Neither was proselyte baptism, which may have begun not long before Barnabas’s time, explicitly connected with forgiveness of sins. Rabbinic literature described the proselyte as not only ceremonially pure (Pes. 8.8) but also as separated from the grace (Pes. 8.8), as a newborn child (b. Yeb. 221; 48b; 62a), as becoming a different person (b. Yeb. 23a), as repenting and changing life (the late Qoh. R. 1.8.4), and becoming a freed person (B. Yeb. 46a), and becoming an Israelite in all respects (b. Yeb. 47b). But these descriptions seem to refer more to legal status (Sheb. 10.9; Yeb. 11.2; Hull. 10.4) and not to entail an inner rebirth. (Everett Ferguson, “Christian and Jewish Baptism According to the Epistle of Barnabas,” in Dimensions of Baptism: Biblical and Theological Studies (Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series 234; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002], 213)
