Baptism is from the Greek word baptisma which refers to the ritual purification of the Hellenistic Jews. John the Baptist was administering the Jewish ritual mikveh purification bath.
Just to add:
Miqveh (aka
mikveh,
mikvah,
miqweh, etc.) refers to the pool of water itself: the word means a ‘collection’ or a ‘gathering’. The requirement for
miqvaot (plural of
miqveh) is that first, they should be filled with ‘living water’ - the waters must be from a living source, such as rain, stream, river, lake, or ocean, and must be in its natural state (not drawn in by utensils or pumps and plumbing). Many
miqvaot past and present in fact have a mechanism to ensure that the pool would be filled and replenished with ‘living water’. Second, the
miqveh must contain enough water to ensure total submersion, since the water must touch every part of the body (the traditional minimum limit was 40
seahs of water - 77-140 gallons / 292-532 liters).
Jews immerse themselves in a
miqveh whenever they needed to cleanse themselves of ritual impurity (
tumah). So one basically immersed oneself after normal emissions of semen - whether due to sex or nocturnal emission (
keri), after abnormal discharges of body fluids (
zav for males,
zavah for females), after having a skin disease (
tzara’ath, the word translated as ‘leprosy’ in Bibles), after giving birth to a child, or after coming into contact with either someone suffering from
zav or
zavah, a woman in her period (
niddah), or a corpse or a grave. Priests when they are consecrated also immerse themselves ritually in the
miqveh. Pilgrims and worshippers visiting the temple in Jerusalem also immerse themselves in the many
miqvaoth that surround the temple. Immersion is also practiced before holy days (like the eve of a Sabbath and Yom Kippur).
Most Jews immersed frequently because after all, there are just many occasions in daily life that could make you contract ritual uncleanliness. (That’s why
miqvaot is one of the things archaeologists might find whenever they are digging a Jewish site in the Holy Land. The more wealthy could have private
miqvaot in their homes, but for many people, especially village people, a public, communal
miqveh or even lakes or rivers serve the purpose.) The more scrupulous ones like the sectarians from Qumran (who some believe were Essenes or a related sect) took it even further and immersed themselves daily, or even several times each day, to ensure that they would never be unclean.
With John the Baptist’s immersion though, the deal is slightly different. Apparently in his case, only one, single immersion will suffice. And the immersion he provided was not just for the cleansing of whatever ritual uncleanliness one contracted. There was a message in his baptisms: to turn away from sin (moral uncleanliness), to ‘come back’ (that’s where the word ‘repent’ comes from) to a restored relationship with God. Repentance and a righteous life purifies people of their sins; his baptism is an outward sign of that purification. In John’s view, the ‘wrath to come’ is fast approaching, so purification and the restoration of relations between God and His people is urgently needed. The fact that he conducted his baptisms in the Jordan River is also symbolic: that was the river the Israelites crossed when they entered the Promised Land. Was John suggesting a new entry into a promised land and a reaffirmation of the nation as God’s people?
