wash themselves, as was the normal procedure at other ritual baths and cleansings.19 This fact supports the first of the two ways of regarding the relationship between baptism and the remission of sins. John meant that God had sent him to perform the outer rite of cleansing which was the sign that God forgave those who had repented. In addition, it should be mentioned that the motif of remission fits well into the frame of eschatological expectations which we encountered in the passages quoted above.