The Origin of Baptism

When you think about getting baptized, do you automatically think it refers to christianity? More than likely, since christianity has been the dominant religion for the last 2000 years. The first time I had ever heard of baptism by water was when John the Baptizer was dunking people, and ended up being the one that baptized Jesus. But if you read my last blog about how the stories in the bible were based on myths and legends, it shouldn't come as a suprise to you that baptism has ties to paganism.

Joseph Campbell writes the following, "The rite of ancient baptism was an ancient rite coming down from the old Sumerian temple city Eridu, of the water god EA, "God of the house of water". In the Hellenistic period, Ea was called Oannes, which is in Greek Ioannes, Latin Johannes, Hebrew Yohanan, English John."

Several scholars have suggested that there was never either John or Jesus, but only a water-god and a sun-god.

There is a lot more to this subject, but the point being made is that this is just another thing that christianity borrowed from paganism, and put their own spin on it.