If we wish to understand the meaning of Christian Baptism we will do well to start with a study of its predecessors. The error that many Christians have made is that of studying Christian Baptism as if it were some altogether new rite in history, whose meaning was to be discovered in isolation from any of the rites that had preceded it. Christian Baptism isn’t a rite created ex nihilo. Rather, Christian Baptism is related to a number of previous rites. Its meaning is in large measure to be discovered within its difference from these previous rites (as Peter Leithart observes, Augustine’s argument for this position was an interesting proto-structuralist move on his part). Christian Baptism (to use an analogy of Leithart’s) is a conjugation of a verbal root that is shared with a number of OT rites. Continue here.
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