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Period: 1600 BCE to 1 CE
Jewish Predecessors to Baptism
A jewish ceremony, called tvilah, was a ceremony of ritual placing in water to undo ritual defilement and purification, and was used to introduce new converts to Judaism during the Captivity. -
Period: 1 CE to 500
Early Christianity/ John the Baptist
John the Baptist, often seen as a predecessor to Christianity, used ritual baptism as a major element in his religion. Some believe that Jesus himself introduced baptism as an element in his new religion. In the first few centuries, Baptism became used for children in the 4th century onwards. -
Period: 500 to 1550
Medieval Baptisms
In the early medieval period, baptism became entrenched as a 'triple immersion' that imitated the three days Christ spent in the tomb after his death, and entrenched it as an essential part of the sacraments. -
Period: 1550 to
Reformation to today
Martin Luther considered baptism to be a sacrament, and therefore kept it. Zwingli considered it similarly. Anabaptists believed that infant baptism was illogical and immoral.