The Meaning of βαπτίζειν in Greek, Jewish, and Patristic Literature 35 nourishment for the five outward senses, in order that each of them might rejoice while filling itself unrestrainedly with suitable food, and that it might weigh down and overwhelm78 the mind with the multitude of things which were thus brought upon it”; C. D. Yonge) (I). Philo, De providentia 2.67: καὶ ἐκ τοῦ τοὺς μὲν νήφοντας καὶ ὀλιγοδεεῖς συνετωτέρους εἶναι, τοὺς δὲ ποτῶν ἀεὶ καὶ σιτίων ἐμπιπλαμένους ἥκιστα φρονίμους, ἅτε βαπτιζομένου τοῖς ἐπιοῦσι τοῦ λογισμοῦ (“those who are continu- ally filling themselves with meat and drink are the least sensible, as if their reasoning faculties were drowned by the quantity which they swallowed”; C. D. Yonge) (I). Philo, De vita contemplativa 46: οἶδα δέ τινας, οἳ ἐπειδὰν ἀκροθώρακες γένωνται, πρὶν τελέως βαπτισθῆναι, τὸν εἰς τὴν ὑστεραίαν πότον ἐξ ἐπιδόσεως καὶ συμβολῶν προευτρεπιζομένους, μέρος ὑπολαμβάνοντας τῆς ἐν χερσὶν εὐφροσύνης εἶναι τὴν περὶ τῆς εἰς τὸ μέλλον μέθης ἐλπίδα (“And I know some persons who, when they are completely filled with wine, before they are wholly overpowered by it,79 begin to prepare a drinking party for the next day by a kind of subscription and picnic contribution, conceiving a great part of their present delight to consist in the hope of future drunkenness”; C. D. Yonge) (I) (cf. sense 3). Plutarch, De liberis educandis 13 (Moralia 9B): ὥσπερ γὰρ τὰ φυτὰ τοῖς μὲν μετρίοις ὕδασι τρέφεται, τοῖς δὲ πολλοῖς πνίγεται, τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον ψυχὴ τοῖς μὲν συμμέτροις αὔξεται πόνοις, τοῖς δ’ ὑπερβάλλουσι βαπτίζεται (“For, just as plants are nourished by moderate applications of water, but are drowned by many in succession, in the same fashion the mind is made to grow by properly adapted tasks, but is submerged by those which are excessive”; F. C. Babbitt) (i). Plutarch, De genio Socratis 24 (Moralia 593F): οὐ γὰρ οἷς ἔτυχε συμφέρεται τὸ δαιμόνιον, ἀλλ’ οἷον ἐπὶ τῶν νηχομένων ἐν θαλάττῃ τοὺς μὲν πελαγίους ἔτι καὶ πρόσω τῆς γῆς φερομένους οἱ ἐπὶ γῆς ἑστῶτες σιωπῇ θεῶνται μόνον, τοὺς δ’ ἐγγὺς ἤδη παραθέοντες καὶ παρεμβαίνοντες ἅμα καὶ χειρὶ καὶ φωνῇ βοηθοῦντες ἀνασῴζουσιν, οὗτος, ὦ .... τοῦ δαιμονίου ὁ τρόπος: .... ἡμᾶς βαπτιζομένους ὑπὸ τῶν πραγμάτων καὶ σώματα πολλὰ καθάπερ ὀχήματα μεταλαμβάνοντας αὐτοὺς ἐξαμιλλᾶσθαι καὶ μακροθυμεῖν δι’ οἰκείας πειρωμένους ἀρετῆς σῴζεσθαι καὶ τυγχάνειν λιμένος (“For daemons do not assist all indifferently, but as when men swim at sea, those standing on the shore merely view in silence the swimmers who are still far out and distant from land, whereas they help with hand and voice alike such as have come near ... as long as we are head over ears in the welter of worldly affairs and are changing body after body, like conveyances, they allow us to fight 78 G. H. Whitaker translates βαπτίζῃ with ‘drown’. 79 G. H. Whitaker: ‘before they have completely gone under’.