In the most recent issue of Reformation Today is an article on the Old Testament roots of baptism. It is brief but very interesting. I have long held that baptism’s Old Covenant antecedant is not circumcision but I never really had anything to pin it to. Richard Gibson claims that baptism comes from the mikvah or ceremonial washing.

That makes a lot of sense to me. I couldn’t understand how a rite removing a piece of flesh from an eight-day old infant boy could change into a rite involving water. Furthermore, the NT never ties baptism to circumcision but does tie to to other OT events involving water. The passage through the parted Red Sea (1Co 10:2) and Noah’s safe voyage in the ark (1Pt 3:20-21) but not circumcision.

I know that Col 2:11-12 is often cited to establish the link between circumcision and baptism, but it doesn’t. Well, it does but not between OC circumcision and NC baptism but between NC circumcision and NC baptism. OC circumcision, as good as it ever got, could never be said to have been done “without hands” nor was it “the removal of the body of flesh”. If I understand NC circumcision correctly it is regeneration by the Holy Spirit. That fits the Col 2 description pretty well and seems to answer God’s repeated call in the OC to “circumcise your heart”.