With regard to its symbolic meaning it is very useful—dead to the old personality and emerging as alive to do God’s will. However, the Jews had this concept in-built into their very vocabulary. For example, the word for life is chayim in Hebrew. Chayim is written in the plural to imply truths such as:
1) Life cannot be lived alone. We come to life not on our own, but through our parents who came, in turn, through their parents which ultimately starts from God. In other words, one’s life has meaning only when he knows he is a child of God. Interestingly, Chayim is formed from the word Chai (alive) and im (if), suggesting that being alive is conditional on our union with God in the truth.
2) The plural also indicates each of us lives more than one life—inner and outer. It is not enough to have an upwardly mobile outer life filled with material possessions. It is not satisfying unless a person also has a richer inner life filled with meaning and purpose.
Hence for a Jew, there was no need of being taught through Baptism.