Why did Jesus wait until his 30s to be baptized?

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BenSinner

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Wouldn’t he have been baptized as an infant? And what would have happened to him if he died before being baptized?
 
Jesus initiated baptism as a sacrament. There was no Christian Baptism until Christ established it. There were Jewish baptisms, but they were symbolic, not sacramental. Therefore, there was no way for Jesus to have been baptized as a child. Even when Jesus was baptized, it was not a Christian Baptism (in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), but rather the baptism of John (which was fundamentally different). He also was not doing it for himself; he had no sins that needed to be forgiven. Jesus got baptized to be an example for us.
BenSinner said:
And what would have happened to him if he died before being baptized?
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I’m not sure that this could have actually happened.
 
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The gospel timeline seems to indicate Jesus was baptized by John not all that long after John started his baptismal ministry…and his baptism marks the starting point of the public ministry of Christ, which, by Jewish cultural tradition of the time, men began their calling at about the age of 30.
 
BridgetN said:
Probably people were baptized when they were older in those day.
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No. Under Jewish Mosaic law, there is no analogue to Christian baptism. The closest you get is circumcision, but (of course), that’s only for males.

So, no: it’s not that Jews “were baptized when they were older.” Of course, the Jewish context for ‘baptism’ would be ceremonial washing. Were there ceremonial washings within Judaism? Yes. Were they considered to be what baptism is? No.

John’s “innovation”, if you would look at it as such, is a ceremonial washing for the repentance of sins and the anticipation of the coming of the Messiah.
 
Infant Baptism did not begin until after Christ’s resurrection.

Christ knew the day, hour and second when He would lay down His life.
 
Actually, John the Baptist was already baptizing - it was not the Sacramental Baptism that we know today.
 
Blessings.
Baptism wasn’t around then. It started w John the Baptist who was laying out the teachings, preparing a way for the Lord.
At 30, he was starting His new life. Out w the old and in w the new…
In Christ’s Love
Tweedlealice
 
Christ was without sin, He had no need of John’s baptism. He did so as an example to us.
 
Because he is God.

The only reason he got baptized later on was so that he could institute it as a sacrament.
 
There was no sacrament of baptism until Jesus instituted it.

The baptism of John was a symbolic ritual indicating that the person wanted to amend their life, but it wasn’t the sacrament that we have today. Nobody who received John’s baptism would have equated their experience with the Christian baptism of today.

I remember reading that the Jews had some washing and cleansing ceremonies , both from their scriptures and some that were ad-libbed.
 
BenSinner said:
And what would have happened to him if he died before being baptized?
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Hypothetically, it does not make any difference to him. He has no sin. The Sacrament of Baptism, besides to initiate us to be the new creation in Christ, it is also for the forgiveness of sin. Sin Jesus does not sin unlike us, then it makes no difference to him.
 
Because according to the tradition of the time, a Levite can serve as a temple priest only between the ages of 30-50. Jesus beginning his ministry at 30 points to his unique priesthood.
 
Jesus was baptized at the age of thirty for that is when His journey began beginning with His ministry and ending on that cross. He gave us the Sacrament of Baptism and renewed Love, He opened the gates of Heaven for all of us and. God the Father looked to His beloved Son in Whom He was well pleased God Bless
 
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