>>symbolic

Understood. But my take on these things is from a talmudic or halachic pov. For example, I've always assumed that the original baptism would have been an immersion in a mikva, or "ritual bath" (a term I destest), which most natural bodies of water are and, so, also a purification. If a purification from transgression, as oppossed to "tuma" (impurity or "uncleanliness" -- such as one aquires by passing over a grave), then this would be consistent with the salvation, or purification, of rebirth in Christ.