Baptism

==History==
{{main|History of baptism}}
[[File:Bethany (5).JPG|thumb|upright|[[Al-Maghtas]] ruins on the [[Jordan]]ian side of the [[Jordan River]] are the location for the Baptism of Jesus and the ministry of [[John the Baptist]].]]
[[File:Mikva.jpg|thumb|Excavated [[mikveh]] in [[Qumran]], Israel]]
The practice of baptism emerged from Jewish ritualistic practices during the [[Second Temple Period]], out of which figures such as [[John the Baptist]] emerged. For example, various texts in the [[Dead Sea Scrolls]] (DSS) corpus at [[Qumran]] describe ritual practices involving washing, bathing, sprinkling, and immersing. One example of such a text is a DSS known as the [[Rule of the Community]], which says "And by the compliance of his soul with all the laws of God his flesh is cleansed by being sprinkled with cleansing waters and being made holy with the waters of repentance."<ref>Everett Ferguson, ''Baptism in the Early Church: History, Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries'', Eerdmans 2009, pp68-71</ref>

The [[Mandaeans]], who are followers of [[John the Baptist]], practice frequent full immersion baptism (''[[masbuta]]'') as a ritual of purification.<ref name="auto">Drower, Ethel Stefana. The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran. Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1937.</ref> According to [[Haran Gawaita|Mandaean sources]], they left the [[Jordan Valley]] in the 1st century AD.<ref>Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen. The Mandaeans: Ancient Texts and Modern People. Oxford University Press, 2002.p4</ref>

[[John the Baptist]], who is considered a forerunner to Christianity, used baptism as the central sacrament of his messianic movement.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sacrament {{!}} religion {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/sacrament |access-date=2023-05-02 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> The apostle Paul distinguished between the baptism of John, ("baptism of repentance") and baptism in the name of Jesus,<ref>{{Cite web |title=David Guzik's Commentary |url=https://www.studylight.org/guzik.html |access-date=2023-05-02 |website=StudyLight.org |at=Acts 19:1–7 |language=en}}</ref> and it is questionable whether Christian baptism was in some way linked with that of John.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hch4J9VvFjcC&q=Schmithals+%22baptism+of+John%22&pg=PA215 |first=Walter|last= Schmithals|title=The Theology of the First Christians|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |isbn= 978-0-66425615-9| page= 215 |year=1997|access-date=April 13, 2014}}</ref> However, according to Mark 1:8, John seems to connect his water baptism as a type of the true, ultimate baptism of Jesus, which is by the Spirit. Christians consider [[Jesus in Christianity|Jesus]] to have instituted the sacrament of baptism.<ref name="cross2005baptism" />

Though some form of immersion was likely the most common method of baptism in the early church, many of the writings from the ancient church appeared to view this mode of baptism as inconsequential. The Didache 7.1–3 (AD 60–150) allowed for affusion practices in situations where immersion was not practical. Likewise, [[Tertullian]] (AD 196–212) allowed for varying approaches to baptism even if those practices did not conform to biblical or traditional mandates (cf. De corona militis 3; De baptismo 17). Finally, Cyprian (ca. AD 256) explicitly stated that the amount of water was inconsequential and defended immersion, affusion, and aspersion practices (Epistle 75.12). As a result, there was no uniform or consistent mode of baptism in the ancient church prior to the fourth century.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Slade |first=Darren M. |date=2014-08-15 |title=The Early Church's Inconsequential View of the Mode of Baptism |url=https://www.academia.edu/8008124 |journal=American Theological Inquiry |at=7 (2): 21–34}}</ref>

By the third and fourth centuries, baptism involved [[catechetical]] instruction as well as [[chrismation]], [[Exorcism in Christianity|exorcism]]s, [[Christian laying on of hands|laying on of hands]], and recitation of a [[creed]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Old|first=Hughes Oliphant|author-link=Hughes Oliphant Old|title=The Shaping of the Reformed Baptismal Rite in the Sixteenth Century|url=https://archive.org/details/shapingofreforme00oldh|url-access=limited|year=1992|publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company]]|location=Grand Rapids, MI|isbn=978-0802824899|pages=[https://archive.org/details/shapingofreforme00oldh/page/3 3], 7}}</ref>

In the [[Early Middle Ages]] infant baptism became common and the rite was significantly simplified and increasingly emphasized.<ref>{{cite book|last=Old|first=Hughes Oliphant|author-link=Hughes Oliphant Old|title=The Shaping of the Reformed Baptismal Rite in the Sixteenth Century|url=https://archive.org/details/shapingofreforme00oldh|url-access=limited|year=1992|pages=[https://archive.org/details/shapingofreforme00oldh/page/7 7]–8|publisher=Eerdmans |isbn=978-0802836991}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.3390/rel11120678|doi-access=free|title=Doctrinal and Physical Marginality in Christian Death: The Burial of Unbaptized Infants in Medieval Italy|year=2020|last1=Crow|first1=Madison|last2=Zori|first2=Colleen|last3=Zori|first3=Davide|journal=Religions|volume=11|issue=12|page=678}}</ref> In Western Europe [[Affusion]] became the normal mode of baptism between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, though immersion was still practiced into the sixteenth.<ref name="cathen">{{cite encyclopedia |first=William |last=Fanning |title=Baptism |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02258b.htm |year=1907 |encyclopedia=[[Catholic Encyclopedia]] |access-date=February 24, 2009 |publisher=Robert Appleton Company |location=New York City| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090228172517/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02258b.htm| archive-date= February 28, 2009 | url-status= live}}</ref> In the medieval period, some radical Christians rejected the practice of baptism as a sacrament. Sects such as the [[Tondrakians]], [[Catharism|Cathars]], [[Arnoldists]], [[Peter of Bruys|Petrobrusians]], [[Henry of Lausanne|Henricans]], [[Brethren of the Free Spirit]] and the [[Lollardy|Lollards]] were regarded as heretics by the Catholic Church. In the sixteenth century, [[Martin Luther]] retained baptism as a sacrament,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=2607 |title=Baptism and Its Purpose |publisher=[[Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod]] |access-date=February 24, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090206220443/http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=2607 |archive-date=February 6, 2009 }}</ref> but Swiss reformer [[Huldrych Zwingli]] considered baptism and the [[Eucharist|Lord's Supper]] to be symbolic.<ref name="cross2005baptism" /> [[Anabaptist]]s denied the validity of the practice of infant baptism, and rebaptized converts.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wernham |first=R. B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z-48AAAAIAAJ&dq=Anabaptists+denied+the+validity+of+the+practice+of+infant+baptism%2C+and+rebaptized+converts.&pg=PA123 |title=The New Cambridge Modern History: Volume 3, Counter-Reformation and Price Revolution, 1559-1610 |date= November 1968|publisher=CUP Archive |isbn=978-0-521-04543-8 |language=en}}</ref>