01.004-Section II-Tables of Examples-Table 2-Baptizo

TABLE II EXAMPLES OF BAPTIZO

CLASS I TO IMMERSE LITERALLY AND STRICTLY

I. Sinking ships.--1. Shall I not laugh at the man who immerses his ship by overlading it?⁽⁹⁴⁾ 2. Such a storm suddenly pervaded all the country, that the ships that were in the Tiber were immersed.⁽⁹⁵⁾ 3. When the ship was about to be immersed.⁽⁹⁶⁾ 4. For our ship having been immersed in the midst of the Adriatic Sea.⁽⁹⁷⁾ 5. The wave high-raised immersed them.⁽⁹⁸⁾ 6. They were immersed with the ships themselves. 7. How would not his ship be immersed by the multitude of our rowers.⁽⁹⁹⁾ 8. They were either immersed, their ships being bored through.⁽¹⁰⁰⁾ 9. Those from above immersing them [ships] with stones and engines.⁽¹⁰¹⁾ 10. They immersed many of the vessels of the Romans.⁽¹⁰²⁾ 11. The ships being in danger of being immersed.⁽¹⁰³⁾ 12. Many of the Jews of distinction left the city, as people swim away from an immersing [sinking] ship.⁽¹⁰⁴⁾ 13. Whose ship being immersed.⁽¹⁰⁵⁾ 14. As you would not wish, sailing in a large ship adorned and abounding with gold, to be immersed.⁽¹⁰⁶⁾

2. Drowning.--15. He would drive him from the bank, and immerse him headlong, so that he would not be able again to lift up his head above water.⁽¹⁰⁷⁾ 16. He may save one in the voyage that had better be immersed in the sea.⁽¹⁰⁸⁾ 17. The boy was sent to Jericho by night, and there by command, having been immersed in a pond by the Galatians, he perished.⁽¹⁰⁹⁾ 18. Pressing him down always as he was swimming, and immersing him as in sport, they did not give over till they entirely drowned him.⁽¹¹⁰⁾ 19. The river being borne on with a more violent stream, immersed many.⁽¹¹¹⁾ 20. Killing some on the land, and immersing others into the lake with their boats and their little huts.⁽¹¹²⁾ 21. The dolphin, vexed at such a falsehood, immersing him killed him.⁽¹¹³⁾ 22. Many of the land animals immersed in the river perished.⁽¹¹⁴⁾

3. For purification.--23. Naaman immersed himself seven times in Jordan.⁽¹¹⁵⁾ 24. He that immerseth himself because of a dead body.⁽¹¹⁶⁾ 25. He marveled that he had not first immersed before dinner.⁽¹¹⁷⁾ 26. Except they immerse, they eat not.⁽¹¹⁸⁾ 27. Divers immersions.⁽¹¹⁹⁾* 28. She went out by night into the valley of Bethulia, and immersed herself in the camp at the fountain of water.⁽¹²⁰⁾ 29. He who is immersed from a dead [carcass] and toucheth it again, what does he profit by his washing?⁽¹²¹⁾ 30. The immersion* of cups and pots, &c.⁽¹²²⁾

4. Other cases.--31. The person that has been a sinner, having gone a little way in it [the river Styx], is immersed up to the head.⁽¹²³⁾ 32. He breathed as persons breathe after being immersed.⁽¹²⁴⁾ 33. Then immersing himself into the Lake Copais.⁽¹²⁵⁾ 34. Immerse yourself into the sea.⁽¹²⁶⁾ 35. They marched a whole day through the water, immersed up to the waist.⁽¹²⁷⁾ 36. The bitumen floats on the top, because of the nature of the water, which admits of no diving; nor can any one who enters it immerse himself, but is borne up.⁽¹²⁸⁾ 37. But the lakes near Agrigentum have indeed the taste of sea water, but a very different nature, for it does not befall the things which cannot swim to be immersed, but they swim on the surface like wood.⁽¹²⁹⁾ 38. If an arrow be thrown in, it would scarcely be immersed.⁽¹³⁰⁾ 39. As when a net is cast into the sea, the cork swims above, so am I unimmersed.⁽¹³¹⁾* 40. When a piece of iron is taken red hot out of the fire and immersed in water, the heat is repelled.⁽¹³²⁾ 41. Thou mayest be immersed, O bladder! but thou art not fated to sink.⁽¹³³⁾ 42. Having immersed some of the ashes into spring water, they sprinkled.⁽¹³⁴⁾ 43. I found Cupid among the roses; taking hold of him by the wings I immersed him into wine.⁽¹³⁵⁾ 44. The sword was so immersed in blood that it was even heated by it.⁽¹³⁶⁾ 45. He set up a trophy, on which, immersing his hand into blood, he wrote this inscription.⁽¹³⁷⁾ 46. They are of themselves immersed and sunk in the marshes.⁽¹³⁸⁾ 47. He immersed his sword up to the hilt into his own bowels.⁽¹³⁹⁾

CLASS II. TO IMMERSE IN A LESS STRICT SENSE 1. In appearance.--48. But when the sun immerses himself in the water of the ocean.⁽¹⁴⁰⁾

2. In effect.--49. Certain uninhabited lands which at the ebb are used not to be immersed [covered over as if they had been immersed], but when the tide is at the full, the coast is quite inundated.⁽¹⁴¹⁾50. And were all immersed [surrounded on all sides as if they had been immersed] unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.⁽¹⁴²⁾

CLASS III METAPHORICAL USE

1. For drunkenness.--51. I am one of those who immersed yesterday [who drank wine freely].⁽¹⁴³⁾ 52. Having immersed Alexander with much wine.⁽¹⁴⁴⁾ 53. Seeing him in this condition, and immersed by excessive drinking into shamelessness and sleep.⁽¹⁴⁵⁾ 54.. They easily become intoxicated before they are entirely immersed.⁽¹⁴⁶⁾ 55. Immersed with wine.⁽¹⁴⁷⁾ 56. Immersed by drunkenness.⁽¹⁴⁸⁾ 57. He is like one dizzy and immersed.⁽¹⁴⁹⁾

2. For afflictions.--58. Perceiving that he was altogether abandoned to grief and immersed in calamity.⁽¹⁵⁰⁾ 59. Since the things you have met with have immersed you.⁽¹⁵¹⁾ 60. Iniquity immerses me.⁽¹⁵²⁾ 61. I have an immersion* to be immersed with.⁽¹⁵³⁾ 62. immersed by misfortune.⁽¹⁵⁴⁾ 63. Else what shall they do who are immersed for the dead?⁽¹⁵⁵⁾ 64. Are you able to be immersed with the immersion* that I am immersed with?⁽¹⁵⁶⁾

3. Other uses.--65. The mind is immersed [drowned like plants by excessive watering] by excessive labor.⁽¹⁵⁷⁾ 66. Immersed with business.⁽¹⁵⁸⁾ 67. Immersed with innumerable cares--having the mind immersed on all sides by the many waves of business, immersed in malignity.⁽¹⁵⁹⁾ 68. Immersed into sleep.⁽¹⁶⁰⁾ 69. He [Bacchus] immerses with a sleep near to death.⁽¹⁶¹⁾ 70. When midnight has immersed the city with sleep.⁽¹⁶²⁾ 71. Immersed with sins.⁽¹⁶³⁾ 72. But the common people they do not immerse with taxes.⁽¹⁶⁴⁾ 73. They immersed [sunk as a ship] the city.⁽¹⁶⁵⁾ 74. This as the last storm immersed [sunk as a ship] the tempest-tossed young men.⁽¹⁶⁶⁾ 75. Being immersed in debts of fifty millions of drachmae.⁽¹⁶⁷⁾ 76. He shall immerse you in the Holy Spirit.⁽¹⁶⁸⁾ 77. In one spirit have we been immersed into one body.⁽¹⁶⁹⁾ REMARKS ON TABLE I The chief difficulty in classifying Table I., respects Class III. Under it I have placed all the examples in which the sense to color is given to the word, either by Professor Stuart, or Dr. Carson. Many of these examples might have been placed in Class I., 1; and others in Class II., 2. To color.--Some learned men have maintained that the verb never signifies to color, without regard to mode. It is possible to explain the examples in which it appears to have this signification, like Ex. 56. Here the translators of the English Bible supposed the word, though denoting color, to be used with a reference to its primary meaning. :But when we consider how many words from the root BAP were used for things pertaining to the dyer’s art; and how frequently the verb bapto was used to denote to color; it seems most probable, that when employed for this purpose, it suggested to the minds of the Greeks in their familiar use of it, the idea of color directly, without that process of thought which was necessary to deduce this meaning from its primary sense to dip. To smear.--Professor Stuart has assigned smear, as a secondary sense of the verb, and cites in proof from the Greek classic writers, Ex. 60, 61, 74. To the first two of these the rendering to smear is quite inappropriate. The warrior in battle does not redden his sword by smearing over it the blood of his enemies, but by plunging it into their bodies. In the other example, the rendering is less objectionable; but even here caution is necessary lest it mislead us. The verbs dip, plunge, immerse, wash, wet, pour, sprinkle, and smear, are construed with reference to two substances: one a solid, and the other a liquid. The first five have the solid for their direct object: to pour has the liquid for its direct object. We say to dip the hand in water, and to pour water on the hand; but not to dip water on the hand, or to pour the hand with water. The last two verbs, to sprinkle and to smear, admit both constructions. We say, to sprinkle the floor with water, and to sprinkle water on the floor; to smear the body with paint, and to smear paint over the body. In both these constructions, they always denote an application of the liquid to the solid, agreeing in this particular with the verb to pour. The verb bapto is always construed with the solid as its direct object. Throughout the table of examples, there can be found but one exception, which will be noticed hereafter. Even when it signifies to color, the verb takes for its object the solid, and does not signify that the color is produced by applying the coloring matter, as is done in the process of smearing. Hence, the rendering to smear is liable to mislead us into the belief that bapto like to smear, may signify an application of the liquid to the solid. The verb never signifies this process. It may signify the effect of it, but never the process itself. To dip out.--The exception above referred to, is Exodus 35:1-35. In this, which is Nicander’s comment on the preceding example, the verb takes the liquid for its direct object, and assumes the sense to dip out. In the metaphoric use of the word, Ex. 79 conforms to this construction. It is worthy of remark that the English verb to dip is used in the same way, taking the liquid for its direct object, contrary to its usual construction; thus: He dips water from the pool. We never say, He plunges, or immerses water from the pool. In this sense of abstracting a part of the liquid from the rest, the verb bapto when it takes the solid for its direct object, may be construed with the genitive of the liquid, either with, or without the preposition apo This remark will explain Exodus 13:1-22; Exodus 15:1-27; Exodus 21:1-36; to which Professor Stuart has given the sense to smear, because the verb is construed with APO They do not signify to smear with blood or oil by applying it; but to dip into it so as to bring away a part of it from the rest.

RELATION BETWEEN Bapto AND Baptizo Our search is for the meaning of baptizo. This is a derivative from bapto; and because some aid in ascertaining its meaning, has been expected from the primitive word, examples in which this occurs, have been introduced in the preceding collection.

Some lexicographers have regarded baptizo as a frequentative, and have rendered it to immerse repeatedly. Robinson says it "is frequentative in form, but not in fact." Professor Stuart has examined this question at length, and decides "that the opposite opinion, which makes baptizo a frequentative (if by this it is designed to imply that it is necessarily so by the laws of formation, or even by actual usage), is destitute of a solid foundation, I feel constrained, on the whole, to believe. The lexicographers who have assigned this meaning to it, appear to have done it on the ground of theoretical principles as to the mode of formation. They have produced no examples in point. And until these are produced, I must abide by the position that a frequentative sense is not necessarily attached to baptizo; and that, if it ever have this sense, it is by a specialty of usage of which I have been able to find no example." The termination izo, is, with greater probability, supposed by others to add to the primitive word the signification of to cause, or to make, like the termination ize in legalize, to make legal; fertilize, to make fertile. According to this hypothesis, if bapto signifies to immerse, baptizo signifies to cause to be immersed. This makes the two words nearly or quite synonymous. But, however nearly two words may agree with each other in their original import, it seldom happens that they continue to be used in practice as equally fitted for every place which either of them may occupy. We must, therefore, examine the usus loquendi, to ascertain the peculiar shades of meaning which they acquire. In studying the preceding table of examples, the following things may be observed:--

1. bapto more frequently denotes slight or temporary immersion, than baptizo. Hence, the English word dip, which properly denotes slight or temporary immersion, is more frequently its appropriate rendering. In nearly one-half of the examples in which baptizo occurs in the literal sense, it signifies the immersion which attends drowning, or the sinking of ships.

2. bapto appears, in some cases, to be used in the secondary sense to color, without including its primary signification to immerse. No example occurs in which baptizo has lost the primary meaning. A similar fact may be observed in the use of the English words older and elder. The words have the same primary meaning; or, rather, they are different forms of the same word: yet, while older has inflexibly retained its primary meaning, elder has adopted a secondary signification, in which it denotes an officer without regard to age.

3. Bapto sometimes signifies to dip up: baptizo never takes this sense.

DEDUCTION FROM TABLE II

Though lexicographers frequently assign numerous significations to a word, they regard one as the primary or radical meaning from which all the rest are derived. If meanings have no relation to each other, they do not belong to the same word: hence to lie, signifying to be recumbent; and to lie, signifying to speak falsehood, though agreeing in orthography and pronunciation, are accounted different words, because their significations are independent of each other. No one imagines that there are two Greek verbs, baptizo. We must, therefore, seek for one primary or radical meaning, and endeavor to account by it for all the uses to which the word is applied. An important distinction needs to be made between the proper meaning of a word, and the accidental signification which it may obtain from the connection in which it is used. This distinction may be illustrated by the following passage:--"If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean; yet thou shalt plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me."⁽¹⁷⁰⁾ In this sentence the word plunge, besides its proper meaning, obtains the signification to defile, from the connection in which it is used. This accidental signification is the most prominent and important idea conveyed by the word; yet it is not, strictly speaking, any part of its meaning. We may substitute defile for it, and the general sense of the passage will be conveyed; yet to plunge and to defile are different things. We must not conclude that we have ascertained the meaning of a word, when we have found another word which may be substituted for it in a particular sentence.

Since the lexicons give immerse for the primary meaning of baptizo, let us try the meaning in the examples in which the word occurs, that we may ascertain whether this signification will suffice to account for all the uses to which the word is applied. In the several examples, in which the word is applied to sinking ships, it obtains the accidental signification to cause to sink to the bottom. On this account it has been explained, in such connections, by the word buthizo, to throw into the deep. But the fact that immersed ships sink to the bottom is not affirmed by the word baptizo. It is a natural consequence of their immersion. There is no necessity for supposing it to be included in the meaning of the word. The same distinction must be made in the examples which relate to drowning. The drowning is a consequence of the immersion, and is not included in the meaning of the word baptizo. In several of the examples the immersion denoted by the word is clearly distinguished from the effect produced by it. So in 3, we must distinguish between the immersion and the purification resulting from it. The immersion only is properly denoted by the word. All the other examples in Class I. perfectly agree with the sense to immerse; and some of them clearly require it. From Exodus 36:1-38; Exodus 37:1-29; Exodus 38:1-31; Exodus 39:1-43, it appears that substances which float on water are not baptized. This proves conclusively that the mere application of water to a part of the surface does not satisfy the meaning of the word. Ex. 41 proves that sinking to the bottom is not necessary to its meaning; but the other examples just referred to, prove that descent below the surface is indispensable. The examples in Class II. require the meaning to immerse. The same is true of the examples in Class III. The propriety and force of the metaphorical allusions cannot be understood, if the word does not signify to immerse.

After thoroughly examining the collection of examples, we find that they fully establish the meaning to immerse. Christ, in giving the commission, must have employed the word in its usual sense. The commission is given in the language of plain command, and every other word in it is used in its ordinary signification. We are not at liberty to seek for extraordinary meanings, but are bound to take the words according to their ordinary import, where no reason to the contrary exists. What they mean, according to the ordinary rules of interpretation, is the meaning of Christ’s command; and, if we do not receive and observe it in this sense, we are disobedient to his authority.

Let us now re-examine the collection of examples, trying any of the other significations which have been proposed, as, to wash, to purify, to wet, to sprinkle, to pour. The experiment will soon convince us that none of these is the proper meaning of the word. Immersion, and nothing but immersion, will always satisfy its demands.