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Hebrews 6:2 speaks about “washings” (NASB) or “baptisms” (KJV) in the plural, indicating that there is more than one kind of baptism. There were many occasions in the tabernacle of Moses where the priests baptized themselves. At the laver they baptized their hands and feet before entering the Holy Place. Exodus 30:18, 19 says,
18 You shall also make a laver of bronze, with its base of bronze, for washing [rachats]; and you shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it. 19 Aaron and his sons shall wash [rachats] their hands and their feet from it.
As we have seen from the story of Naaman, the prophet told him to rachats himself in the Jordan seven times (2 Kings 5:10), whereupon Naaman proceeded to nipto himself (2 Kings 5:14). This shows that the two words are essentially synonymous. Both refer to baptism. Hence, the priests baptized themselves daily at the laver. The laver was outfitted with faucets by which they could cleanse themselves by pouring water on their hands and feet.
Hebrews 6:2 infers that believers in Christ are to learn about such baptisms as part of the milk of the word. Yet strangely enough, very little instruction about this is given to new believers. The main instruction, of course, is to show that even after a believer has been baptized with water, he/she is to be cleansed daily through prayer and the washing of the word. Feet signify one’s “walk” and one’s daily “behavior.” 1 John 1:7 says,
7 But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Paul says, “I die daily” (1 Corinthians 15:31). He did not need to be baptized in water daily, but he cleansed (purified) himself by the word daily. 1 John 3:3 says,
3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Just as the Jews, after returning from the marketplace, would wash their hands before eating (Eating with others was an act of fellowship.), so also are we to cleanse ourselves from all impurity through contact with the world, where we see and hear impure things that defile our minds. The difference is that we are cleansed by the word of God, rather than by water.
All of the purification laws in the Old Testament were fulfilled by the blood of Christ, by the washing of the water of the word, and by the Holy Spirit’s baptism of fire. As always, the principle of purification remained the same in this transition, but the agent of cleansing, along with its method of application was changed to reflect a more effective form.
After Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost, he instructed the believers to be baptized. Acts 2:31 says,
31 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.
We are not told how 3,000 people were baptized in one day. Jerusalem itself had a water shortage. It had just two pools of water: the pool of Bethesda (John 5:2) and the pool of Siloam (John 9:7). A 3-mile long aqueduct was built by Pontius Pilate, using money from the temple, to solve this problem. The priests objected, and this caused widespread riots at the time (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XVIII, 60–62).
The question we must ask is how the disciples managed to baptize 3,000 people—especially if they were all immersed, as many insist. Would this not have drawn the attention of the religious authorities? Would they have allowed this? If so, how long would it take 12 apostles to immerse 3,000 people? Each apostle might have been assigned 250 candidates for baptism. If each baptism took two minutes, it would have taken more than eight hours. Is this feasible?
We are reminded of the day when Moses sprinkled the blood of the (old) covenant upon the people in Exodus 24:7, 8,
7 Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient. 8 So Moses took the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
There are three baptisms: by blood, by water, and by oil. The people entered a covenant relationship with God through blood, they were cleansed by water, and they were anointed with oil. (The oil used to anoint priests was “hot,” having cinnamon in it. Exodus 30:23. This was to simulate the baptism of fire.)
The point is that Moses sprinkled the blood of the covenant upon the people. He did not need to immerse them in blood in order to make it effective, nor was it practical to make sure each person received at least one drop of blood upon them. Perhaps only the few who were standing in the front rows actually received the sprinkling of blood. If so, by the principle of unity, to baptize even one member of the body was effective for the whole.
The same principle may have been used on the day of Pentecost. The apostles may have sprinkled water upon the crowd in a collective manner. This is somewhat speculative, of course, because we are not told how they were baptized. Yet it may explain how 3,000 could have been baptized in one day without disrupting or polluting the city’s water supply.
Dr. Stephen Jones has been writing blog posts since 2005 on a variety of topics from Bible Studies to World News, and he has been writing books since 1992. Dr. Jones' most important writings came after God brought him back into the full-time ministry in 1991. It is here that all his earlier years of searching the Scriptures began to come into clear focus. He combines a knowledge of the Old and New Testaments with a personal revelation of God that began and developed during the "wilderness" period of his life, which he often refers to as God's True Bible College... Read More
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