parents!!!!!

[ChuckElias]

Originally posted by Mark Padgett
Juulie, my dear friend, aren't you forgetting a few groups? You know, like us guys who have been around for almost 6000 years?

Mark, isn't there some similar ritual (besides circumcision) in the Jewish tradition? Why would the earliest Christians, who were exclusively Jewish, use baptism as a symbol of faith if it weren't found somewhere in their own history? Did Christians appropriate baptism from "pagan" religions of the day? It seems more likely to me that they were familiar with baptism from their own religious backgrounds -- namely Judaism.