Baptism does appear in Judaism, usually as washing of the “impurity” of being defiled by material objects esp dead things, since they take the Zoroastrian practice of fire purity and the belief that to be around Yahweh, the fire, they had to cleanse their defilement.

Zoroastrian priests would wear a veil over their faces so as not to “pollute” the sacred flame, which also burned as a perpetual fire in the Temple in Jerusalem.

Christian baptism is from the Greek mystery religions.

A very common way of investigating false narratives is to probe their omissions – this is how we have been able to reconstruct the likely sources of the gospel stories. For example, they all omit the period of Jesus’ youth.

Mikvah, the ceremonial baptism, was allegedly practiced by the “Essenes,” but we have no substantive proof this group existed, and in my view, they are a later group from Emesa, today Homs, Phoenicians that worshipped in the cult of Elegabaal or Heliogabalus.
Comparative mythology should help.

Take a look at an early Greek myth. This is about Kadmus, the founder of Thebes, whose father was Agenor, a Phoenician (ethnic Jew before Judaism).

Apollodorus 3.4 (James George Frazer, Ed.)

When Telephassa died, Cadmus [a Phoenician, Kanaanite, Levantine] buried her, and after being hospitably received by the Thracians [today Bulgaria or “Rascia”] he came to Delphi [temple site to Apollo, Apollo & Artemis are Gemini, twins] to inquire about Europa [his sister]. The god told him not to trouble about Europa, but to be guided by a cow [Taurus]…

Wishing to sacrifice the cow to Athena, he sent some of his companions to draw water from the spring of Ares [Yahweh of the Armies]. But a dragon, which some said was the offspring of Ares, guarded the spring and destroyed most of those that were sent. In his indignation Cadmus killed the dragon, and by the advice of Athena sowed its teeth. When they were sown there rose from the ground armed men whom they called Sparti.

… But Pherecydes says that when Cadmus saw armed men growing up out of the ground, he flung stones at them, and they, supposing that they were being pelted by each other, came to blows. However, five of them survived, Echion, Udaeus, Chthonius, Hyperenor, and Pelorus.

1 Samuel 17:45

Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Yahweh of the Armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.

This day will Yahweh of the Armies deliver thee into my hand; and I will smite thee, and take thy head from thee;

…And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and flunged it with his sling, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.

Pausanias:

The Thebans in ancient days used to sacrifice bulls to Apollo of the Ashes.

Leviticus 4:4

He shall bring the bull to the door of the Tent of Meeting before Yahweh; and he shall lay his hand on the head of the bull, and kill the bull before Yahweh.

The priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle some of the blood seven times before Yahweh, before the veil of the sanctuary.

… The priest shall burn them on the altar of burnt offering.

Exod. 29:18

You shall burn the whole ram on the altar: it is a burnt offering to Yahweh; it is a pleasant aroma, an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

Numbers 19:16 – Baptism

Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain with a sword, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.

For the unclean they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the sin offering; and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel:

and a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, … and on the seventh day he shall purify him; and he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at evening.

But the man who shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of Yahweh: the water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean.

Baptism is to cleanse oneself from impurities of “flesh” and “death” in the presence of God, who is FIRE. They believed fire was pure and holy. “Our god is a all consuming fire.” “Burning bush.” This is why the scapegoat goat to Azazel is NOT killed. Fire touching the scapegoat would be defiling god, ie fire.

Apollodorus:

[2] But Cadmus, to atone for the slaughter, served Ares for an eternal year; and the year was then equivalent to eight years of our reckoning. After his servitude Athena procured for him the kingdom, and Zeus gave him to wife Harmonia, daughter of Aphrodite and Ares.

Exod 23:36

Seven days ye shall present an offering by fire to Jehovah; on the eighth day shall be a holy convocation unto you; and ye shall present an offering by fire to Jehovah: it is a solemn assembly; no manner of servile work shall ye do.

Semele is mother of Dionysus, born to a virgin birth since his mother slept with Zeus.

So, Agenor – Kadmus – Semele – Dionysus/Bacchus/Iesus/Jesus. “Dion Iyesus” God Jesus

[3] But Zeus loved Semele and bedded with her unknown to Hera.

In Judaism, the feminine divine is AsHera, Asherah. Shekhchina today.

“Zeus came to her bridal chamber in a chariot, with lightnings and thunderings, and launched a thunderbolt. But Semele expired of fright, and Zeus, snatching the sixth-month abortive child from the fire, sewed it in his thigh. [Circumcision, covenant, surrogacy for death of first born].

On the death of Semele the other daughters of Cadmus spread a report that Semele had bedded with a mortal man, and had falsely accused Zeus, and that therefore she had been blasted by thunder. But at the proper time Zeus undid the stitches and gave birth to Dionysus, and entrusted him to Hermes. And he conveyed him to Ino and Athamas, and persuaded them to rear him as a girl. [Proper time is 9 months, so 9–6=3 months, how old was Jesus when he began ministry? 33.]

So you have a continually repeating motive – ruler or person in power wants to kill the children, especially our hero (Sargon, Pharaoh kills Hebrew children, Moses’ mother “hides” him by placing him into a basket, Herod orders all children 2 years or younger be killed, Jesus is saved by fleeing and hiding in Egypt, Hera wants to kill Dionysus, Zeus turns him into a child and they dress him up as a girl, Achilles is dressed up as a girl also.

James Frazer (expert in Apollodorus) writes:

“Dionysus bore the title of Kid. See Hesychius, s.v. Ἔριφος ὁ διόνυσος; Stephanus Byzantius, s.v. Ἀκρώρεια. When the gods fled into Egypt to escape the fury of Typhon [Serpent], Dionysus is said to have been turned into a goat. See Ant. Lib. 28; Ov. Met. 5.39; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. p. 29 (First Vatican Mythographer 86). As a god of fertility, Dionysus appears to have been conceived as embodied, now in the form of a goat, now in the form of a bull; and his worshippers accordingly entered into communion with him by rending and devouring live goats and bulls. See Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, i.12ff., ii.1ff. The goat was the victim regularly sacrificed in the rites of Dionysus, because the animal injured the vine by gnawing it; but the reason thus alleged for the sacrifice may have been a later interpretation. See Verg. G. 2.380-384, who refers the origin both of tragedy and of comedy to these sacrifices of goats in honour of the wine-god. Compare Varro, Re. Rust. i.2.19; Ovid, Fasti i.353ff.;Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae Compendium 30; Serv. Verg. A. 3.118.

Coincidentally, what do we call children colloquially in English? Kids.

Ezra 6:16

and they presented at the dedication of this house of God a hundred bullocks, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and for a sin-offering for all Israel, twelve he-goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. [Apostles, constellations]

“Communion” with me, “my flesh” “my blood,” “wine” “bread” “do this in remembrance of me.”

[Sidenote, hillarity:

“But if the bull had a habit of goring in the past, and it has been testified to its owner, and he has not kept it in, but it has killed a man [a Jew] or a woman, the bull shall be stoned, and its owner shall also be put to death. (Exod. 21:29)

“Whether it has gored a son or has gored a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be done to him. (All victims of bull goring independent of sex, gender or sexual orientation are worthy of the same protections against bull goring) Ex 21:31.

“If the bull gores a male slave or a female slave, thirty shekels of silver shall be given to their master, and the ox shall be stoned.” (Exod 21:32)]