[B-Greek] Translating Mark 1:8

Doug Chaplin lists at actually.me.uk
Wed Nov 2 18:53:23 EST 2005


> -----Original Message-----
> 
> Since baptize here is a figure of speech as a forensic act rather than an
> ontological one, does not one have to ask what the significance of the
> action is in order to render the term?  ...which is probably out-of-bounds
> for this list.
> 
> Gary T. Meadors
> Michigan
> 
[Doug] 
There are legitimate translation and interpretative questions about whether
to give weight to the use of BAPTIZO and its cognates as a technical term
"baptize" or in its pre-technical sense of "immerse." The translator must
also wrestle with when the physical action (as performed by the Baptist)
becomes a metaphor for a spiritual action.
However, questions of forensic acts are entirely outside the semantic domain
of the word, and depend on theological constructs relating particular
understandings of baptism and justification, and thus well outside the
linguistic question IMO.

Doug Chaplin
Droitwich Spa, UK




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