Baptism in early Christianity River Jordan. He baptized Jews for repentance in the River Jordan. At the start of his ministry, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. Critical scholars broadly agree that the baptism of Jesus is one of the most authentic, or historically likely, events in the life of the historical Jesus. Christian baptism has its origin in the baptism of Jesus, in both a direct and historical sense. Many of the earliest followers of Jesus were people who, like him, were baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist. The Gospel of John states that Jesus at an early stage led
Historicity of Jesus the early Christian Church would have never wanted to invent. Based on this criterion, given that John baptised for the remission of sins, and Jesus was viewed as without sin, the invention of this story would have served no purpose, and would have been an embarrassment given that it positioned John above Jesus. Amy-Jill Levine has summarized the situation by stating that "there is a consensus of sorts on the basic outline of Jesus' life" in that most scholars agree that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, and over a period of one to three years debated Jewish authorities