Eckhard Schnabel, «The Meaning of Baptizein in Greek, Jewish, and Patristic
Literature.», Vol. 24 (2011) 3-40
The treatment of the Greek term Baptizein in the standard English lexicons is unsystematic. The use of the English term ‘to baptize’ for the Greek term Baptizein in English versions of the New Testament is predicated on the assumption that the Greek verb has a technical meaning which warrants the use of a transliteration. Since the first fact is deplorable and the second fact is unsatisfactory, an investigation into the meaning of the Greek term in Greek, Jewish, and patristic literary and documentary texts is called for in order to define the meaning of the term in classical and Hellenistic Greek with more precision than usually encountered in New Testament research, with a view to construct a more helpful lexicon entry for Baptizein.
14 Eckhard J. Schnabel
not be, ‘party literature’ but faithful renderings of the original text, the
lack of consensus regarding the administration and the understanding
of water baptism suggests that it is preferable to choose other words as
translation of βαπτίζειν that do not prejudice the readers in terms of later
ecclesial debates.31 As the following study will demonstrate: the meaning
of βαπτίζειν in Greek texts is neither mysterious nor difficult to translate
into English.32
As regards the second condition, in Greek texts contemporary with
the texts of the New Testament, βαπτίζειν does not describe a ‘sacra-
ment’ (or a ritual act) in which water is applied to a person, signifying
spiritual rebirth or purification, admitting that person into a community
of faith. In other words, the Greek term βαπτίζειν, in the everyday Greek
language of the early church, does not generally denote what is described
with the English term ‘to baptize’.
The third point is equally problematic. While what we call Christian
baptism is unique in terms of its meaning in connection with faith in
Jesus as Messiah, Lord, and Savior (irrespective of the disputes regarding
details), the action described with the term βαπτίζειν is not ‘technical’ in
a sense that would have only been understood in a Christian context. Im-
mersion in water symbolizing purification or cleansing was known both
among Jews and among Greeks.33 The problem of the perceived meaning
of the term in the New Testament can be illustrated by two remarks in
BDAG. On the one hand, the entry for βαπτίζω asserts (before the first
definition) that in Greek literature, βαπτίζειν generally means ‘to put or
go under water in a variety of senses’, and is also used in a figurative sense
for example with the meaning ‘to soak’ (in wine), before asserting that ″in
our lit[erature]⁇, i.e. in the New Testament and in early Christian texts,
the term is used “only in ritual or ceremonial sense”.34 On the other hand,
F. W. Danker adds the following remark to the definition quoted above:
“The transliteration ‘baptize’ signifies the ceremonial character that NT
31
It should be noted that the term ‘immersion' does not prejudice readers in terms of
believers baptism: Greek Orthodox churches immerse infants three times in the water of
the baptismal font.
32
I show elsewhere that there is no need to use, in English, the term ‘to baptize’ as a
loan word rendering the Greek term βαπτίζειν in New Testament texts; see Eckhard J.
Schnabel, “The Language of Baptism: The Meaning of βαπτίζειν in the New Testament,” in
Understanding the Times: New Testament Studies in the 21st Century (FS D. A. Carson; ed.
A. Köstenberger and R. W. Yarbrough; Wheaton: Crossway, 2011), 217–46.
33
The purification by total immersion in water pools cf. William D. Furley and Jan
Maarten Bremer, Greek Hymns: Selected Cult Songs from the Archaic to the Hellenistic
Period (SAC 9–10; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2001), 210.
34
BDAG s.v. βαπτίζω, head of the entry.
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