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Contra_Mundum · #2 (**permalink**) 12-24-2007, 04:07 PM

In a word, that is simple baptist propaganda.

Let me quote myself from an earlier post:

Quote:

Jay Adams' little booklet (probably still can get it from P&R, or maybe Timeless Texts) "The Meaning and Mode of Baptism" has a bit on the meaning of the word in its biblical context. This booklet is highly readable, aimed at the man in the pew.

But what may be most helpful in this context is the brief definitional excerpt he takes from the conclusion of volume one of the definitive work on baptism, R.W. Dale's massive work-of-exhaustion, written in the 19th century, recently republished by P&R (a joint venture).

Quote:

Agamemnon was baptized; Bacchus was baptized; Cupid was baptized; Cleinian was baptized; Alexander was baptized; Panthia was baptized; Otho was baptized; Charicles was baptized; and a host of others were baptized, each differing from the other in the nature or the mode, or both.

A blind man could more readily select any demanded color from the spectrum, or a child could more readily thread the Cretan Labyrinth, than could 'the seven wise men of Greece' declare the nature, or mode, of any given baptism by the naked help of baptizo.

... WHATEVER IS CAPABLE OF THOROUGHLY CHANGING THE CHARACTER, STATE, OR CONDITION OF ANY OBJECT, IS CAPABLE OF BAPTIZING THAT OBJECT: AND BY SUCH CHANGE OF CHARACTER, STATE, OR CONDITION DOES, IN FACT, BAPTIZE IT.

Dale's work is possibly the most thorough survey of a single word in Greek ever attempted, much less accomplished. Vol. 1 is called "Classic Baptism," and surveyed the entire corpus of ancient Greek literature for its use of the term 'baptizo'. He followed up this massive work with FOUR MORE volumes dealing with Christic baptism & Patristic baptism (reprint two vols in one), Judaic baptism and Johannine baptism.

Baptizo dosn't "mean" immerse. It's meaning covers a semantic range that can only be determined by its context.

As for his never meeting an immersed baby, obviously, from his own testimony, he doesn't get out of his own circles much. The Eastern Orthodox put the whole kid through the baptismal font, three dips I believe. Their baptism isn't much different from the Romanists in meaning, but that's not the subject at hand.