Why historians trust the awkward story of Jesus's baptism
Historians rank the baptism of Jesus by John, alongside the crucifixion, among the two most certain facts about his life. The reason is revealing: early Christians had every motive to leave it out, since it showed a man they considered sinless submitting to a rite for washing away sins.
This reasoning is called the criterion of embarrassment. A story that puts John above Jesus served no purpose for the early church, so it was unlikely to be invented. Matthew's gospel seems aware of the problem: it alone adds a dialogue in which John protests that he should be baptised by Jesus instead, and Jesus persuades him to go ahead. A second test, multiple attestation, also applies, since Mark, Matthew, Luke, John and Acts all refer to John's baptising, though that alone proves age rather than truth.
Outside the Bible, the first-century historian Josephus described John's popularity, his preaching of baptism and his execution by Herod Antipas. Josephus never links John to Jesus, and that mismatch is one reason most scholars consider the passage genuine: a later Christian editor would have made it agree with the gospels. Luke dates John's preaching to the fifteenth year of Tiberius, which works out to about AD 28 to 29, depending on whether the reign is counted from AD 11 or AD 14.
The gospel writers each tell it differently. In all three synoptic accounts the Spirit descends and a heavenly voice speaks, but in Mark and Luke the voice addresses Jesus directly, while in Matthew it announces him to onlookers. Mark describes the heavens being torn open with the same verb he later uses for the ripping of the Temple veil. Luke insists the Spirit came in the bodily form of a dove and has Jesus praying at the moment. Immediately afterwards, Jesus goes into the desert to fast for forty days.
The traditional site, Al-Maghtas, lies on the Jordanian side of the river, near springs and a wadi rather than the main channel. UNESCO-backed excavations identified it as the earliest place of worship there, and Pope John Paul II visited in March 2000. Eastern churches mark the event at Epiphany on 6 January, while Western churches celebrate it the following week.
Source: Baptism of Jesus
