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baptism When we hear the term “baptism,” we can’t help but understand it through the lens of two thousand years of post-Jesus jargon. The term calls to mind baptismal fonts, christening, godparents, the trinity, and the afterlife fate of unbaptized infants. John the Baptist, however, didn’t have anything to do with all those later elaborations on the practice of baptism. And he used a regular old word for what he was doing, not ecclesiastic jargon. The Greek word recorded in the gospels meant “dip (into liquid)” or “soak.” In the context of a ritual meant as a token of repentance and the forgiveness of sins, the term roughly meant “washing.” Let’s use the term “washing” for “baptism” to help us understand the ritual more like the way John, Jesus, and the disciples understood it. Jesus didn’t wash anyone and he didn’t tell anyone to wash anybody. The only washings that Jesus recognized were those performed by John the Washer, for whom it was a rite of repentance. Jesus himself got washed in the Jordan. Maybe Jesus was one of John’s close followers. Maybe he just got washed along with a whole lot of other Jews, all looking forward to God coming and burning away the Romans, the foreigners, and the collaborators. Probably he was a close follower, with John as his teacher and mentor. Jesus was a religious man and so probably was in thick with John. That Jesus was washed by John is taken as historical certainty. Jesus’ Christian biographers would never have made up such a detail because it makes Jesus out to be a regular guy in need to repentance and it makes John seem to be some sort of superior to Jesus. You can see how much the early Christians didn’t care for Jesus getting washed by how the gospels move progressively away from the simple fact. In Mark, the first of the gospels, Jesus’ washing was the point at which God pronounced Jesus to be his son. This is where Mark’s story starts because this is when the spirit of God first descends to abide in Jesus. Jesus sees the spirit like a dove and hears his father’s voice. This crux point is a vision that Jesus experiences personally. Mark records the washing and Jesus’ adoption as God’s son without any particular comment. Twenty years later, this treatment is not good enough for Matthew. First, he provides a singular account of Jesus holy and royal birth. Then he has John recognize Jesus as the apocalyptic figure who was to come and balk at washing him. Jesus insists on being washed, but only for appearance’s sake. This theme, that Jesus occasionally puts on a show that obscures his true intent, is a handy one that the evangelists use to reconcile what Jesus said and did to what the evangelists want him to mean. Luke comes along and prefaces Jesus’ washing with a different birth and nativity story, this one emphasizing Jesus’ humanity and lowly origins. He mentions Jesus’ washing in passing but doesn’t describe it as a scene, as Mark and Matthew had done. In Luke, the holy spirit descends on Jesus not at his washing but later, when he’s praying. Luke loved to write about prayer. John omits Jesus’ washing altogether and fabricates a quote in which John swears to have seen the holy spirit descend to Jesus, again while Jesus was praying. Luke quoted Psalms 2:7 to have the voice from heaven say, “Thou art my beloved son; today I have begotten thee,” but this line was soon edited out and Mark’s wording was swapped in. The idea that Jesus was adopted as God’s son at his baptism was popular in the 2nd century, but it was soon deemed heretical, in favor of Jesus being the incarnation of God’s divine word, and Luke’s quote was edited to match. By the time we get to the fourth gospel, written under the auspices of the beloved disciple in Ephesus, the local tradition is so far removed from the historical Jesus that the evangelist takes Luke’s route one better and simply omits Jesus’ washing altogether. While Mark had Jesus hear the voice and see the spirit, the beloved disciple quotes John the Washer as swearing up and down that he himself saw the spirit and that Jesus is the son of God. Once John had been dead for 60 to 70 years, it was easy to get him to say whatever the evangelist wanted.
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contents table of contents you're already looking at it introduction for the inquisitive reader biographical overview who he was and wasn't
afterlife not Jesus' concern animal sacrifice bloodless religion apocalypse did Jesus preach hellfire? baptism sin wash for Jesus and others beatitudes Jesus' words and others' words beloved disciple witness for the un-gospel bible scripture old and new bishop the unjesus body focus on the physical Buddha Jesus' close kin charity key Christian virtue and legacy of Jesus The Da Vinci Code secret (and false) messages divorce women's status dreams convenient literary device Elijah Jewish prophet with his own second coming equality ancient source of modern egalitarianism exorcist Jesus and demons failure reinterpreting Jesus as a failure faith from trust to blind belief father Jesus on titles of honor Francis of Assisi the most Christlike Christian Gandhi the 20th century's most Christly holy man Galilee Jesus' inauspicious homeland gentiles Jesus' inadvertent audience god how Jesus became god golden rule key to Jesus' success gospels competing accounts heaven from sky to spiritual home hell revenge fantasy humanism Jesus' legacy inerrant Christian treatment of scripture Thomas Jefferson ethics of Jesus Jewish guilt Christian libel John's gospel the un-gospel John the baptist, see John the washer John the washer Jesus' apocalyptic mentor Judaism libeled religion of Jesus kingdom of god what Jesus promised Lao Tzu poet of the cosmic way logos jesus as the word of god C. S. Lewis famous, flawed trilemma little drummer boy Luke beats Matthew logos Jesus as the divine word LORD Yahweh transitioning to the one god of all Luke's gospel the all-around best gospel Mark's gospel the gospel that lost its point Mary of Magdala women, visions, and sex massacre of the innocents bloodshed starts early Matthew's gospel best gospel for church reading Mormon, see Joseph Smith Moses Jewish lawgiver Muhammad a prophet who got it right mystery Orpheus and transubstantiation oppression origin of Jesus' compassion The Passion of the Christ Luke as buzzkill Paul revealer of the revealer private and public public Jesus and secret Christ relativism the secret power of the golden rule sacrifice Jesus' death and Christian sacrament Albert Schweitzer Jesus as a failure sheol dark pit of death show Jesus' deeds as put-ons slavery abolished by Jesus' efforts Joseph Smith flesh-and-blood Jesus Socrates secular Jesus son of god on close terms with the man upstairs soul, see body synoptics three gospels that agree temple center of Jewish religion trinity unifying and divisive doctrinre vision, see dreams Yahweh, see LORD Zoroaster Persian dualistic holy man
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