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Instruction about baptisms, part 2

There are some denominations that believe in what is called baptismal regeneration. This is a belief that no one is saved until he is baptized. This is refuted by the law of lepers, which tells us that a priest may not baptize anyone unless he is already healed by God. The priest’s job was to inspect the ex-leper and then baptize him by sprinkling as a witness to what had already been done.

Therefore, baptism in the law was not meant to heal him but to cleanse him—a process which actually took seven days. Even though he had been baptized, the ex-leper had to remain outside the camp and “outside his tent for seven days” (Leviticus 14:8). On the morning of the eighth day he was pronounced fully clean (Leviticus 14:10, 11).

We know that justification is by faith, but cleansing takes longer. This is most evident when we look at the story of Israel in the wilderness. They were justified by faith at Passover in Egypt, then cleansed at the Red Sea where they were baptized (1 Corinthians 10:1, 2). Justification comes by belief in the word which Christ has spoken, but cleansing comes through the knowledge of the word as we learn to be led by the Spirit.

Baptizing the Ethiopian Eunuch

The Ethiopian eunuch to whom Philip explained the word in Isaiah 53, was baptized to fulfill the very Scripture that he finally understood. The prophecy of Christ in Isaiah 53 actually begins a few verses earlier in Isaiah 52:13-15,

¹³ Behold, My Servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. ¹⁴ Just as many were astonished at you, My people, so His appearance was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men. ¹⁵ Thus He will sprinkle many nations, kings will shut their mouths on account of Him; for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand.

So we read in Acts 8:30, 31,

³⁰ Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹ And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

The eunuch did not understand what he was reading until Philip explained that Jesus Christ had fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy that the eunuch was reading at that moment. Acts 8:32, 33 tells us that the eunuch had been reading from Isaiah 53. Acts 8:35-38 continues,

³⁵ Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him. ³⁶ As they went along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?” ³⁷ And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” ³⁸ And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him.

The eunuch believed that Jesus was the subject of Isaiah’s prophecy, the One who had been led as a lamb to slaughter for the sin of the world. Prior to this, though he had been to Jerusalem to be instructed in the ways of the Lord, he had never been told this truth, but now he believed the word. So Isaiah stated, “what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard, they will understand.”

The result was that the eunuch was baptized. The passage in Acts 8 does not tell us how he was baptized, for the fact that they both stepped down into the pool of water did not mean that they were immersed in it. Isaiah 52:15 says, “He will sprinkle many nations.” The Ethiopian eunuch was a prime example as one from other nations. He was the first one after the Samaritans (Acts 8:12) from a foreign land to be baptized to fulfill Jesus’ instructions in Matthew 28:19, 20,

¹⁹ “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Christ assumed that His disciples were already instructed in the meaning of baptism and how it was to be applied, even though we have no record of their own baptism.

Baptizing Hands

It was a tradition for Jews to wash (cleanse) their hands before eating (Mark 7:1-5). Jesus’ disciples violated that tradition, and when confronted, Jesus defended them on the grounds that there was no law commanding anyone to wash their hands before eating. Mark 7:4 explains this tradition, saying,

⁴ “and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing [baptismos] of cups and pitchers and copper pots.”

In other words, not only did they baptize cups, pitchers, and copper pots, but also their hands. No doubt this was based on 2 Kings 3:11,

¹¹ But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not a prophet of the Lord here, that we may inquire of the Lord by him?” And one of the king of Israel’s servants answered and said, “Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who used to pour water on the hands of Elijah.”

This verse is useful because it tells us how they used to baptize their hands before eating. They poured water over their hands. They did not dip their hands into a bowl of water, because that would have rendered the water unclean. It had to be running water, which, in Hebrew, reads, “living water.” An example of this is in Leviticus 14:5,

⁵ The priest shall also give orders to slay the one bird in an earthenware vessel over running [chay, “living”] water.

The baptism of hands was done by pouring; the baptism of cups, pitchers, and copper pots was done either by pouring or sprinkling, the water being applied from above to indicate that the cleansing had a heavenly origin.

In 1981 I held a joint conference in New Mexico with Professor E. Raymond Capt. He was a biblical archeologist. One of his sessions focused on the Essenes, a sect in Judea that settled near the Dead Sea, having rejected the temple and its priesthood. In the course of his teaching, Professor Capt mentioned that the Essenes baptized themselves before every meal. He then expressed his doubt about this, because water was very scarce, and he could not understand how they might immerse themselves before every meal.

Later I explained to him that they did not baptize by immersion, for that would have rendered the water ceremonially unclean and unfit for use. Instead, they poured “living water” over their hands. I can say that my friend, Professor Capt, was relieved to hear an explanation that finally made sense.

The point of this is to show that baptism (baptismos) was practiced virtually every day and that it was administered by pouring or sprinkling. This was not something that began with John the Baptist, as many think. John was from a priestly family, and so he learned about baptism from an early age. For some unknown reason, John left the temple and baptized at the Jordan River (John 1:28). The Jordan consisted of “living water,” for it flowed from Mount Hermon to the Dead Sea.

John’s mode of baptism is not stated directly, but it is likely that he administered it in the manner that he had learned in the temple (at the laver). The laver was where the priests washed their hands and feet, not by dipping them in the laver but by turning on its faucet to obtain “living water.” No one would ever baptize himself by immersion in the laver, for then they would have had to drain the laver and cleanse it before using it again.

It is likely, then, that John carried a cup by which he would scoop water from the Jordan and pour it over the head of the one being baptized. This would be accompanied by a prayer and a declaration of cleansing. At any rate, when the temple priests came to investigate John, they made no objection to his mode of baptism.