{"id":2351,"date":"2024-10-27T01:51:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-27T01:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=2351"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:31:56","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:31:56","slug":"the-mikveh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=2351","title":{"rendered":"THE MIKVEH"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the big questions I have had since becoming an American Baptist has been this: since we don&#8217;t see baptism referenced anywhere in the Old Testament, where does the ritual come from?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I had never found the answer until researching this week&#8217;s sermon.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The only Jewish ritual which comes close to what John was practicing before the start of Jesus&#8217; earthly ministry was the <i>mikveh<\/i>, submersion in water that was used in two broad ways:<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">1) As a periodic cleaning from impurity. (Like after a woman gave birth.)<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Or 2) The conversion of a Gentile to the Jewish religion.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The second use is the closest to what John the Baptist was doing. His was meant as a one time turning away from past sins and toward God and new life. This was exactly what the Jewish <i>mikveh <\/i>represented for the Gentile.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But if baptism was like the conversion use of\u00a0<i>mikveh<\/i>, consider the ramifications!<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">John was saying in essence, &#8220;It&#8217;s not enough to have Abraham as your father &#8211; you are still sinners. Just like the Gentile sinners, you need to turn from your sins and get right with God.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can see why those who came to John proved to be open to Jesus while others &#8211; among the Pharisees and Sadducees &#8211; took great offense at the practice!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the big questions I have had since becoming an American Baptist has been this: since we don&#8217;t see baptism referenced anywhere in the Old Testament, where does the ritual come from?\u00a0 I had never found the answer until researching this week&#8217;s sermon.\u00a0 The only Jewish ritual which comes close to what John was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2351"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2352,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2351\/revisions\/2352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}