what we might call personal piety among some Jewish groups. This seems to be what's going on in the Essene group. And it may also be what's reflected in the story of John, who practices baptism.

Initially it seems that it was adults who believed in Jesus who were baptised, but over time baptising infants began. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands.

Baptism has been a symbolic way of joining the Church from the very start of Christianity. It actually predates Christianity; John the Baptist baptized Jews before Jesus came on the scene, and so ...