oaths which were required by the Essenes, according to Josephus,36 and at Qumran (1QS, I, 16ff.; V, 8ff.), for entrance into the covenant.37 As an oath-sign of allegiance to Christ the Lord, baptism is a sacrament in the original sense of sacramentum in its etymological relation to the idea of consecration, and more particularly in its employment for the military oath of allegiance.38 And if the immediate function of baptism in covenant administration is to serve as the ritual of an oath of discipleship,