(A STUDY OF BAPTISMS)
By
Peggy Pryor
Ledaber Ministries
MIKVAH: An
Introduction
A WALK OF PURITY
 It
is not the intention of the writer to criticize Christendom for the lack
of understanding that abounds about immersion, or add to the
controversy, or think that by this humble book there will be a great
change across the world, that would be very much akin to trying to empty
the Atlantic ocean with a tea cup. But
for the few hungry souls that cry for understanding I pray that this
will be a help. Understanding the Hebrew rites and rituals is a long
journey for us that were not exposed to the teaching at an early age,
and I dare say that not all that have had the privilege of experiencing
them for most or all of their life, see the significance of their
teaching as related to Yeshua/Jesus. I shall endeavor to help
in a small way to expand on the understanding.
One
of the most misunderstood teachings in the Bible is immersion. The Bible
has much to say about immersion/or the doctrine of washing/baptisms. The
first century believers understood the teachings of the different
immersions and their purpose. In this brief writing it will be
impossible to explore all the different immersions, but I would like to
discuss briefly some of them, and in the process bring a glimmer of
light to this most misunderstood teaching in scripture. In Hebrew 6:1 it
is written:
"Therefore
leaving the principles of the doctrine of Messiah/Christ, let us go on
unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead
works, and of faith toward God," (2) "Of the doctrine of baptism(s), and
of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal
judgment."
Rav
Sha'ul/Paul in the above referenced verses states that the
elementary teachings of Messiah are as follows;
- Foundation
of repentance from dead works
- Faith toward
G-d
- Of the
instructions/doctrine of immersions/baptism(s)... please note plural
- Laying on of
hands
- Resurrection
of the dead
- Eternal
judgment
Understanding
of these six principals was considered by Sha'ul/Paul, to be
elementary teachings of Messiah. If we fully understand the above six
teachings then, and only then are we qualified to move on to the MEAT of
the word leaving the milk.
Ephesians
4:5 states that "One L-rd, one faith, one immersion". To the casual
student this might seem to be a contradiction in scripture, but we know
that the Ruach haKodesh/Holy Spirit inspired all scripture so
Rav Sha'ul/Paul is referring to one of the many immersions, and
in particular to the immersion into Messiah.
I
was confused by what seemed to me to be a new doctrine when Yochanan
haMatvil/John the Baptist arrived on the banks of the
Jordan river preaching and immersing. Yochanan haMatvil/John
the Baptist was not suspect, by the people, as to where he received the
doctrine nor the validity of the teaching questioned. Never did anyone
ask him why was he immersing. They all seemed to accept the teaching,
even in light of Deuteronomy 4:2, 12:32 and Revelations 22:19 stating
that the Word could not be added to or taken away from. In Deuteronomy
4:2 it is written:
"Ye shall not
add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought
from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I
command you.
In Deuteronomy
12:32 it is written:
"What thing
soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor
diminish from it.
In Revelation
22:19 it is written:
"And if any
man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God
shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy
city, and from the things which are written in this book."
The
severest punishment is the penalty for such an act. It seems today that
little thought is given to the fact that G-d said not to add to or take
away from the form of worship that he gave to Adam in the Garden, had
Moses write down on the mountain of Sinai
and again gave to King David before the temple was built by his son
Solomon. This form of worship/teaching, as prescribed by G-d, seems to
have fallen by the way side in this present day of many doctrinal
differences. I hear many times "we must have UNITY of the Faith" but the
people that preach this the strongest, are the very ones that say the
only way to have unity is for you to come and join us because we have
the true revelation of the word, and you are lacking in your
understanding. I dare say that UNITY will not be realized to any great
measure until Messiah has returned and set up His Kingdom on earth.
Then, and only then, will UNITY be enjoyed by all believers. Maintenance
of this unity will require Messiah to rule with a rod of iron. In
Revelation 19:15 it is written:
"And from His
mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may smite the nations; and
He will rule them with a rod of iron"... Rev 19:15 NAS
The
Jews were chosen by G-d to show all the world the ways of the L-rd. To
teach the world about Messiah, our relationship to Him, to each other,
and end time events. All things must be centered on Messiah. In Romans
3:1-2 it is written:
"What
advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
(2), Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the
oracles of God (or words of G-d)."
All
the festivals, customs, foods, sacrificial system, laws of ritual purity
including immersion were given to the Jewish people as teaching tools
for us to learn more about Messiah. We must always keep Messiah in the
forethought of our studies and realize that all things are to give us a
better understanding of what Messiah has done for us, and what is in
store for us. If we want rest, peace and contentment in our lives we
must know of Him. In Matthew 11:29 it is written:
"Take my yoke
upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye
shall find rest unto your souls."
The
entire Bible is written about Messiah. In Psalm 40:7 it tell us this.
"Then said I,
Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me"
To
follow the instructions of our L-rd and learn of Him, we must learn
about the festivals, customs, foods, sacrificial system and laws of
ritual purity. We must not only know about them as we are commanded, but
put into practice the things that we can do. Some of the commandments
require that the Holy Temple be standing in Jerusalem. The other commandments that do not
require the standing of the Holy Temple in
Jerusalem, we must make a part of our life to
please our L-rd. The commandments in Torah fall into three major
categories
-
Mishpatim - Literally translated Judgements these are ethical /
moral laws
- Edos
- literally translated witnesses
- Chukim
- literally translated Decrees
Some
of the commandments that the L-rd requires of us are hard to understand.
We can understand, do not kill or steal, as in "mishpatim/ethical"
laws. We can understand the "Edos/witness" commandments. These
are the rituals and festivals which teach us of important religious
truths or commemorate key events. The third group of commandments "Chukim/decrees"
does not seem to have a logical reason as to why we must obey them. The
"chukim/decrees" are commandments which we must obey whether or
not we understand their reason. In Exodus 24:7 it is written:
"All that G-d
says, we will do and we will hear".
This
indicates that when Torah was given, we were ready to keep the
commandments and "do" them before we "heard" reason or
logic. When we keep commandments that have no apparent reason, we
demonstrate our faith and inner security as followers of Messiah. Even
though we may not be able to justify these commandments to the world, we
feel secure to continue observing them. If a person is unsure of
himself, or wavering in his faith the laws that are not understood are
the first to be abandon. We understand what the Torah means when it says
in Deuteronomy 4:6 as it is written:
"Observe and
keep [commandments], for this is your wisdom and understanding in the
eyes of the nations"
Messiah,
Himself said in John 14:15 as it is written:
"If ye love
me, keep my commandments".
We
do not observe the commandments because logic demands it, but simply
because they were given by G-d. This shows a "heart attitude" set to
please G-d.. One of the most important of these commandments is
immersion in a mikvah, the ritual bath for the purpose of
bringing about ritual purity, and that is the one that we are going to
discuss.
The
Greek word for baptism is baptizo meaning to immerse or dip
cloth into a vat of dye. The word is derived from an industry of dying
cloth in Lebanon.
The vats used to hold the different colors of dye, and the process of
placing the cloth into the vats was called baptizo. As time
passed the ritual purity process of immersion began to be known as
baptism. The Hebrew word for immersion is tevilah and means
literally immersing in a ritual bath known as a mikvah.
Immersion is the act of washing performed to correct a condition of
ritual impurity and restore the impure to a state of ritual purity. It
is never for the purpose of cleaning or bathing the body.
The
mikvah/ritual bath was of great importance to the first century
Jew. It was understood that if a community or village had only enough
money for a synagogue or a mikvah, the mikvah would be
built first. The Torah speaks of numerous things that make a person
Tomeh/ritually unclean, and a number of processes of purification.
The one act required in all purification processes was immersion
in the mikvah.
Life
for the average Jew, in the average village, depended on access to the
mikvah. A man from the tribe of Levi, a son of Aaron could not
assume his office as priest until he had gone through a mikvah.
Before a person could be tahor/ritually clean to enter the
grounds of the Holy
Temple in Jerusalem, he must be immersed in the
mikvah. The severest punishment was imposed on a person for
entering the Temple area in the state
of tomeh/ritual impurity. A woman in her monthly cycle was
required to ware special clothing so all would know that she was in a
state of niddah (ritually unclean due to monthly cycle). She
would not be tahor/ritually clean until after entering the
mikvah. Immersion in a mikvah is an integral part of
conversion to Judaism. Without immersion conversion is not valid. There
are many more times an immersion in a mikvah is customary, we
will endeavor to explore as many as space permits.
There
are two basic parts of Torah, one is the written Torah consisting of the
first five books of the Bible, with which we are all familiar. The
second part of Torah is just as important but not as well known. It is
what we call the Oral Torah or unwritten law. This was handed down
orally from generation to generation for about 1,500 years. About the
third century C.E. Oral Torah was put into writing by Rabbi Yehudah the
Prince and is the foundation of Mishnah. The Talmud was formed after
discussion and commentary was added. All Jewish law is derived from this
Oral Torah. We might call it the "how to" book. Detail instructions on
how to carry out all worship, the festivals, sacrifices, commandments,
including ritual purification and preparing the mikvah are in Oral
Torah.
The
Mikvah is a ritual bath, the Hebrew word mikvah means a "pool"
or "Gathering" of water. Two direct references in the Bible to Mikvah
are in the Bible. In Leviticus 11:36 it is written:
"Only a
spring and a pit, a gathering (Mikvah) of water, shall be clean..."
The second is
Jeremiah 17:12-13 as it is written:
"A glorious
high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. {13} O
LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and
they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they
have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters".
The
word translated hope in verse 13 is Mikvah thus giving
us the understanding that Messiah is the cleansing fountain/Mikvah
or hope of Israel.
While
Messiah still hung, on the cross a Roman "soldier pierced His side,
immediately there came out blood and water"; John 19:34 NAS the opening
of the cleansing fountain or Mikvah for
Israel. In Zechariah 13:1 it is
written:
"In that day
there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for
uncleanness."
MIKVAH SPECIFICATIONS
The
mikvah must meet six special requirements as described in Oral
Torah.
- No other
liquid but water may be used in the Mikvah, no coloring or
chemicals, etc.
- The Mikvah
must be built into the ground, or be a part of a building attached
to the ground. It cannot consist of any vessel that can be
disconnected and carried away, such as a tub, vat, or barrel.
- The water of
a Mikvah cannot be running or flowing. The only exception to this
rule is a natural spring, or a river whose water is derived mainly
from springs.
- The water of
the Mikvah be brought together by natural means not drawn.
- The water
cannot be channeled to the Mikvah through anything that can become
tomeh/unclean, such as pipes or channels made of metal,
clay, or wood.
- The Mikvah
must contain no less than 40 Sa'ah of water, that is
approximately 150 to 200 gallons.
As
you can see the modern baptisteries, in the local church, do not fit the
criteria of a clean ritual bath. Many houses in
Israel
have been excavated and found to have as many as nine Mikvot in
them. The Holy Temple area had many Mikvot, a
worshipper could not enter the area without going thru the Mikvah.
In Masada, the fortress built by Herod the Great, Mikvot
were found.
Today
in the modern "church" there is controversy as to what part immersion
plays is our life, and also how is a "Biblical" immersion performed. The
three main divisions of this controversy are for the most part as
follows;
a) Is
immersion necessary for salvation...is salvation a two-part process
b) Which
is Biblically correct, immersion or sprinkling;
c) In
what name is a person immersed or sprinkled, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit or Jesus only?
Ritual
purification or immersion is a Hebrew ritual, commanded by G-d and must
be viewed in that perspective. Certain guidelines were commanded by G-d
to be strictly followed by the person entering the Mikvah.
The
method of immersion as practiced by all the Old Testament people and
including Yochanan haMatvil/John the Baptist was very different
from what we do today. The person was to already have taken a bath,
washed his hair, pared his fingernails and make sure that he was very
clean. The Mikvah was not for the purpose of taking a bath. The person
being immersed went into the water by himself, stretching out his arms,
flexing his fingers, fluttering his eyelids he squats down into the
water until he is completely covered by water. Flexing the fingers and
toes, fluttering the eyelids was to insure that the water touched every
part of the body. Normally a person would do this three times. The
witness was the person that stood out of the water to make sure that the
immersing person was completely covered by the water.
There
are three types of immersion;
- Immersion of
the whole body in water
- Washing of
the hands
- Washing of
the hands and feet
Immersion
of the whole body will be the first of the three types we will discuss
beginning in Part I of this teaching.
Continue to Part 1 of this teaching.
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