Shadows of Baptism, by John Carberry

Many of the events of the Old Testament that involved water foreshadowed the Sacrament of Baptism. Noah builds the ark that saves the one just family from death. The rest of the sinful world is destroyed by the flood of forty days (Gn 7:17, 1 Pt 3:20, Wis 10:4) while the one just family emerges from the water alive.1 The Israelites survive the threat of slavery and Pharaoh’s army by passing through the Sea (Ex 14:21-22, Ps 66:6, 1 Cor 10:1-2, Is 43:16, 51:10, 63:12-14) on to the freedom of dry land.2 The waters converge back and destroy Pharaoh’s army, who was following them (Ex 14:28, Dt 11:4).3 God saves the good and destroys evil. When the Israelites crossed into the Promised Land (Gn 12:7, 15:18-21, 17:8, 26:3, 28:13-15, 35:12, Ex 6:4, 8, 12:25, 13:5, 11, 32:13, 33:1, Lv 20:24, Nm 11:12, 32:11, Dt 1:8, 4:1, 6:10, 18, 23, 7:13, 8:1, 9:5, 11:8-9, 21, 31, 19:8, 26:1-3, 27:3, 30:20, 31:21-23, 32:47, 34:4, Jos 1:6, 5:6, 22:43-45, 23:15-16, Jgs 2:1, 1 Chr 16:14-18, Neh 9:15, Tb 14:4, Ps 105:11, 44-45, Jer 32:22, Bar 2:34, Ez 20:42, 47:14, Heb 11:9), the waters halted its flow so that they could pass through on dry land (Jos 3:14-17, 4:21-24, Ps 66:6).4 Elisha throws salt into the bad spring to purify the water, saying: “Thus says the Lord, I have made this water wholesome; from now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it” (2 Kgs 2:21). Pope Zozimus (d. 418) established the practice of blessing a large candle on the Holy Saturday. The candle designates Christ, in the wax humanity, in the fire divinity, leading the catechumens to baptism, just as once a column of fire preceded the children of Israel as they crossed the Red Sea (Ex 13:21-22, 14:19-20, 24, Jos 2:10, 4:23, 24:5-7, Ps 106:9, 136:13-15, Wis 10:17-19, 19:7, Neh 9:11-12, Heb 11:29).5

The symbolism of water moves from Christ’s first through his second baptism. The Spirit, or wind, hovering over the waters of the first creation (Gn 1:2), descends upon Christ at his Baptism as a prelude to the new creation (Mt 3:16, Mk 1:10, Lk 3:22, Jn 1:32, Is 42:1).6 “Spirit and water, heaven and earth, Christ and his Church, belong together..., water stands for the maternal earth, the holy Church, which welcomes creation into herself and stands in place of it.”7 The bitter water is made fresh by the wood during the time of Moses (Ex 15:25, Sir 38:5), just as our sins are cleansed in Baptism by the wood of Christ’s cross. Later, Christ dips into death, and emerges alive at his Resurrection. Saint Paul calls it Christ’s bath of rebirth that saved us (Ti 3:5-7). When the dead Lord’s side is lanced, blood and water flow out (Jn 19:34). The symbolism of water signifies the Holy Spirit’s action in Baptism. The Spirit is the living water welling up from Christ crucified (Is 12:3, Jer 2:13, Zec 13:1, Jn 1:33).8 Blood and water are types of Baptism and the Eucharist, the sacraments of new life. Now it becomes possible to be born of water and the Spirit in order to enter the Kingdom of God (Jn 3:5).9 Blood, a symbol of his death, included in the Eucharist, and water, a symbol of new life through his resurrection, symbolic of Baptism. According to a vision of Saint Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), similar to when Adam was driven out of Paradise, his guilt caused his blood to overflow with anguish, which was mixed with watery sweat. Jesus began to be distressed in his body, when he willed to suffer for the human race, his blood came forth in drops of sweat (Lk 22:44). Later, when he hung on the cross, water flowed with blood from the wound of his side.10 God made to be sin him who knew no sin (2 Cor 5:21, Phil 2:7, Rom 8:3).11 Sinners were the authors and ministers of all the sufferings that Christ endured.12 The passion, death and resurrection of Christ provide the grace, or the Spirit of the living waters that will keep one from dying (Jn 4:10-14, 7:38-39, Rv 7:17, 21:4-6, 22:1, 17, Is 12:3, 25:8, Jer 2:13, 17:13, Zec 13:1).13 Word and Spirit unite in Baptism for the living water that brings life to the dry, lifeless bones (Ez 37:1-14, Jl 3:1-5). Christ’s resurrection overcomes the sting of death caused by our sin (1 Cor 15:53-57, Hos 13:14). The water also has a cleansing effect which restores our vision, just like the waters in the Pool of Siloam allow the blind man to see (Jn 9:7). Christ, the giver of light opens our eyes in this sacrament.14

John also baptizes. However, this is a baptism of repentance (Mt 3:11, Mk 3:3, Lk 3:8), which begins to restore humans to the divine likeness. John’s baptisms prefigured what he achieves with and in Christ (Mt 3:11-17, Mk 1:7-11, Lk 3:16, 21-22, Jn 1:26-27).15

Circuмcision also foreshadows Baptism. Circuмcision makes one a member of the people of Israel.16 Circuмcision relates to creation. The male reproductive organ in marked. Why use such a strange ritual to mark all of the male Israelites? Some have argued that Abraham was given the covenant of circuмcision (Gn 17:9-14) only after he had an illicit relationship with his wife’s Egyptian maidservant, Hagar (Gn 16:1-4). Regardless of the cause for this covenant, the symbolism clearly relates to man’s reproductive power. One cannot deny that in the natural law and later in the Mosaic covenant, an Israelite had to treat his sɛҳuąƖity as holy and reserved for his wife. The hardness of heart of many caused them to ignore this mandate (Mt 19:8, Mk 10:5). Why did the Israelites treat their sɛҳuąƖity differently from the other nations? This reproductive function was a cooperation with God in the continuation of Creation.17 “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it” (Gn 1:28, 9:1, 7, 35:11). “I have produced a man with the help of the Lord” (Gn 4:1). This completion of creation with humankind, made in the divine image (Gn 1:27, Ps 8:5-6), moved creation from good (Gn 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 1 Tm 4:4-5) to very good (Gn 1:31). God created everything out of nothing (Rom 4:17, 2 Mc 7:28, Heb 11:3).18 The male treasured his ability to cooperate with God in this creative function. The mark was a reminder (1 Mc 1:14-15). The mark literally represented the faith of an Israelite in one God and figuratively the removal of corruption, which was to be brought about by Christ and fulfilled in the eighth age, which is the age of those who rise from the dead. Since all corruption of guilt comes through our carnal origin, from the sin of our first parents, circuмcision is applied to the generative member.19 Every male child of Abraham was to be so marked when he reached eight days of age (Gn 17:10-12). If he is not circuмcised, he will be cut off from his people (Gn 17:14). All of the male Israelites born in the desert when Moses wandered there for forty years had to be circuмcised when they entered the Promised Land (Jos 5:5). There was no doubt regarding one’s faith because the mark remained forever. Jesus was circuмcised as a baby (Lk 2:21). He was incorporated into Abraham’s descendants, into the people of the covenant. He submitted himself to the Law. “The sign prefigures that circuмcision of Christ which is Baptism.”20 Saint Thomas Aquinas indicates that both Baptism and circuмcision were acts of faith, so that circuмcision had to be a preparation for Baptism and a figure thereof.21 Circuмcision was both a sign of faith and a sign of Christ’s future Passion.22 The blood resulting from circuмcision foreshadows Christ’s Incarnation, Passion and his espousal to the Church, just as Zipporah calls the procedure on her son a spouse of blood to me (Ex 4:25-26).23 Pope Innocent III indicated that Baptism has taken the place of circuмcision.24 Baptism also is a sign of faith that leaves an indelible seal or character.25 The baptized person becomes reborn into the divine life.26 Circuмcision occurs on the eighth day, a day we often associate with Jesus’ Resurrection.

Saint Paul links Baptism to circuмcision several times. Although you were dead in the uncircuмcision of your flesh, Christ brought you to life. You were circuмcised by stripping off the carnal body with the circuмcision of Christ (Col 2:11). This is similar to Jeremiah’s: remove the foreskins of your hearts (Jer 4:4, Dt 30:6). While you were buried with him in baptism, the power of God will raise you like Christ from the dead (Col 2:12, Rom 6:4, 1 Thes 4:17, Jb 33:29-30). True circuмcision is not outward, in the flesh, but inward, in the heart and the spirit (Rom 2:29, Dt 10:16, 30:6, Sir 3:26, Acts 7:51). We are the circuмcision who worship through the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus, and do not put our confidence in flesh (Phil 3:3). No longer having righteousness based on the law (i.e., circuмcision), righteousness now comes from faith in Jesus Christ, sharing in his sufferings and conformed to his death with the hope of rising with him (Phil 3:7-11, Jn 16:8-11). We were baptized into Christ’s death, buried with him through baptism, that we might be raised with him in the newness of life (Rom 6:3). All of us once lived among the desires of our flesh, following our impulses. But God, rich in mercy and love (Nm 14:17, Eph 2:4), even though we were dead in our transgressions, bought us to life in Christ. By grace you have been saved (Eph 1:3-5). The New Law of faith working through love makes the Old Law of circuмcision obsolete (Gal 5:2-6).

Hugh of Saint Victor makes some interesting points about circuмcision. He classifies circuмcision as a sacrament of the natural law, before Moses, since it began with Abraham. All of these sacraments of earlier time were signs and figures of those, which now have been set forth under grace.27 The likeness of cleaning, found obscurely in oblation, is expressed more evidently in circuмcision, but is manifested through Baptism. The cutting away of something exteriorly superfluous in man in circuмcision is a sign of the cutting away of the interior substance of sin in Baptism.28 The mark of circuмcision separated the people of God from the infidels.29 Without circuмcision, the person would be cut off from his people for breaking the covenant with God (Gn 17:14). The eighth day for the initiation of circuмcision (Gn 17:12) signifies the time of the resurrection, on the eighth day, or Sunday in the New Testament. The Israelites circuмcised males only because Sacred Scripture signifies the soul through the masculine sex and flesh through the feminine.30 God gave circuмcision to the seed of Abraham for sanctifying and for marking: sanctifying that they might be justified and marking to distinguish them from the rest of the other nations because through them would come the generation of Christ.31

Finally, in the Presentation in the Temple, we see shadows of Baptism. The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (Lk 2:22-38, Ex 13:2, 12-15, 34:20, Lv 12:2-8, Nm 18:15-16, Neh 10:37) (the Fourth Joyful Mystery) is the first visit of Jesus to the Temple (Mal 3:1), celebrated on February Second, forty days after Christmas. It shows Jesus to be the firstborn Son who belongs to the Lord (Ex 22:28, Nm 8:17).32 The law stipulated that the first-born male child must be presented in the Temple along with a sacrificial offering on his fortieth day as a remembrance of God saving the first-born male children of Israel in Egypt (Ex 13:15). This first-born child would be dedicated to the Lord (1 Sm 1:24-28, Ps 89:28). Rather than Jesus being saved from death as a first born was at the time of Moses, Jesus would be the source of salvation for all of humankind through his passion, death and resurrection.

John Carberry is the author of Parables: Catholic Apologetics Through Sacred Scripture (2003) and Sacraments: Signs, Symbols and Significance (2023).

1 CCC, 1219.
2 Francis, Desiderio Desideravi (I Have Earnestly Desired, 13.
3 CCC, 1221.
4 CCC, 1222.
5 Hugh of Saint Victor, On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith (De Sacramentis), II, 9, V, 317.
6 CCC, 1224. Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, pp. 22-23.
7 Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, p. 240.
8 CCC, 694 & 2652.
9 CCC, 1225. Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, p. 243.
10 Hildegard of Bingen, Saint, Scivias Domini (Know the Ways of the Lord), The Classics of Western Spirituality, 2, 6, 31, translated by Mother
Columba Hart and Jane Bishop (New York: Paulist Press, 1990), p. 257.
11 CCC, 602. Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, Part Two, Holy Week, p. 155.
12 CCC, 598.
13 CCC, 1137.
14 Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, p. 242.
15 CCC, 720.
16 Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, The Infancy Narratives, p. 80.
17 John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (Gospel of Life), 43.
18 Leo XIII, Aeterni Patris (Eternal Father), 11. John Paul II, Dominum Et Vivificantem (Lord and Giver or Life), 34. Francis, Lumen Fidei (On the
Light of Faith), 11. CCC, 296-298 & 2566.
19 Aquinas, Thomas, Summa Theologica, II, I, Q102, A5, Reply Obj. 1.
20 CCC, 527, 1150.
21 Aquinas, Saint Thomas, Summa Theologica, 70.
22 Aquinas, Thomas, Summa Theologica, III, Q62, A6, Reply Obj. 3.
23 Aquinas, Thomas, Summa Theologica, III Supplement, Q95, A4C.
24 Innocent III, “A Letter to the Archbishop of Arley,” (1201), The Church Teaches, p. 267.
25 CCC, 1216, 1272-1274, 1280, 1582 & 2769. Trent Council, The Council of Trent, “Sacraments in General,” Canon 9, p. 52.
26 CCC, 2769.
27 Hugh of Saint Victor, On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith (De Sacramentis), I, 11, I, 182.
28 Hugh of Saint Victor, On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith (De Sacramentis), I, 11, VIII, 185.
29 Hugh of Saint Victor, On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith (De Sacramentis), I, 12, II, 188.
30 Hugh of Saint Victor, On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith (De Sacramentis), I, 12, II, 189.
31 Hugh of Saint Victor, On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith (De Sacramentis), I, 12, II, 190.
32 CCC, 529. Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, The Infancy Narratives, pp. 70, 82.