<P> The Christian rite of baptism has similarities to Tevilah , a Jewish purification ritual of immersing in water which is required for , among other things , conversion , but differs in that Tevilah is repeatable , while baptism is to be performed only once . John the Baptist , who is considered a forerunner to Christianity , used baptism as the central sacrament of his messianic movement . Christians consider Jesus to have instituted the sacrament of baptism . The earliest Christian baptisms were probably normally by immersion , though other modes may have also been used . By the third and fourth centuries , baptism involved catechetical instruction as well as chrismation , exorcisms , laying on of hands , and recitation of a creed . Affusion became the normal mode of baptism between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries , though immersion was still practiced into the sixteenth . In the sixteenth century , Martin Luther retained baptism as a sacrament , but Swiss reformer Huldrych Zwingli considered baptism and the Lord 's supper to be symbolic . Anabaptists denied the validity of infant baptism , which was the normal practice when their movement started and practiced believer 's baptism instead . Several other groups , notably the Baptists and Dunkards , have always practiced baptism by immersion as following the Biblical example . </P>
<P> The Christian rite of baptism has similarities to Tevilah , a Jewish purification ritual of immersing in water which is required for , among other things , conversion , but differs in that Tevilah is repeatable , while baptism is to be performed only once . John the Baptist , who is considered a forerunner to Christianity , used baptism as the central sacrament of his messianic movement . Christians consider Jesus to have instituted the sacrament of baptism . The earliest Christian baptisms were probably normally by immersion , though other modes may have also been used . By the third and fourth centuries , baptism involved catechetical instruction as well as chrismation , exorcisms , laying on of hands , and recitation of a creed . Affusion became the normal mode of baptism between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries , though immersion was still practiced into the sixteenth . In the sixteenth century , Martin Luther retained baptism as a sacrament , but Swiss reformer Huldrych Zwingli considered baptism and the Lord 's supper to be symbolic . Anabaptists denied the validity of infant baptism , which was the normal practice when their movement started and practiced believer 's baptism instead . Several other groups , notably the Baptists and Dunkards , have always practiced baptism by immersion as following the Biblical example . </P>
where did the practice of baptism come from
where did the practice of baptism come from
Tevilah
Tevilah