John typically baptized out of the river Jordan. It was in the central part of Judaea and was a large river most of the time. It had both political and religious significance. It wasn’t the cleanest river in the area, however. Not only was this not “holy water”, it wasn’t even clean water most of the time. This was the same river that Naaman didn’t want to dip in when he went to Elisha to be cured of leprosy back in 2
Kings 5.
There was a time when John went elsewhere to baptize; not for a cleaner source, not for anything whimsical, but for pure necessity.
John 3:23
And John also was baptizing in Aenon near
to Salim, because there was much water
there: and they came, and were baptized.
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The Facts About Scriptural Baptism
When the Jordan wasn’t deep enough for immersion during the dry season, John didn’t change the ordinance; he changed his location. Immersion was important to John; he baptized as God told him; this wasn’t something he learned by watching someone else do it, he got his instructions from God Himself. John didn’t feel qualified to change this mode, and he wasn’t.
The New Testament church today still uses immersion, the literal definition of baptism. This was how God commanded John to do it and neither John nor the New Testament church ever changed this method. Doing such is a departure of the faith.
Mark 1:5
And there went out unto him all the land of
Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all
baptized of him in the river of Jordan,