Baptism

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To: Tyler Nally <tnally@csci.csc.com>
From: wcopes@communique.net (Walter Copes)
Subject: Baptism

 TN> When studying the greek concerning the words as translated to
 TN> "baptize"  or "be baptized" or "* baptize *" the greek word used
 TN> was always from the root "BAPTIZO" which means to fully whelm
 TN> someting (from what I've heard).

     I did some extensive research on the subject of baptism at the
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. I came up with some inter-
esting results. The following is an extract from a paper I presented
at the Oneness Symposium in St. Louis.

     The words baptize, baptized, and baptism appear in the New Testa-
ment 92 times in 80 verses. In fourteen of these verses, baptism
obviously does not refer to water. (For example see Matthew 3:11,
20:22, 23.) In ten cases the mode of baptism is clearly water. (See
Matthew 3:16 and Mark 1:8.)  Water is strongly implied by the context
in five instances. (See Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:5; Acts 8:36, 38, 22:16.)
In the other cases water is being alluded to by context. As Henry
Brown states, "It is contended that the Greek verb baptizo, which in
the English Bible is rendered baptize, and the Greek nouns, baptismos,
and baptisma, which are in the same book rendered baptism, mean to im-
merse, and immersion, only; and hence that when we read the New Testa-
ment of persons having been baptized, we must necessarily conclude
that they were immersed."

     Henry Burrage wrote of baptism: "The word has retained its
ground-meaning without change. From the earliest age of Greek litera-
ture down to its close (a period of about two thousand years), not an
example has been found in which the word has any other meaning. There
is no instance in which it signifies to make a partial application of
water by affusion or sprinkling, or to cleanse, to purify, apart from
the literal act of immersion as the means of cleansing or purifying."

Walter Copes
The joy of the Lord is my strength
(wcopes@communique.net)
Walter L Copes