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THE LANGUAGE
The words Baptist, Baptize, and Baptism are words that have become a part of our English heritage, and are forms of the Greek words that are anglicized. The
non-Christian Greek literature's usage of these words give an insight into their meaning, but, first, the family of words associated with Baptism are as follows:
1. BAPTO, verb, BAP-To, fr. BAPH.TO (present tense) BATH, BASK (BATH SIK, bathe self). Baptizing is causative, the persons or things baptized
are so associated or identified with the baptismal element causing a changed and different relationship than existed hitherto.
2. BAPTISMA, noun. The act that identifies one thing or person to another. Christ's Death-baptism was to be shared by others, Luke 12:50;
Mark 10:38,39; Matt. 20:22,23a; Romans 6:3. Christ's Death-baptism was for all.
3. BAPTIZO, verb. To baptize, dip. To dye a garment, to draw water or wine, to be overwhelmed by debts, tragedy, or death. The baptisms of the Red Sea Crossing, 1Cor. 10:2, safety of the Ark, 1Pet.3:21, and Christ's baptism in holy spirit gifts, (not the Giver), and fire (judgment of Israel), Matt. 3:11, were all "dry" non-water baptisms, as was that of Christ's Death Baptism. Luke 12:50.
4. BAPTISMOS, noun. Certain Baptismal accounts reflect the ritualistic washings of the Pharisees so condemned by Christ. Mark 7:4,8.
George Williams, in the Student's Commentary On The Holy Scriptures, makes the following observation, "They (The Hebrews) were urged to go on from the infancy of the Baptist's
ministry (Heb. 6:1,2) and from the childhood of Pentecostal miracles (vs. 4-5) to full manhood (perfection) . . . John preached the rudiments of the teaching respecting the Messiah - that is
repentance, faith, ceremonial washings, and in obedience to Leviticus, of laying their sinful hands on the head of the sacrificial lamb . . ." End excerpt. Growing into maturity
the child-training elementary things were to be left behind, this included O.T. baptisms. The various "washing-baptisms" of Hebrews 9:10 were imposed upon Israel only until a time
of reformation. They were never meant to be continued beyond their consummation date, Israel embracing the New Covenant-which she never did.
5. BAPTISTES, noun. BAPTIST. Dipper. This title could arise because one person "dipped" another person, or "dipped" a
vessel into water and poured the water upon another person. It describes a person who "dyes" cloth by "dipping" it. "Dipping" allows an exit from its
element whereas "immersion" needs to be qualified. An "immersion" pump is intended to function under water.
In this study the simplest designations will be used of the words under consideration, ignoring the Greek grammar as much as possible; the Greek student does not need it and
its use would merely confuse the English reader. Nearly all the O.T. quotations are from the Greek O.T. designated as LXX, the Septuagint.
BAPTO
The verb BAPTO, is aptly illustrated in Alcibiades' "Epigram On The Comic Poet Eupolis;"
You DIPPED (bapto) me in plays:
But I, in waves, of the Sea, baptizing,
Will destroy thee with streams more bitter.
The author is simply saying: "You dipped me (made a joke of me) but I will kill you, drown you, in streams of bitterness." The mere "dipping," bapto,
is vividly contrasted with the baptizing resulting in death. The dyeing of cloth was done by DIPPING the cloth into a color vat until it reached the desired hue. The Lord's garments
were said to have been DIPPED, dyed, in blood, Rev. 19:13, a portrayal of the blood upon a warrior's cloak being that of his late enemies. This is a highly symbolical passage, with phantom
heavenly horses and riders, and with Christ pictured as having a sword coming from His mouth, His brow swathed with the emblems of conquest, His eyes of fire, smiting the nations with the sword of
His mouth, and Shepherding the nations with a staff of iron. He has this right, since He alone has trodden the winepress of the wrath of God. The blood upon His garments is the blood of
the Lamb through which He takes away the sin of the world. (Not by a physical sword but by the Word of God).
BAPTO, in its non-Biblical usage is adequately translated by "dip" or "dipping," as in Homer's Odyssey, IX. 391-4:
The object is limited as to size and placed into an element and then withdrawn. There seems to be a lack of permanency in the element and the time involved:
One evening he took a chaplet of flowers from his head, dipped
(bapto) it in the richest essences, and sent it from his table to
Artaxerxes. Plutarch, Artaxerxes XXIII.
In the LXX (Greek O.T.) it is related to vessels:
Every vessel in which work should be done, shall be dipped into water. Lev. 11:32.
Several things are seen here:
In Lev. 14:6 (LXX) we find the required formula for the re-admitting of a leper to society:
And he shall dip (bapto) them (the living bird, the cedar wood, and the hyssop) into the blood of the bird that was slain over living water.
The typology is startling -- a slain and yet living symbol of re-claiming redemption by making a person whole again. This is seen in the slain and living birds, the
earthen vessel, the wood, the scarlet, and the hyssop, to identify it all with the former leper. All of this portrays the ONE Who took the earth-form of a slave and bore the wood of the cursed
tree, whose blood sufficed to justify all, including the leprous sinner, to present all as free from condemnation, and to show in the freedom of the resurrection that while death had already taken
place, He will forever sustain those for whom He died, because He lives. The leper could do nothing for himself, it all must be done for him. Here is a shadow-picture of our Saviour's
Baptism of Death. Death took place first, the wings of the living bird then being dipped into the blood of the co-sacrifice. The picture is one, though illustrated by two birds. The
living water speaks of cleansing, as when Christ washed Peter's feet, (John 13:6). It also speaks of Christ being the Living Water, (John 4:14). In Numbers 19:19 LXX, some of the same
elements are mentioned:
. . . and a clean man shall take hyssop and dip (bapto) it into the water . . .
Here again are found the wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet. The victim was to be a red heifer, its ashes were to be mixed with water and carried outside the camp as a
sin-offering already accepted by God and including in itself provision for all "outsiders." Hebrews 13:12 speaks of Christ being outside the camp of Israel and others are asked to
join Him "outside" the Camp. The ashes of the Red Heifer Offering were available to anyone, (Lev. 19:9). Its ashes could be carried away, mixed with water, and using the hyssop
sprig, applied to the individual. It was a water of cleansing, a purification for sin set within the kindergarten of types and shadows that awaited its Anti-type, the Christ, in Whose perfect
person and complete work it was fulfilled. It was this "dipping" into death, and the "death" then applied by the hyssop, to which the remorseful King David had reference in
Psalm 51 after his sin with Bathsheba. (Under the Law of Moses he would have been put to death). Note what he asked God to do for him:
Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Vs. 2.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Vs. 7
David asked God to apply the hyssop, to thereby initiate the forgiveness and full expiation implied in the sin-offering already accepted by God. This, in a larger sense
would be in the Ant-type, Christ, as the Law made no provision for high-handed offenses or blood-guiltiness. David, because of his offenses, would have become "separated" from his
heritage, and under the Law, from life itself.
It was the WATER of Purification (in connection with the sacrifice of the Red Heifer and the hyssop with which the damp ashes were applied to which Christ had reference
in His reply to Nicodemus, John 3:5). David had asked that a right spirit be renewed in him, Psalm 51:10, this corresponds to the "spirit" portion spoken of as the New Birth.
The New Birth was something that this Sanhedrinist and every Israelite could experience and it was among those "earthly" things that these people were supposed to know. The very word
"birth" should have alerted any Israelite as to whom was being spoken of by Jesus Christ as the Jew by birth had been covenanted to God whereas the Gentile was not. Christ, in
applying the symbolism of the uplifted serpent to Himself, (John 3:14 cf. John 12:32,33) was revealing to Nicodemus that God loves, redemptively. The full and complete transfer of the serpent
symbolism would have to await the actual crucifixion; but while the O.T. law of the sin offerings was then still in force, Nicodemus and others could substitute in their thoughts and in their hearts,
the person of their suffering Messiah, and His soon-to-be-finished work. In the meantime, until the judicial act was fully accomplished the Levitical sin offerings with all their statutes
abolished, and Israelite would continue with his offerings, his baptisms, and his new birth. In availing himself of the water of purification in connection with the sin-offering, a testimony
was being given to the efficacy of the offering for sin. The death of the sin-offering with its sprinkling application was viewed as defiling, hence an Israelite would then bathe (baptize)
himself in pure or running water. The Ezekiel passage (36:25) refers to this, not the initial but to the concluding step to complete the symbolism of cleansing.
Then will I sprinkle (dash, throw, jerk, cf. Lev. 1:5) clean water upon you and ye shall be clean. . .
Nowhere do the visions of Ezekiel set aside the sin-offerings, as some have suggested; nor are its scenes projected outside of the framework of Israel. Ezekiel knows
nothing of the completed, and never to be repeated, finished work of Christ. Admittedly, Hebrews 9:10 speaks of the "different" washing-baptisms which Ezekiel envisioned as being a
part of his plans for the second temple, effective upon Israel's restoration from Babylon, but the Hebrew's passage speaks of another "Perfect Tabernacle," unlike Ezekiel's temple, this one "not
made by hands," that is, not an earthly building at all, but that which the appointments of the Tabernacle typified, namely, the person and work of Christ, Hebrews 9:11-14; 10:12. Once
again (Hebrews 9:13), the sprinkled ashes are mentioned, but only to point out how inferior the types were to the reality of Christ's sacrificial death to put away sin by the offering of Himself,
Hebrews 9:14, 25, 26. The inadequacy of the Aaronic High Priesthood was that their investiture was only "until death," after this a "CRISIS," Greek, krisis, or a
"SEPARATING." This is illustrated in the case of man-slaughter; the death of the High Priest terminated the exile of the one sentenced to the City of Refuge, Numbers 35:25, cf.
Hebrews 9:127. The one leaving the City of Refuge would look to the new High Priest for continued protection. The new High Priest would appear to the man-slayer without any further
charges and would be to him both "Deliverer" and "Restorer." The "judgment" or "crisis" in his case would be a "favorable" one and the avenger
of blood could no longer seek his life. The passage (Hebrews 9:27) points up the inadequacy of animal sacrifices and a priesthood that was always changing due to the death of the High Priest,
whereas when Christ offered Himself once for all and rose from the dead in the power of an endless life. The efficacy of His work was never impaired.
The next usage in the LXX (Greek O. T.) of BAPTO is in the Book of Job, Chapter 9:30 (vs. 30-31 in the A.V.):
For if I could wash myself with snow, Thou hadst thoroughly dipped (bapto) me in filth, and my garment had abhorred me . . . LXX.
E'en though I bathe in water pure as snow,
and wash my hands clean with soap;
E'en then Thou wouldest plunge me in the ditch;
And make me an
abhorrance to my clothes. C.B.
Job's long trial was made ever more bitter by his flesh being polluted by boils. His well-meaning friends compounded his misery by seeking to get at its cause by
drawing their prescriptions from three basic tenets: (1) Human Traditions, (2) Human Experiences (3) Human Meriting. They supposed that in these frail reasonings were to be found
the answer to Job's trial. Their suppositions are still with us: "I've heard . . ." or, ". . . according to my experience," or, ". . . he must have
offended God or man . . . " They were physicians of no avail to Job's piteous state, nor could they give an answer to the great question of the Book of Job:
HOW SHALL MAN BE JUST WITH GOD? Job 9:2 C.B.
In spite of Job's evaluation of his own character, in spite of all he had done to keep himself pure, Job looked beyond Satan's assault and felt it was God's hand
that was dipping (bapto) him in misery's filth. He neither knew its cause, nor how to escape from this ditch. His afflictions made him a reproach to himself, and in his bitterness
he reproached God. He longed for an Arbiter, a Daysman, One who was able to set out his defense before God, 9:32,33. Job found his Arbiter, 33:6, only to discover that God did not demand
anything of a poor sinner, rather:
Then He doth show him grace (Divine, and saith): Deliver him from going down to death; A RANSOM I have found - Redemption's price."
. . . Who grace and kindly favour sheweth him, So that he looketh up to God with joy, Thus, doth (God) give to man HIS righteousness. Job 33:24, 26 C.B.
God is just and holy; as such He made provision in the judicial aspects of Christ's death for a universal and equitable justification, Romans 3:24-26. In
Christ's person and work God puts His hand upon us both judicially and in amnesty. If the glory of man is to be made Christlike, then whatever "dipping" into wretchedness may
transpire can be made subservient to that end notwithstanding Job's type of bitterness or Paul's goads and "thorns." Some see only the trials of life; others see God.
Whether seen or not, whether understood or not, whether reproachful of God or not, yet all is out of His love. Like Elihu, the youth of the Book of Job, if a choice is discernible, justify God,
even though it may mean condemning oneself rather than God.
Exodus 12:22, LXX, furnishes an apt illustration of BAPTO in connection with the hyssop sprig:
. . . take a bunch of hyssop, and having dipped (bapto) it in some of the blood . . .
Of this event Sir Robert Anderson writes:
By the blood of the Paschal Lamb the Israelites were redeemed in Egypt, in all the hopelessness and degradation of their bondage.
No Israelite was ever to be "Washed In the Blood OF The Lamb." The concept of being bathed in blood was pagan, and is based upon an erroneous translation of Rev. 1:5. Blood poured out speaks of death, of life as poured out, given in behalf of another. The "soul" of the flesh was in the blood, hence:
. . . Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin . . .
. . . He hath poured out His soul unto death. . . Isaiah 53:10,12
"Soul" is a synonym for "life;" Christ poured out His life in behalf of others. Blood poured out symbolized the sacrificial aspect of His
death. The expression, "To plead His blood" is not found in the Word of God, and is as pagan as when the sacrament of the Mass is spoken of as being a Sacrifice - as though Christ had
to die again and again. Calling the Communion Table an "Altar" is blasphemous. The "sprig" of "hyssop" dipped in the blood of the lamb and sprinkled on the
top and sides of the doorway sufficed to say that death had already taken place and that "Death's Angel" would "pass over" without claiming a victim. Paul sees the
fulfillment of the Passover for the Jew in Christ:
The fleshly, carnal ordinances imposed upon Israel until the time of reformation included various kinds of washings or baptisms, Hebrews 9:10. Among these were an
annual Passover Feast to commemorate that historic event, and out of this has come the travestied "Lord's Supper" of Christianity. Having Christ, the reality of all types and
shadows, we do not need the trappings of anyone's religion, however divine it may have been at its inception. Israel's redemption in Egypt was by sprinkling a door's lintel and
posts with drops of blood, a "Baptism of Death" to save from death. As a nation Israel was to experience redemption from the power and authority of Egypt via the "Dry-Baptism"
of the Red Sea crossing, 1 Cor.10:2. No water touched them either in the Cloud-presence or the Sea-bed crossing; the Egyptians died, being immersed in the sea.
Usages of BAPTO in the LXX and Greek N.T. are:
In Lev. 4:6,17; 14:16 as "dipping" a finger in blood. In Deut. 33:24 as "dipping" a foot in oil. In Joshua 3:15 of the priests
"dipping" their feet in the Jordan. In Ruth 2:14 of "dipping" food in vinegar. In 1Sam. 14:27 of "dipping" a staff in a honey-comb. In 2Kings A.V. of
cloth "dipped" in water. In Dan. 4:30; 5:21 of the king's body "dipped" in the dew of heaven. In Ps. 68:23 of "dipping" a foot in an enemy's
blood. The N.T. usage is similar to that of the Old Testament:
Luke 16:24 . . . he may dip the tip of his finger . . .
John 13:26 . . . to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped (it). And when He had dipped the sop
(morsel) . . .
Rev. 19:13 . . . clothed with a vesture dipped in blood . . .
Matt. 26:23; Mark 14:20; and John 13:26 use the same word with a prefix added: "in-dipping" the morsel and giving it to Judas was the manner in which Christ
revealed to the rest of the company who His betrayer would be.
Whatever mode may be inferred from the usage of BAPTO, the inference should be tempered with the duration of the act, the item's size, and the symbolism implied.
DIPPING, on the whole, seems adequate as a translation of BAPTO.
BAPTIZO
In this study examples will be drawn from Biblical and classical usages to illustrate the meaning of this word. In the Greek text, spellings will vary according
to grammatical syntax; except for the Greek middle-voice these will be ignored for the English reader.
The Greeks used this word BAPTIZE in the same way ancient and modern writers use it, to express a total or great calamity, as seen in Don Cassius's account of the Battle
of Actium, Roman History, Book 1, Ch. 32:
. . . the other from above BAPTIZING (sinking) them with stones and engines . . .
. . . for our vessel having been BAPTIZED (sunk) in the midst of the Adriatic, being about six hundred in number, we swam through the whole night . . . Life
of Josephus, Sec. 111.
Since the word implied death, destruction or calamity, Josephus used it in his book, "Wars Of The Jews," Book 111, ch. 9:3:
. . . and many struggling against the opposing swell toward the open sea . . . the billow rising high above BAPTIZED (drowned) them . . .
When Molon sent his cavalry through the marshes to attack Xenotas, the resulting pain, death, and tragedy that beset his forces are spoken of as BAPTIZING them:
. . . through ignorance of the localities, required no enemy but themselves, by themselves BAPTIZING (drowning and floundering) sinking down in the pools, were all
useless, and also many of them perished . . . Polybuis, Hist. Bk.V, ch. 47.
The flood-tide (in-coming tide) about the Pillars of Hercules, and the ebb-tide (out-going tide) uses the term BAPTISM to describe the overwhelming eagre or tidal bore caused
by this sea action:
. . . desert places full of rushes and seaweed, which when it is ebb-tide are not BAPTIZED but when it is flood-tide, are flooded. Asitotkle, Wonderful Reports, 136.
In Plutarch's Life of Sylla," ch. 21, being BAPTIZED is associated with dead bodies and implements of war:
. . . dying, they filled the marshes with blood, and the lake with dead bodies; so that until now, many barbaric bows, and helmets, and pieces of iron breast-plates, and
swords, are found BAPTIZED in the pools.
Josephus was fond of the word BAPTIZO, and in five of the usages "drown" or "death" is implied when he tells of the sinking of ships as resulting in
the death of those cast in the sea. Winston's text translates the word: Destruction, Sink, Dipped till drowned, and Plunge. Don Cassius, Roman History, Bk. 1, ch. 35,
cites similar concepts:
. . . others, leaping into the sea were drowned or struck by the enemy were drowned (baptized).
In all these an actual DEATH-BAPTISM is intended. Again, Josephus writes:
. . . continually pressing down and BAPTIZING him while swimming, as if in sport, they did not desist 'til they had entirely suffocated him. Josephus,
Antiquities, Bk. XV., ch. 3:3.
And:
. . . desiring to swim through, they were BAPTIZED (drowned) by their full armor . . . Suidas, Lex.
Being BAPTIZED with debts was as common anciently as it is today:
. . . and that he was loaded (BAPTIZED) with a debt of five million drachmas . . . Plutarch's Lives, Galba. Vol. IV., p. 393.
If a city was destroyed, it was said to have been BAPTIZED:
. . . these very men, besides the seditions they raised, were otherwise the direct cause of the city's destruction (BAPTISM) . . . Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Bk.IV,
ch. 3:3.
To BAPTIZE a sword was to bury it in a body, thus taking a life:
. . . and stretching out the right hand so as to unseen by none, he BAPTIZED the whole sword into his own neck . . . Josephus, Jewish Wars, Bk. II, ch. 18, p.4.
A natural usage of BAPTIZO is for a person to be under the influence of something or someone:
. . . therefore I beseech thee, before thou art fully BAPTIZED by this drunkenness, to return to soberness . . . Chrysostom's Plea to Theodorus.
A person driving a chariot under the influence of much wine finds a counterpart on our highways:
. . . and having made Alexander drunk (BAPTIZED) with much wine . . . Conon, Narration L.
This was putting wine into the man, not man into the wine. The result was inebriation, being brought under the influence of wine.
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Scripture Research - The Baptism Edition 
