John’s Baptism as a Symbolic Enactment of the Return from Exile

Abstract

John’s baptism continues to be the subject of much discussion among biblical scholars. Attempts to trace its origin to Essene ritual washings or proselyte baptism have proven unconvincing as are recent arguments against the traditional site on the lower reaches of the Jordan River. It is likely that John’s baptism was his own invention and that he intended it to be a symbolic depiction of the return from exile, which was by no means viewed as complete in the first century CE. The baptism itself involved crossing the Jordan River from East to West, not just being immersed in it.