Grimm’s Lexicon of the New Testament, which in Europe and America stands confessedly at the head of Greek lexicography, as translated and edited by Professor Thayer, of Harvard University, thus defines baptizo: “(1) To dip repeatedly, to immerse, submerge. (2) To cleanse by dipping or submerging. (3) To overwhelm. In the New Testament it is used particularly of the rite of sacred ablution; first instituted by John the Baptist, afterward by Christ’s command received by Christians and adjusted to the contents and nature of their religion, viz., an immersion in water, performed as a sign of the removal of sin, and administered to those who, impelled by a desire for salvation, sought admission to the benefits of the Messiah’s kingdom. With eis to mark the element into which the immersion is made; en with the dative or the thing in which one is immersed.”
The noun baptisma, the only other word used in the New Testament to denote the rite, Grimm-Thayer thus define: “A word peculiar to the New Testament and ecclesiastical writers: used (1) of John’s baptism; (2) of Christian baptism. This, according to the view of the Apostles, is a rite of sacred immersion commanded by Christ.”
Add to those such authorities as Alstidius, Passow, Schöttgen, Stockius, Stourdza, Sophocles, Anthon, Rosenmüller, Wetstein, Leigh, Turretin, Beza, Calvin, Witsius, Luther, Vossius, Campbell, and many others who bear the same witness to the proper meaning of the word baptize. If at any time the word may have a secondary meaning, it is strictly in accord with its primary meaning—to dip, or immerse. For both classic and sacred Greek the same meaning holds.
Prof. Moses Stuart, one of the ablest scholars America has produced, declared: “Baptizo means to dip, plunge, or immerse into any liquid. All lexicographers and critics of any note are agreed in this.” Essay on Baptism, p. 51; Biblical Repository, 1833, p. 298.
“All lexicographers and critics, of any note, are agreed in this,” says one of the foremost scholars of the age, and he a Pedobaptist. What a concession!
The Greek language is rich in terms for the expression of all positive ideas, and all varying shades of thought. Why, then, did our Lord in commanding, and His Apostles in transmitting His command to posterity, use always and only the one word baptizo, to describe the action, and that one word baptisma, to describe the ordinance to which He intended all His followers to submit? The word louo means to wash the body, and nipto to wash parts of the body; but these words are not used, because washing is not what Christ meant. Rantizo means to sprinkle, and if sprinkling were baptism this would have been the word above all others; but it was never so used. Cheo means to pour: but pouring is not baptism, and so this word was never used to describe the ordinance. Katharizo means to purify, but it is not used for the ordinance. The facts are clear and the reasoning conclusive.
Stourdza, the Russian scholar and diplomat, says: “The church of the West has then departed from the example of Jesus Christ; she has obliterated the whole sublimity of the exterior sign. Baptism and immersion are identical. Baptism by aspersion is as if one should say immersion by aspersion, or any other absurdity of the same nature.” Considerations, Orthodox Ch., p. 87.
the baptism of jesus
The baptism of Jesus in the Jordan is thus described: “And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water” (Matt. 3:16). And again, it is recorded that Jesus “was baptized of John in Jordan: and straightway coming up out of the water” (Mark 1:10). He certainly would not go down into Jordan to have water sprinkled on Him. Nobody believes He would. He was baptized in Jordan, not with Jordan. Moreover, he was baptized, that is, immersed, not rantized, that is, sprinkled.
Bishop Taylor says: “The custom of the ancient churches was not sprinkling, but immersion, in pursuance of the meaning of the word in the commandments and the example of our blessed Saviour.” Commentary on Matthew 3:16.