Immersion (religion)
The immersion of a person or of things in the water has in religions (denominations) often a special religious significance.
Creation myth
In the creation myth of the Bible, the completely submerged land, which is released on the third day, is an important element of creation itself and shows the special role of water, which originally covered everything. See Genesis 1: 9 and 1:10:
“ Then God said: Let the water below the sky gather in one place so that the dryness may be seen. So it happened. God called the dry land and the accumulated water the sea. God saw, it was good. "
Immersing people or things
Submerging a person or an object in water can be an element of ritual purification , for people also the acceptance into a religious community or the forgiveness of sins etc. A distinction is made between
- complete immersion or just
- Immersion in water or
- sprinkle with water with the symbolic effect of immersion or immersion.
In contrast to washing , in which ritual purity is also to be established or restored, immersion or symbolic immersion affects the whole body and not just individual extremities .
Islam
The Muslim faith knows elaborate and detailed cleaning regulations. However, complete immersion is not a special arrangement that is absolutely necessary for religious cleansing. On the contrary, excessive water consumption during washing is considered a reprehensible act ( Makrūh , see also: Wudū ' , Ghusl , Tahāra , Shahid , Hammām ).
Hinduism
Submerging the believer in waters, especially in holy places and here especially along the Ganges , means in Hinduism the hope for the forgiveness of sins and the purification of the soul. If complete immersion in the water in a sacred place is not possible, there are alternative options, such as B. sprinkling with Ganges water.
Judaism
Water has a special meaning in Judaism and even death (a dead body) cannot pollute the living water.
The mikveh ( Hebrew : living water) is a ritual bath with running pure water, which exists in every Jewish community and plays an important role in Judaism (e). Only those who completely submerge themselves ( Tevila ) are purified from ritual impurity . Even things that have become unclean can be ritually cleansed by immersion ( kaschern ).
When converting a non-Jew to Judaism, one of the three most important requirements is complete immersion in a mikveh . However, there are cases of impurity in which immersion alone is not enough (cases of serious illness, the woman's menstruation, the birth of a child - see also: Nidda (mixed natractic) ).
Christianity
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The immersion of the person to be baptized into water is often generally understood in the Christian church communities as in the sense of "immersion" (outdated: submersion, from late Latin submersio = to immerse, to Latin submersum, submers). This is done by completely submerging the entire body or just the extremities (e.g. without a head, so-called immersion). Immersion is considered to be the essence of baptism, even if it is not fully carried out or only indicated by sprinkling with water.
Baptism by complete or far-reaching immersion in water is practiced by following denominations: Old Catholic Church (first form), Baptists , Bible Student movement , Brethren , Calvary Chapel , Christadelphians , Elim churches , Free Protestant congregations , Church of Christ , ICF , Jesus- Freaks , Church of the Nazarene , Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , Mennonites , Mennonite Brethren , Roman Catholic Church (Form 1), Orthodox Church , Pentecostals , Seventh-day Adventists , Jehovah's Witnesses .
See also: baptistery
Early Christianity
In early Christianity, baptism was most likely carried out by being completely immersed in water. As a result, the break with the previous identity was expressed in the nightly baptism ceremony. The baptized went naked into the baptismal font and were doused with water three times, resisted the evil and the futility of a life far removed from God and decided to renounce this world, to no longer define themselves by success and achievement, by pleasure and debauchery, but by Christ here.
Purification by ritual immersion in water, however, is not common.
Mormon
The fourth article of faith in Mormonism reads: We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the gospel are: first, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, repentance; third, immersion baptism for the forgiveness of sins; fourth, the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Remarks
- ↑ See also Volker Zimmermann: The treatise on “daz lebig wasser” from the Heidelberg manuscript Cod. Pal. germ. 786 - 'The Jew's Book of Kreuczenach'. In: Specialized prose research - Crossing borders. Volume 4/5, 2008/2009, pp. 113-123.
- ↑ III.BM. 11:36; Jerem. 2: 13. See also Michael Rosenkranz: Mikveh - Immersion in Living Water , March 31, 2014.
- ↑ In the Torah it is written that one should bathe - statement by Rav Yonah haKohen (John Cohn) in Mishnayot, Part IV / Toharoth; Verlag Victor Goldschmidt, Basel, 1968), quoted from Michael Rosenkranz: Mikwe - The immersion in living water , March 31, 2014.
- ↑ Everything that has become impure, be it people, be it objects, ... can only become pure again by immersion in ... water , section Hilkhoth miqwa'oth in: Yad ha-chazaqqah by Rav Moscheh ben Maimon, called Maimonides.
- ↑ Bettina Dyttrich: Who animates living water .
- ↑ Bible: Matthew 3:16; John 3:23; Acts 8:36, 38
- ↑ Friedrich Brenner: Catholic Dogmatics Volume 2: Specielle Dogmatik Volume 1. JB Bäuerle, Rottenburg am Neckar, 1831, p. 92. Web link
- ↑ D & C 20: 73.74
- ↑ Udo Schnelle : Baptism. In: Evangelisches Kirchenlexikon, Volume 4. Göttingen 1996, Col. 663: “Probably… usually by submerging in running water”. See also: Matthew 3: 5-6, John 3: 22-23, Acts 8: 36-38.
- ↑ So Anselm Grün: "The Sacrament of Baptism", Vier-Türme-GmbH Verlag, Münsterschwarzach 2008, 1st edition.
- ↑ See on this article of faith e.g. B. the curriculum - religious instruction of the Church of Jesus Christ HLT, ÖBGBl. No. 239/1988, Appendix 1.