There are many people who,
despite recent researches into the field of Comparative Religion, still believe
and maintain that the ordinance of Baptism is essentially a Christian
institution, the inauguration of which they attribute to John the Baptist as
the herald or forerunner of the Founder of Christianity.
As a matter of fact, Christianity
did not introduce any fresh ordinance, though it dispensed with, at least, one
— Circumcision.
Baptism was known and practised,
not only by the Jews, but so far as research can prove, it was known and
practised by every nation on the face of the earth, and was regarded as one of
the ceremonies of initiation into what are known as pagan religions.
It would appear to have had its
origin in the observation of one of the phenomena of nature. The nightly
disappearance of the sun, apparently into the waters, was succeeded by its
reappearance with new life and vigour on the following dawn. So the doctrine of
the revival of life from a decayed or deceased husk is found in the most
ancient mythology.
From these and other phenomena it
was argued that at the conclusion of certain periods of time the earth resolved
itself into its original chaotic condition, but that it again emerged from its deathlike state and
came forth endowed with new life and splendour.
This, in the opinion of Faber (Pagan Idolatry) and other writers, is
the explanation of the origin of the baptismal rite and its adoption by all religions (Pagan as well as Christian) as one
of their initiatory rites.
The unbiased student of religious
systems looks upon the eternal
squabble between the immersionists and sprinklers
with a feeling somewhat akin to amusement. The term “baptism” can have no other meaning than immersion.
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"What do you understand by the term baptism?”
was the question put recently to an
eminent Jewish rabbi by the writer.
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"Baptism is baptism — immersion, of course,"
was the immediate reply
And this is the interpretation of the term by practically every nation and religious system since the world
began. Its meaning was, and is, to symbolize the washing away of sin and the
inauguration of a new life.
The Hindu believed that the sins
of a lifetime might be removed by a plunge into the Ganges, a process known to
the superstitious Roman, whom Juvenal satirized for washing away his sins by
dipping his head three times in the waters of the Tiber.
Legendary lore has it that people
bathed in sacred rivers for the purpose of changing their sex, and young women,
to avoid the attentions of an amorous god, threw themselves into a river, when
they were immediately metamorphosed into nymphs or naiads.
Thales taught that water was the
first principle of all things, that it had the greatest share in the production
of bodies, that it made nature fruitful and prevented the earth from becoming a
sterile mass. The oceans, seas and rivers thus became objects of religious
worship.
In the religion of Isis, the rite
of initiation included baptism, with godfathers or sponsors. After the ceremony
the initiated were regarded as regenerated.
In Mithraism, also, baptism by
immersion was one of the ceremonies attendant upon initiation. After initiation
repeated ablutions, to which frequent flagellations were added, became
necessary before the votary dare approach the altar. The initiates believed
themselves purified of their guilt by these ritual ablutions, and baptism
lightened the conscience of the weight of their heavy responsibility.
In the Phoenician religion
baptism was regarded as the similitude of drowning, the baptized person rising
out of the waters to a new life.
Baptism was practised by the
Manichaeans and Mandaeans, and total immersion was also practised by the Greek
Church. Initiates into Druidism had to pass through the waters as one of the
initiatory rites.
In Brahmanism, one of the many
ceremonies which the candidate for initiation had to undergo was plunging into
the waters to represent the fish-god who descended to the bottom of the ocean
to recover the stolen Vedas.
Part of the ceremonial attached
to initiation into the Grecian mysteries consisted in placing the candidate in
a well for a specified period as the medium of regeneration. Even after this, the candidate, whether male
or female, was carefully purified in the pellucid waters of a running stream.
There was a primitive belief that
no spirit or evil could cross running water, and it is a Moslem custom, to the
present day, always to wash in running water.
In the mysteries of Bacchus the
place of initiation was always a range of caverns, through various parts of
which streams of water ran into which the candidate was plunged for the purpose
of purification.
In the Gothic mysteries the
candidate was ordered to plunge into a sluggish stream and cross to the
opposite bank — the stream being called the water of purification.
Among the orthodox Jews, down to
the present day, baptism is as obligatory upon a proselyte as circumcision.
The custom in former days was for
the three teachers who had instructed the neophyte in the Law to become his
sponsors and conduct him to a pool, where he stood up to his neck in water
while the Commandments were recited to him. He then gave his promise to keep
these. A blessing was pronounced, at the conclusion of which he plunged beneath
the water, taking care to be entirely submerged.
In the Story of Adam and Eve it
is stated that Adam stood up to his neck in the Jordan for forty days and Eve
in the Tigris for thirty-seven days.
According to Pirke Rabbi El, Adam
stood for forty-nine days up to his neck in the river Gihon.
Baptism was the public form of
admission into the brotherhood of the Essenes, an open acknowledgment that the
initiate renounced his old ideas and beliefs, was willing to forsake sinfulness
and enter upon the obligations attached to his new life. This was called by the
Essenes “the new birth." The Essenes also practised a daily baptism every
morning, in order that they might pronounce the name of God with perfect
purity.
Baptism by total immersion is one
of the ceremonies of admission into the faith of the Mormons, or Latter-Day
Saints. Amongst modem orthodox Jews also total immersion as a sign of cleansing
from impurity is practised at stated periods by the Jewish women.
In Egypt the Copts used to
observe the eve of the Epiphany as a great river festival, plunging into the
Nile as a memorial of the baptism of Christ, believing that on that night it
could prevent and cure all illnesses.
(Occult Review, September 1914,
p.160-162)
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