Gospel Doctrine: Symbolism of Baptism

Symbolism of Baptism
By John A. Tvedtnes

[Supplement to Gospel Doctrine New Testament lesson 36]

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. (Romans 6:3-5)

In two of his epistles (Romans 6:3-11; Colossians 2:12-13), Paul likened baptism in water to being buried and then resurrected in Christ. [1] This pattern works only for immersion, which is the only way baptism (the Greek word means “immersion”) was performed in the days of Christ and his apostles. But Paul is not alone in this regard; the apostle Peter wrote:

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 3:18-21)

In this passage, the apostle speaks of both death and resurrection [quickening], [2] along with Christ’s spirit visiting the spirit world, and adds the flood as a symbol of baptism. The symbolism becomes even more clear when we note that Noah learned of the end of the flood by sending out a dove (Genesis 8:8-12) and that the Holy Ghost descended upon Jesus, at the time of his baptism, in the sign of a dove. [3]

In the same epistle, Peter mentions Christ as the one who will “judge the quick [living] and the dead,” noting, “For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit” (1 Peter 4:5-6). [4] In the Bible and some other ancient Near Eastern texts, burial was sometimes seen as a return to the womb, from which the deceased would one day rise again to life. [5]

In the scriptures, the creation of man is a two-step process: 1) the formation of the body, and 2) the addition of the spirit (Abraham 5:7; Genesis 2:7; Moses 3:7). Similarly, mortal death is a two-step process, described in Ecclesiastes 12:7: “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” These two steps are symbolized in the manner of baptism in water and baptism by the Spirit (John 3:5-7). [6]

These same two elements are mentioned, along with blood, in the Lord’s explanation of salvation given to Adam:

by reason of transgression cometh the fall, [7] which fall bringeth death, and inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water, and blood, and the spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory; For by the [baptismal] water ye keep the commandment; by the [Holy] Spirit ye are justified, and by the blood [of Christ] ye are sanctified. (Moses 6:59-60) [8]

The elements of water, blood, and spirit are also found in mortal birth. The baby, encased in water in the mother’s womb, is nourished by the blood coming through the placenta, while the spirit comes from the presence of God. This is one of the ways in which baptism by water and the spirit accompanied by the gift of the Holy Ghost, represents a new birth, being born of God.

The apostle John wrote of Christ, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). [9]

Early Christian stories of Christ’s visit to the realm of spirits are virtually unanimous in noting the joy felt by the righteous dead when they learned of Jesus’ baptism. Of this, J. Rendel Harris wrote, “In the earliest times, the Baptism of Christ was the occasion of His triumph over Hades.” [10] Harris saw the pseudepigraphic Ode of Solomon 24 as connecting baptism (note the mention of the dove over Jesus’ head) with anointing and the deliverance of the dead (i.e., resurrection).

In our dispensation, the prophet Joseph Smith explained the symbolism of baptism both for the living and the dead:

Herein is glory and honor, and immortality and eternal life — the ordinance of baptism by water, to be immersed therein in order to answer to the likeness of the dead, that one principle might accord with the other; to be immersed in the water and come forth out of the water is in the likeness of the resurrection of the dead in coming forth out of their graves; hence, this ordinance was instituted to form a relationship with the ordinance of baptism for the dead, being in likeness of the dead.

Consequently, the baptismal font was instituted as a similitude of the grave, and was commanded to be in a place underneath where the living are wont to assemble, to show forth the living and the dead, and that all things may have their likeness. (D&C 128:12-13)

[1] Cf. D&C 76:50-51: “And again we bear record—for we saw and heard, and this is the testimony of the gospel of Christ concerning them who shall come forth in the resurrection of the just—They are they who received the testimony of Jesus, and believed on his name and were baptized after the manner of his burial, being buried in the water in his name, and this according to the commandment which he has given.”

[2] The verb “quicken” in the King James version of the Bible means to make alive; those who are alive are “quick.”

[3] Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:29-34; 1 Nephi 11:27; 2 Nephi 31:8; D&C 93:15.

[4] Christ is also termed “the Judge of quick and dead” in Acts 10:42, 2 Timothy 4:1, and Moroni 10:34.

[5] See the discussion in John A. Tvedtnes, “Burial as a Return to the Womb in Ancient Near Eastern Belief,” Newsletter and Proceedings of the SEHA (Society for Early Historic Archaeology) No. 152 (March 1983).

[6] There are also two forms of death, one physical, the other spiritual (2 Nephi 2:5-6; Mosiah 2:41; Alma 42:7-9; Helaman 14:15-27; D&C 29:40-42). Christ overcame spiritual death by suffering in the garden of Gethsemane, while he overcame physical death by rising from the grave near the place of his crucifixion (John 19:41-42).

[7] Just as Adam’s fall took place in the garden of Eden, Christ overcame both spiritual and physical death in the garden of Gethsemane and the garden in the place of his crucifixion.

[8] Cf. 1 John 5:6-8: “This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.” Verses 7-8 are not found in the earliest Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, and are thought to have been added later, in an attempt to support the concept of the Trinity. Still, they reflect the three elements that bind us to Christ.

[9] See also 1 Peter 1:23; 1 John 3:9; 4:7; 5:1-4, 18; Mosiah 27:24-28; 5:14; 7:14; 22:15; 36:5, 23-26; 38:6; Moses 6:64-66

[10] J. Rendel Harris, The Odes and Psalms of Solomon (Cambridge University, 1909), 123.