Abstract
Was Jesus baptised by John the Baptist? Most scholars believe he was, but recent trends in historical Jesus studies call for a fresh examination of the question. These trends include the rise of social memory theory, diminishing support for the criteria of authenticity, and growing confidence in the Fourth Gospel.
The baptism of Jesus is possible: he and John were contemporaries, and Jesus would have periodically travelled through areas where John was active. If Jesus was ever one of John’s loyal students, his baptism by John would be almost certain. However, the case for Jesus being a student of John collapses without first granting Jesus’s baptism. The baptism tradition is often considered too embarrassing to have been invented by a follower of Jesus, as it might suggest that Jesus was sinful and subordinate to John. However, the embarrassment evident in later accounts has limited relevance to the origin of the tradition, as earlier storytellers may have perceived Jesus and John differently. Mark, our earliest source for the baptism tradition, shows little sign of embarrassment. On the contrary, Jesus’s baptism is a key element of Mark’s narrative and serves as a model for early Christian baptism. Some argue that Jesus’s baptism is attested in multiple independent sources, but this is unlikely. If true, it would simply indicate that the story circulated before those sources were produced.
Attempts to argue against Jesus’s baptism are also problematic. While the story plays an important role in Mark’s narrative, this does not necessarily mean it originated there. The tradition could have emerged during a period of rivalry between Jesus’s followers and John’s. While there is little evidence of such competition in the first century, it is likely that many of John’s followers joined the Jesus movement following John’s death. Jesus’s baptism may have influenced their decision to join the movement – or vice versa, their decision to join may have influenced the development of the baptism tradition. Finally, Mark presents Jesus’s baptism as the origin of early Christian baptism. He could be right, or he may be retrojecting later practice onto the life of Jesus.
There is no conclusive answer. The story of Jesus’s baptism has plausible origins both in Jesus’s life and in the social development of early Christianity. Therefore, based on the evidence available to us, we cannot be sure whether Jesus was baptised.