I just read your post no. 684.
I also have never read any of the ECFs mention baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Sorry if I already asked this Mungo,
but what did JtB mean when he said that he baptized with water for the forgiveness of sin,
but:
Matthew 3:11
“I baptize with water those who repent of their sins and turn to God. But someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not worthy even to be his slave and carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
It is commonly known that in the OT times the Holy Spirit did not inhabit man as He now does in New Testament times. Would you say this is the explanation?
Let's go back to the Jewish origins of baptism. I got a lot of this information from Jewish sites.
The origins are the ritual purification of full body washing known in Hebrew as
tevilah in a
mikvah (ritual bath).
Mikvah means a gathering of water and so a river is a
mikvah. Since rivers were not commonly available it was any suitable pool of water, but not a free standing bath in the modern sense. It had to be dug into the ground, or built into the structure of a building and should contain rainwater with a minimum of 77 gallons. Bathing should be by total immersion and naked to ensure every part of the body was purified.
When the Jews and Evangelists wrote in Greek they avoided the Greek words for bathe and bath because of the sexual connotations. The Greek communal bathing was a place of gossip (often crude), communal nudity and homosexuality. So they used the word
baptizo (and it’s derivatives) instead. The word therefore expresses this ritual purification in water. It is unnecessary to say “water baptism” as water was integral to the process, just as it was unnecessary to say a
water mikvar or a
water tevilah. That is what baptism was and is There was no “dry” baptism.
Scripture doesn’t need to explicitly mention water but in many cases where baptism is mentioned it does either directly or indirectly
For example Stephen baptises the Ethiopian in water in
Acts 8:36-38. Therefore it is reasonable to conclude that he was doing the same when he baptised the Samaritans earlier in the chapter
Peter refers to the
waters for baptising in Acts 10:47, and he refers to Noah and his family be saved through water and says This prefigured baptism (2Pet 3:21).
Paul also refers to his baptism when he quotes Ananias saying have yourself baptised and your sins washed away (Acts 22:16)
The origins of this purification ritual go back to the book off Leviticus. There seem to be three occasions where a
mikvar is required in Leviticus, those involving birth (including sex and menstruation), death (including skin diseases) and coming into the presence of God. They seem to be a reminder of our uncleanness and the need for purification. So the
tevilar/
mikvar also became a symbol of repentance, of expressing faith that cleansing was available and of asking for it.
Hence John the Baptist baptised in the Jordan as a baptism of repentance.
Jesus took this Jewish ritual and made it a Christian one (Mt 28:19 and Mk 16:16) but making the effects more powerful because it is Jesus who is the prime baptiser.
We can see the three purposes I noted above in Christian baptism.
Birth – we are born from above (born again) in baptism (
Jn 3:5)
Death – Paul compares baptism to dying with Christ and rising to new life. There are two connotations here because entering a
mikvar involved physical descent and coming out a physical ascent (rising), something Paul would be very aware of. (
Rom 6:3-4 and Col 2:11-12). When Jews became Christians the public and private
mikvahs became used for baptism instead.
Coming into the presence of God and forgiveness of sin – In baptism we are made children of God and our sins are forgiven (
1Cor 12:12-13, Coll 2:11-13, Acts 2:38 and Acts 22:16).
The Pharisees bathed daily for ritual cleansing and before entering the temple (coming into the presence of God). Excavations of the Temple Mount area have shown that there were 48
mikvahs for ritual bathing (hence why the apostles could baptise 3,000 at Pentecost).
I had a link to an article on this but, as so often happens, it no longer works.
But see:
http://www.essene.com/B'nai-Amen/MysticalImmersion.htm
There are two more uses of the
mikvah that have some parallels in Christianity.
Firstly, when a Rabbi took a student as his disciple the Rabbi supervised the student taking a
mikvar in his name . Thus you became cleansed from your old life (born again) with your Rabbi as your spiritual father, and you were to believe and observe everything he taught you, and obey his commands. I had a link for this but that doesn't work now.
Thus in Christian baptism we become cleansed from our old life, with Jesus as our Rabbi, and we promise to believe and obey him. Also the reference to be baptised in the name of Jesus (
Acts 8:16,
Acts 10:48,
Acts 19:5)
Secondly when a gentile became a Jew, he/she was taught the Jewish faith, and then with prayers took a
mikvah, and men were circumcised. In
Acts 15 circumcision was dispensed with. The
mikvah was part of the initiation into Judaism just as baptism is a part of the initiation into Christianity.
As to what JtB meant in Mt 3:11, I offer this from Haydocks Catholic Bible Commentary:
He shall baptize you in, or with the Holy Ghost, i.e. by his baptism, he will give you the remission of your sins, and the graces of the Holy Ghost, signified also by fire, which may allude to the coming of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, in the shape of fiery tongues.
It is in baptism (with water) that we receive the Holy Spirit internally - the sanctifying gifts (graces).
