Baptism

continued the baptism, which the Apostles were giving during the ministry of
Jesus before the cross and resurrection. That is the only way we can
understand the casual order of Great commission. Jesus never instituted
baptism. Jesus himself followed the John’s mode of disciplining and we see a
direct comparison between the two in John’s gospel. We are told that Jesus
was baptizing more disciples than John. The number of disciples was the only
difference. Initially the Way was restricted to Jews and therefore they already
had the circumcision. When the gentiles joined the Way, the question arose
whether they were to have circumcision and water baptism. Since Christianity
was considered as Jewish cult, early Christians demanded the gentiles to
become Jews and then receive the baptism into the way. Hence we should
suppose that the baptism given was identical in nature to conversion baptism
or variation in accordance with messianic perspective. It was at the council of
Jerusalem the Christian community came to the realization that the church
was universal and the Way was not just another Jewish cult. Baptism took a
new meaning. It would be a simplification to say that baptism was always
performed in exactly same way because now both the Jewish traditions,
Essene traditions and the gentile traditions contributed to the forms. I should
expect that different modes were used appropriate to the occasion. The Way
was not ritualistic. "For freedom Christ has set you free" was the constant
reminder and its corresponding inner transformations and experience replaced
the outward rituals. The flesh was of no avail. I should expect that baptism
was performed, standing, squatting, immersing, pouring, sprinkling or even
without water with hand. The mode was secondary. However it is unlikely
that immersing backward was ever employed in any baptism – Christian,
Jewish or Gentile. – until the 1500s. Making disciples was the purpose.
Whether they were washed then or later did not really matter.
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But as the Church became the official religion of Rome and institutionalized,
the leaders became powerful, rituals returned and insistence of form without
content began to return. Baptism became the fashion of the period. The few
who opposed were forced into it because that was the religion of the Empire.
Baptism by total immersion became popular during this period. Historical
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