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.
18 Eckhard J. Schnabel
which wine is stored), but overpowered by the effects of wine, the mean-
ing ‘to be intoxicated’ is more plausibly listed as a metaphorical meaning.
Based on the distinction between physical (literal) and metaphorical
meanings of βάπτειν and βαπτίζειν, the following extended and trans-
ferred meanings can be specified, as will become obvious in the following
investigation of the primary sources.50
I. Physical uses
1. to put into a yielding substance (such as a liquid, e.g. water or dyes, or the
body of an animal); glosses: ‘to plunge, to dip, to immerse’
1a. to cleanse with water; gloss: ‘to wash’ (extended meaning of 1: to remove dirt
by immersion in water);
1b. to make ceremonially clean; gloss: ‘to purify’ or ‘to cleanse’ (extended meaning
of 1: to immerse in water symbolizing, or effecting, the removal of moral or
spiritual defilement); gloss of (later) ecclesiastical language: ‘to baptize’;
1c. to take water or wine by dipping a drinking vessel (in a stream, a fountain, a
well, a bowl); gloss: ‘to draw’ (extended meaning of 1: to immerse a vessel in
water or wine to obtain a drink);
1d. to perish by submersion in water; gloss: ‘to drown’ (extended meaning of 1:
to suffer death by suffocation being immersed in water [of persons]; or to
disappear by submersion in water, to sink [of ships]);
1e. to put to death a living being; gloss: ‘to slaughter’ or ‘to kill’ (extended meaning
of 1: to plunge a knife into the body of an animal or a human being);
1f. to tinge fabric with a color; gloss: ‘to dye’ (extended meaning of 1: to immerse
fabric in liquid with color pigments); this meaning is frequently attested for
βάπτειν, but not for βαπτίζειν.51
II. Figurative uses
2. to be overpowered by an abstract reality, such as debts or arguments or
thoughts; gloss: ‘to be overwhelmed’ or ‘to be immersed’ (transferred meaning
of 1: a person is ‘immersed’ in intangible or abstract realities and conse-
quently overwhelmed by their force);
3. to become intoxicated; gloss: ‘to be drunk’ (transferred meaning of 1: a person
is ‘submerged’ in the effects of intoxicating liquids).
50
The definitions of English terms such as ‘immerse’ or ‘wash’ in the following entry are
adapted from OED.
51
A related meaning is ‘to plate an object with silver or gold’ with the gloss ‘to silver’ or
‘to gild’ (extended meaning of 1: to immerse an object in liquid silver or gold); this meaning
is attested for βάπτειν, but not for βαπτίζειν; cf. Ps-Democritus Alchemista 47B.
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