Baptism

a flowing stream of water and squat down and immerse himself with his eye
lids fluttering and fingers and toes twisting concentrating on God. This was
witnessed by at least two elders who vouched for the proper baptism ritual.
The catechumen is then considered as newly born and is given the
circumcision after eight days.
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In the Essene Way, baptism was a central concept in terms of holiness. They
were essentially a Yvhist cult. They looked forward to the coming of the
Righteous one and foretold prophetically about the suffering and crucifixion
of the messiah. I assume that this has caused a change in the ritual of baptism
as practiced by the Essenes – at least in certain groups of Essenes. Their
baptism was not by immersion. The catechumen entered the flowing water to
waist deep and another person poured water over him and took him as his
disciple. This is was an anointing or consecration into discipleship. The
method therefore combined both the water baptism as well as anointing. They
were entering into a new community where each one was a priest, prophet and
a king. The water represented the repentance and pouring represented new
clothing. There is strong evidence that John the Baptist and Jesus were
involved in this group. John’s baptism therefore followed this method. This is
certainly relevant because John’s message was that the "Kingdom of God is at
hand". He was making way for the messiah and his baptism therefore
followed the traditional Essenic ritual. John the Baptist introduced from
Judaic and Essenic traditions, the baptism of repentance leading to the
forgiveness of sins and preparation for the coming messianic age. This he did
by disciplining them and teaching them. The modern disciples of John, the
Mandaens follow this mode of baptism. They also follow rigid ablutionary
practices as of the Pharisees. It is probable that there were other sects within
the Essenic tradition with other forms of baptism. It would be presumptive to
assert that there was only one scriptural form. Early church must have
borrowed freely from these forms. They probably did not give much thought
about the "legality of the mode".
When Jesus appeared before John, the baptism took the meaning of anointing
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