Baptism before the Church

Baptism is usually synonymous with a cleansing of some sort. It has been used as way to enter into a congregation. Many cultures before Christianity used baptism as a right of passage. Baptism was used in pagan cultures because of the purifying qualities of water. There are also symbolic baptisms throughout the whole Old Testament. The parting and crossing through the Red Sea was a symbolic baptism of the Israelites. If you look at Baptism as an entrance to the Church, circumcision was one of the requirements to enter into Judaism. Circumcision can be called a type of baptism in this way. In the Catholic sense, Baptism is symbolic of washing away our sins.