[B-Greek] Nicander, BAPTW, and BAPTIZW

David G. Jones dgjones40 at earthlink.net
Fri Oct 29 14:17:49 EDT 2004


My attention has been called to a statement made by Nicander (200 BC) 
in which he describes pickle-making as involving a process of BAPTW 
followed by BAPTIZW. Mike Dewus also referred to this Nicander 
passage in a message on this list (Nov. 8, 2003), in which he says it 
was quoted by James Montgomery Boice (in Bible Study Magazine, May 
1989).

Boice draws the following conclusion from Nicander's statement: 
"Both verbs concern the immersing of vegetables in a solution. But 
the first is temporary. The second, the act of baptizing the 
vegetable, produces a permanent change."

I have not been able to find the Nicander source on the Internet (it 
is not among the documents on the Perseus site).

My questions are:

(1) Did Nicander use both BAPTW and BAPTIZW as words having a 
different significance or consequence or effect (i.e., temporary 
versus permanent change, as Boice suggests)?

(2) If he did, was that distinction between BAPTW and BAPTIZW still 
present in the first century A.D.? (I do not discern such a 
distinction in the definitions in BDAG or Louw and Nida).

My own impression is that Boice is making an invalid distinction 
between the two.

Thanks,

David G. Jones
Austin, TX






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