elders. The most important and probably one of the oldest of these
traditional customs was the baptism of proselytes.

These usages of the Jews will account for the readiness with which all
men flocked to the baptism of John the Baptist.[52]

Schürer in his history of the Jewish people[53] devotes several pages to
giving reasons for believing that the Jews baptized proselytes long
before the coming of Christ.

Dean Stanley says baptism is inherited from Judaism.[54]

Many other good authorities might be quoted to support the belief that
water baptism and other ordinances were greatly multiplied among many
Jews during the last few hundred years before Christ. There are no
Scripture writings which cover this period.

Tylor says: The rites of lustration which hold their places within the
pale of Christianity are in well marked connection with Jewish and
Gentile ritual.[55]

Baptism by water, the symbol of the initiation of the convert, history
traces from the Jewish rite to that of John the Baptist and thence to
the Christian ordinance.

As we understand, the Christian ordinance here referred to by Tylor, is
traceable through many modifications back to those carnal ordinances,
those weak and beggarly elements, which Paul says were imposed until the
time of reformation.[56] It has no authority from Christ and is
therefore not Christian baptism.