Sprinkling Or Immersion?

Did John the Baptist baptize the Lord Jesus in the river Jordan by “sprinkling” or by “immersion”?

Q. According to Numbers 8 : 6, 7 (Take the Levites from among the children of Israel, and cleanse them. And thus shalt thou do unto them, to cleanse them: Sprinkle the water of purifying upon them, and let them shave all their flesh, and let them wash their clothes, and so make themselves clean.)

… did John the Baptist baptize the Lord Jesus in the river Jordan by “sprinkling” or by “immersion”?

A. The sprinkling referred to in Numbers 8:6,7 was the ceremonial cleansing done by sprinkling a few drops of water mixed with the ashes of the Red Heifer on someone who might have touched a dead person or animal or in other ways become ceremonially unclean.

Christian baptism is an adaptation of the Jewish bath of purification called the Mikvah. It not only required immersion but also that the water be moving, as in a stream. They called it living water because it made sounds as it moved along (think of a babbling brook) and because moving water sustains life whereas stagnant water does not.

John the Baptist, being a Levite trained in the priesthood, would have immersed Jesus in living water. Later Jesus would call Himself the Living Water (John 4:10), since by immersing ourselves in Him we are purified from all of our sins and our life is sustained.