ministry of baptizing for the forgiveness of sins. The common use of Isa 40:3, explaining why both the Essenes and John were in the desert, could of course be a sheer coincidence, but when it is considered with the other factors, it becomes significant. 4. Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, John’s baptism was often explained as a ritual washing derived from the baptism of proselytes among the Jews.7 That explanation, however, often raised more problems than it solved, mainly because there