Why did Jesus come to be baptized by John?

Answer 1

AnswerWhether baptism is for ritual purity, remission of sins or as a prerequisite for salvation, there is no obvious reaon in Christian theology for Jesus to have sought baptism. In fact John's Gospel is ambivalent on whether Jesus was baptised at all.

Other early Christian authors have sought to to address the theological difficulty created by the story of Jesus coming to be baptised. Justin Martyr said that that Jesus was baptised as the ideal example for everyone. Ignatius of Antioch said that Jesus was baptised to purify the waters of baptism. And so on.

We know from the writings of Josephus that John the Baptist was both historical and influential amongst the Jews of Palestine. He was executed in about 35 CE because Herod Antipas feared that John would stir up the population against him because of his marriage to his own brother's former wife. And even the gospels seem to concede that John was more influential in his own lifetime than Jesus was. So it is possible that Mark introduced the story of John the Baptist preparing the way for one mightier than he and whose shoes he was not worthy to untie, then the baptism of Jesus, to show that Jesus and John were not at all rivals and to convince the followers of John that to follow John is to follow Jesus.

While Christianity took root very quickly, John the Baptist's following never seems to have grown much, although the Mandaeans of modern times are a very small community who claim that John founded their religion. Can it be that the gospel account of John's subservience to Jesus and his baptism of Jesus was what drew many followers of John the Baptism into early Christianity?