Posted: Apr 15, 2017 12:38 pm
duvduv wrote:I am not preaching at all. I am responding to questions and clarificating issues from what was your attempt to suggest that forgiveness of sin was part of Jewish immersion. If you do not think so, then that's fine. The question really would be WHY the inventors of the gospels needed the Baptist to forgive sin by immersion at all if Jews did not believe in that, even in his status as precursor or "Elijah" before Jesus.
Read my posts again. At no time did I suggest a reason for Jewish ritual bathing. Definitely not that it was "forgiveness of sin". Sins were forgiven by sacrifice. Wore a mixed fabric, bring a couple of doves to die, and be burnt, and your wearing of mixed cloth is forgiven. Have sex with a virgin, pay over some money, and marry her, and your sin is forgiven. Ritual bathing was nothing to do with sin forgiveness.
My suggestion was that when foreigners, called gentiles by the Jews, observed ritual bathing, and while they were making up their version of the Jewish god's mythology, they said "hey wait, that's a good idea, we'll force these smelly people to be washed for the first time in their lives, then when they come up smelling a little cleaner, we'll tell them their sins are forgiven, and that Jesus loves them". It's merely a suggestion, for whatever other reason would people willingly jump into a river of dirty water, except to be cleaned, of body odour or sin, it makes no difference.
When you cite the bible to prove the bible, you're preaching. Whether you believe it or not, lecturing me about my personal observations being wrong because the bible says so, about what the bible tells you to do, is preaching. Stop doing it.