Aaron and his sons wash their hands and feet at the bronze laver before entering the tabernacle to minister (Exodus 30:18–21).
• Ceremonial Purification: The Law prescribed washings for ritual defilement—such as touching a corpse, leprosy, or bodily discharges (Leviticus 14, 15, 16).

These washings were purely ceremonial; they removed ritual uncleanness according to the flesh, but could not cleanse the soul of sin or impart the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, they were repeated continuously whenever a person incurred ceremonial defilement.

2. Second Temple Developments: The Mikveh and Proselyte Immersion

In the centuries leading up to the coming of Christ (the Second Temple period), Jewish practice expanded these Levitical washings:

• *The Mikveh: Jews constructed stepped immersion pools (mikva'ot*) for full-body immersion. This was still self-immersion for ritual purity, done repeatedly.
• *Proselyte Immersion (Tevilah):* When a Gentile converted to Judaism, the rabbis required circumcision (for males), an offering, and immersion in water to cleanse them from Gentile impurity.

However, this proselyte washing was strictly for Gentiles entering the covenant of Israel. It was never applied to natural-born Jews as a means of moral repentance or preparation for the Kingdom of God.

3. The Baptism of St. John the Forerunner

When St. John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, what he did was unprecedented and startled the Jewish religious leaders. The Jews questioned him: “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” (John 1:25). They understood that such an action pointed to an eschatological, messianic event (cf. Ezekiel 36:25, Zechariah 13:1).

St. John’s baptism differed fundamentally from Jewish ritual washings:

1. Administered by a Prophet: A person did not dip themselves (as in a mikveh); John physically immersed them in the Jordan River.
2. Applied to Jews: John demanded that the Jews themselves be baptized, rebuking their reliance on physical lineage: “Do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’” (Matthew 3:9).
3. Moral Repentance, Not Ritual Purity: It was a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins in anticipation of the coming Messiah.
4. Once-for-All Preparation: It was not a repeated bodily ablution, but a singular preparatory act.

Yet, St. John's baptism was still incomplete; it could not grant the Holy Spirit or divine adoption. As John himself confessed: “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I... He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11).

4. The True Christian Mystery of Holy Baptism

Christian Baptism is neither a Jewish ritual washing nor merely John’s baptism of repentance. It was instituted when the Lord Christ sanctified the nature of water by His own immersion in the Jordan and commanded the Apostles to “make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).

In the Orthodox Church, Holy Baptism is:

• An actual regeneration—being born again of water and the Spirit (John 3:5).
• A participation in the death and resurrection of Christ (Romans 6:3–4).
• The washing away of the ancestral sin of Adam and all personal sins.
• Immediately sealed with the Holy Mystery of Chrismation (Myron), through which the newly baptized receive the indwelling gift of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, while Jewish ritual washings and intertestamental proselyte immersions preceded Christ as Old Testament shadows and customs, baptism as a singular sacrament of spiritual rebirth and entrance into the New Covenant did not exist until revealed and established by Christ.