Jewish washings, John's baptism, mystery cults, and early practice (6:3–4)

Says "All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death," "buried with Him through baptism into death," so as to "walk in newness of life" (6:3–4, BSB).

Jewish washings were repeated: the Essenes bathed in cold water before their common meal (Josephus, J.W. 2.129). A Mishnah dispute over a convert on Passover eve has the House of Shammai say he "immerses and eats his Passover offering in the evening" (m. Pesaḥ. 8:8); whether proselyte immersion predates AD 70 is uncertain. John, says Josephus, taught washing for the body's purification once righteousness had cleansed the soul (Ant. 18.117).

Heitmüller (1903) read Rom 6, Paul's main baptism text, as dying and rising with Christ in the light of Hellenistic religion; Reitzenstein (1910) compared the Phrygian blood-baptism. Apuleius has an Isis priest call initiation "like to a voluntary death" (Met. 11.21). Wedderburn (1987) argues against deriving Paul's language from the mysteries.

The non-canonical Didache says, "baptize into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in living water," or, lacking water, "pour out water thrice upon the head" (Did. 7:1–3). Justin says those who have fasted "are brought by us where there is water," and "this washing is called illumination" (1 Apol. 61).

Implies Believers are united with Christ in his death and resurrection (6:3–5).

Uncertain Whether the mystery cults shaped Paul's language here is uncertain. Mode, subjects, and the rite's relation to what it signifies are left to the exegetical notes.