Semantic Range of BAPTIZW/BAPTISMA

hefin jones hefinjones at hotmail.com
Fri Dec 6 16:54:44 EST 2002


I put together some info. on this:-

LSJ (Heavily abbreviated and reformatted for email)
BAPT-IZW
1a.    "dip", "plunge"; in Passive "to be drowned" or of ships "sink", 
"disable"; "flooded the city" metaphor of crowds in Jerusalem (Josephus 
'Jewish War' 4.3.3).
b.     perfect middle/passive participle "to be drenched", and as metaphor 
of a person "soaked in wine", of someone "over head and ears in debt", 
active m/p participle used with cognitive verb "seeing he was getting into 
deep water" ...
2.     "draw wine by dipping cup" (Aristophanes, Plutarch).
3.     "baptise" (NT and Christian); Passive "perform ablutions" (Luke 
11.38).
-IKOS "dyeing" "suited for gilding" "suited for a wash"
-ISIS "dipping", "baptism" (Josephus 'History of the Jews' 18.5.2)
-ISMA "baptism" (NT usage)
-ISMOS "dipping in water, immersion" (NT, Antylles (?)); metaphor; 
"lethargic sleep"; "baptism" (Josephus 'History of the Jews' 18.5.2)
-ISTHRION "swimming bath" (Pliny)
-ISTHS "baptiser" (NT and Josephus); metaphor for passion.
-OS,-H,-ON "dipped" "dyed" "bright-coloured" garments
-PIA fem. of BAPTHS "dipper, bather" in plural those who celebrated the 
mysteries of Cotytto, title of a play by Eupolis.


So one can see the background to both "getting very wet" (i.e. dip, sink, 
soak, flood, dye, gild, wash), and "overwhelm" which I think captures the 
underlying sense of most of the other metaphorical usages ("flooded with 
people", "over head and ears in debt", "lethargic sleep" maybe, and even 
possibly as metaphor for the passion).


Turning to secular everyday Hellenistic greek (i.e. non-clasical, 
non-patristic, and non-literary greek) Moulton-Milligan "The Vocabulary of 
the NT": (heavily edited)

"BAPTIZW
As late as 4th cent. AD the word is used in a magic papyrus of a "submerged" 
boat...
Lucian makes the Misanthrope threaten WQEIN KAI EPI KEFALHN 
BAPTIZONTA...(other examples)...
With its use to express ceremonial ablution - as Luke 11:38...we may compare 
another magical papyrus...
Our earliest quotation is from c. 153 BC. The translation of the letter, 
which is very illiterate, is by no means clear, but BAPTIZOMEQA must mean 
"flooded", or overwhelmed with calamities. The word was already in use in 
this metaphorical sense (cf. Diod. i. 73.6), even among uneducated people, 
strikingly illustrates our Lord's speaking of his passion as a "baptism" (Mk 
10:38)."


So, M-M back up our two way "get v. wet" and metaphor for "overwhelm" 
interpretation of BAPTIZW. Finally, lets turn to the LXX use of BAPTIZW:
J. Lust, E. Eynikel, and K.Hauspie "A Greek-English Lexicon of the 
Septuagint" Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1992.  :- (unedited, but 
reformatted for email)

BAPTIZOMAI
2 Kings 5:14; Isaiah 21:4;  Judith 12:7; Sirach 34:25
"to dip onself" 2 Kings 5:14; "to wash" Judith 12:7; 'H ANOMIA ME BAPTIZEI 
"I am imbued with transgression" Isaiah 21:4
cf. Delling 1970, 243-245; --> TWNT

Here are our familiar pair of meanings again. The 1 Kings being a literal 
wetting and the Isaiah reference being a metaphorical overwhelming. The 
underlying hebrew of Isaiah is "to terrify" "to startle".

I guess a "big-greek" would suggest using TLG to access more context lines 
and looking up the series "New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity" to 
see what entries they may have.


Hefin Jones

Moore College, Sydney



>From: "Doug Hoxworth" <dhoxworth at charter.net>
>Reply-To: "Doug Hoxworth" <dhoxworth at charter.net>
>To: Biblical Greek <b-greek at franklin.oit.unc.edu>
>Subject: [b-greek] Re: Semantic Range of BAPTIZW/BAPTISMA
>Date: Fri, 06 Dec 2002 11:38:21 -0500
>
>Mark 7:4 and Hebrews 9:10 both use BAPTISMOS not BAPTIZW/BAPTISMA and no 
>cognate even appears in Luke 11:39 (So I'm not sure why it's listed). In 
>addition, does one wash dishes by pouring or sprinkling water on them? 
>Perhaps pouring but did they have sinks back then? Did they wash dishes 
>back then by any other method than dipping them into the water?
>
>*******************
>Subject: Re: Semantic Range of BAPTIZW/BAPTISMA
>From: "Terry Pruitt" <prunepitts1 at yahoo.com>
>Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2002 07:02:04 -0500
>X-Message-Number: 4
>
>Check out word usages in these scripture references Mark 7:4 Luke 11:39 
>Hebrews 9:10.  These are passages which are often translated without the 
>english word "baptism". There is no special method prescribed for washing 
>dishes in Mark passage.  :-)
>
>---
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