Could baptism confer gnosis? Perhaps; the rite was certainly important to the Gnostics. The Mandaeans had a daily baptism ritual. Other cults, including the Christian Gnostics, used some form of baptism with water and a declaration. From the Gospel of the Egyptians, it appears that candidates may have been expected to understand from the myth how the earth was generated and how Seth incarnated as the savior figure Jesus. Engaged in the rite, the baptismal candidate had to sing a hymn as a response to the transcendent vision that was expected as part of the rite. Baptismal candidates might have been expected to learn the hymn with its parts broken by a series of vowels in long sequences that some experts have asserted might be Christian glossolalia or speaking in tongues. The term “glossolalia” derives from the Greek words glōssa (tongue) and lalein (to babble or talk). The speaking in tongues was mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles as a gift of the Holy Spirit. It was one of the charismas the Holy Spirit bestowed upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost. The Apostle Paul, however, put forth rules governing Christian use of the gift of tongues in 1 Corinthians 14. Paul counseled churchgoers to pray with the spirit but also with understanding and to use the speaking in tongues to edify the whole church, not to show off.

The baptismal candidates made what seemed to be a profession of faith, declaring that they have commingled their natures with the living water of the Divine, thus they could perceive the Divine within. Also, the new Gnostic apparently was given a glimpse of the path to the Divine that he or she would necessarily have to inwardly traverse.