From your link.....
"By the time of Christ, ceremonial cleanliness by water had become institutionalized into a purity ritual involving full immersion in a mikveh (or miqveh), a “collection of water.”
Mikveh purification was required of all Jews before they could enter the Temple or participate in major festivals. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims converged on Jerusalem for Passover and other major feasts. One hundred mikvehs, attesting to the need for water purification before entering into Temple rites, have been found by Hebrew University’s Benjamin Mazar around the wall adjacent to Herod’s Temple. Mikvehs, resembling large bathtubs or small garden ponds, have been found in Jericho and elsewhere in Israel.
The ancient Jews tried to make sure their family’s mikveh was connected to a source of “living water” like a spring or well, but that was not always possible. Tap water could not be used as the primary source of water for the mikveh, but the rabbis decided you could “top off” the mikveh to a suitable level with a little tap water. The rule of thumb was that the mikveh should be big enough to hold 40 seahs of water. When asked how much volume a seah was, the rabbis said it was enough to fit 144 eggs.
If there were less than 40 seahs of water (enough to hold 5,760 eggs) in a mikveh, you could not add even 3-4 more pints of water from an unnatural source because that would render the mikveh unfit for use. It would have to be drained and refilled. A simple ritual had been turned into a legalistic nightmare prefiguring the disputes of the Christians over methods of baptism.
It has been a temptation in all religions to replace the ritual for the reality it was meant to reflect."
By the time of Christ's entry into the world as Messiah, (at his baptism) the Jews had strayed from the spirit of the law in many ways whilst making a pretense of keeping it....only 'better'. Regardless of accepted Jewish practice in the day, John is accredited with performing the first "baptism" which was in symbol of repentance against breaking the Mosaic Law Covenant. This did not guarantee that the person would accept Christ, but it was more conducive to becoming a disciple if you already acknowledged your sins and the need to accept the perpetual sacrifice of Jesus on your behalf.
The full immersion of Christian baptism has little to do with washing sins away...it is Jesus blood that does the spiritual cleansing.
1 John 1:7...
"However, if we are walking in the light as he himself is in the light, we do have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin."
The Apostle Peter compares Christian baptism to Noah's ark. That vessel carried 8 souls through the end of that wicked system of things and on into a cleansed new start.
1 Peter 3:18-22....
"For Christ died once for all time for sins, a righteous person for unrighteous ones, in order to lead you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit. 19 And in this state he went and preached to the spirits in prison, 20 who had formerly been disobedient when God was patiently waiting in Noah’s day, while the ark was being constructed, in which a few people, that is, eight souls, were carried safely through the water.
21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, is also now saving you (not by the removing of the filth of the flesh, but by the request to God for a good conscience), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 22 He is at God’s right hand, for he went to heaven, and angels and authorities and powers were made subject to him."
The ark, built from the ground up with their own hands, was what saved that family, so strict obedience to God's instructions was required, along with a firm resolve to see the project through to the end. The "vessel" we build today is our own personal relationship with the God of Jesus, with him guiding the whole construction, clearly outlined in God's word.
Forgiveness of our sins gives us a clean conscience before our God as we again face a situation similar to "the days of Noah" (Matthew 24:37-39)
This is how I see it.
