The gates of heaven opened for his return�

Etymologically, per my Dictionary of Protolanguage Terms, ‘Bab’ and ‘Baptist’ are ancient, related terms referring to one charged with ‘opening the gate [to Heaven/Salvation]’ – of initiating. Baptism rituals, often involving cleansing or sprinkling with water, were practiced in pre-Christian times and are so ancient that we must accept the distinct possibility that bapto (Greek) – ‘to dip’ – is semantically derived from ‘bab’.

There are other similarities between the Babs. John the Baptist was beheaded while the Bab was executed by firing squad. Those whose God-blessed coming they foretold – as in Jesus and Bahaullah – were nevertheless accepted with great difficulty by the populace and there were always detractors around. Beyond even these similarities, Baha’i’s view Bahaullah as the fulfilment of Jesus’ return in the ‘Glory of God’. Indeed, we noted, ‘Baha-u-‘llah’ literally means ‘Glory of God’!