BAPTISM UNDER THE LAW OF MOSES

Baptism simply means dipping, as per the earlier uses of the language.The Genesis of water Baptism is in the levitical law. It was cleansing ceremony performed on the congregation, on the priests and Levites, to provide for them accessibility to God. The cleansing was done with water, contained in the brass laver. This was before the name of Jesus was given to men by which we are now empowered to ask anything from God. One of the things to ask for, is righteousness. Which in turn is a gift. 

By the baptism, the ancients attained a cleansed disposition before God. Priests and Levites had a basin, or a laver, for washing before entering the holy places. For the cleansing of the entire congregation, a pigeon was held under running waters and this resulting purity symbolically transfered to the congregation. This was a form of baptism by water, conducted symbolically on behalf of the entire congregation. 


Years later and the bible in the new testament refers to the famed wilderness experiences as a "baptism into Moses,"  which the children of Israel had passed. Moses, unlike John, did not stand at a river to immerse them. The red sea experience they shared, and the ritual baptisms of the temple qualified them. The reference nevertheless brings a different perspective to the understanding of baptism, that of a spiritual resultant effect. Though bound by the law, the congregation could still attain righteousness by this symbolic acts of baptism. The baptism of John the Baptist was premised on the same foundation of symbolic cleansing. He lived under two laws, first, of moses, then later, when Christ increase and he decreased, he got to testify to the new baptism of the spirit, as He said "behold the lamb that takes away the sins of men."