Catholic Ragemonkey

Israel Cave Linked to John the Baptist

What makes this story interesting, of course, lies with our common depiction of John wading halfway out into a river to baptize. Rather, if the archaeologists have it right, baptism had a formal, "liturgical" structure even before the institution of the sacrament of Baptism. Also, the presence of the stone jars suggests to me that baptism by John was not necessarily a full immersion job. It looks as though he might have simply poured water on them as the sign of their repentance.