Part XII.
THE BAPTIST ARGUMENT.
Section LXXV.—Baptizo and the Resurrection.
The argument in proof that the disciples of John and of Christ were immersed comprehends four essential propositions. (1) That baptizo means, to dip, to plunge, to immerse, to submerge,—one or other of these, and nothing else; (2) That the prepositions, eis, en, ek, and apo, as used in the New Testament, in connection with baptizo, require and enforce that meaning; (3) That the resort of John to the Jordan, and to Enon, “because there was much water there,” is conclusive to the same effect; (4) That Paul, in saying that we are “buried with Christ in baptism,” refers to the form of immersion; (5) It is, moreover, held that the account of the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch shows it to have been by immersion. The last point will be considered further on.
As to baptizo, enough has already appeared to render it certain that the definition heretofore insisted on by Baptists is untenable, and that the word, in itself, determines nothing as to form. It was formerly maintained as unquestionable, that bapto and baptizo are strictly equivalent; and that the meaning is, “to dip, and nothing but dip.” This assumption may now be considered obsolete. It is definitely abandoned by the ablest representatives of immersion. Dr. Conant having been appointed thereto by the American (Baptist) Bible Union entered into an elaborate investigation of “The Meaning and Use of Baptizo.” In a treatise published under that title, he thus states the result. “The word, immerse, as well as its synonyms, immerge, etc., expresses the full import of the Greek word, baptizein. The idea of emersion is not included in it. It means simply to put into or under water; without determining whether the object immersed sinks to the bottom, or floats in the liquid, or is immediately taken out. This is determined, not by the word, itself, but by the design of the act, in each particular case. A living being, put under water without intending to drown him, is of course to be immediately withdrawn from it; and this is to be understood, whenever the word is used with reference to such a case. But the Greek word is also used where a living being is put under the water for the purpose of drowning, and of course is left to perish in the immersing element.”[[102]] It is of the primary meaning of the word that Dr. Conant here speaks. As we have already seen, he also recognizes a secondary meaning, the importance of which he entirely ignores. As to the former, the admission here transcribed is conclusive, although obscured by ambiguous and impertinent explanations. No verb can “determine” any thing subsequent to the completion of its own proper action. The healed paralytic, “departed to his own house.” “Paul arose and was baptized.” “John came baptizing.” He that should explain that “departed” does not of necessity imply that he never returned, that Paul may have sat down again; and that for all the meaning of “came” John may afterward have gone away, would be held guilty of puerile trifling. Of course, baptizo determines nothing but its own action. The explanation of Dr. C. that the word does not determine whether the object sinks to the bottom or is immediately taken out, is not trifling, because open to a more serious charge. It is a diligent, although undoubtedly unconscious obscuring of[of] the subject, induced by the instinctive recoil of the author’s own mind from the picture drawn by his definition. He is therefore impelled to retire it into the background and veil its nakedness in the drapery of explanations, by which he is as much confounded as are his readers,—explanations wholly impertinent to the question in hand, which is the meaning of baptizo. That word, in its primary classic sense, as here defined, expresses a definite and completed act. When by one continuous process a person or thing is put into the water and withdrawn, it is not a baptizing, in the classic meaning, but a bapting, a dipping. It is true the word does not determine “whether the object immersed sinks to the bottom or floats in the liquid, or is immediately taken out,” provided that by “immediately,” is not to be understood, instantaneously,—provided that by the baptism, the object is deposited in the water and left there. The emersion, if it take place at all, must be a distinct and subsequent act, and can not be performed as a part of the baptizing. This, Dr. Kendrick, professor of Greek in the Rochester University, and a member of the American Committee of Revision on the New Testament, in his review of Dr. Dale, most emphatically concedes, with italics and emphasis none the less significant because of the intense irritation which breathes in his article. “Granting that bapto, always engages to take its subject from the water (which we do not believe), and that baptizo never does (which we readily admit), we have Mr. Dale’s reluctant concession that it interposes no obstacle to his coming out.” Baptizo “lays its subject under the water; it does not hold him there a single moment. Its whole function is fulfilled with the act of submersion. It offers no shadow of an obstacle to his instant emergence from his watery entombment. We have the utmost confidence in the kindly purpose of baptizo, and of Him who has made its liquid grave the external portal to his kingdom. Neither it nor He intends to drown us. We let baptizo take us into the water, and can trust to men’s instinctive love of life, their common sense, their power of volition and normal muscular action, to bring them safely out.” “The law of God in revelation sends the Baptist down into the waters of immersion; when it is accomplished, the equally imperative law of God in nature brings him safely out.” “As between the two [baptizo and bapto], baptizo is the appropriate word, partly from its greater length, weight and dignity of form, and still more from its distinctive import. It is not a dipping that our Lord instituted, but an immersion. He did not command to put people into the water and take them out again; but to put them under the water, to submerge them, to bury them, symbolically, in the grave of their buried Redeemer; like him indeed, not to remain there, but with him to arise to newness of life. This arising, though essential to the completeness of the transaction, could not be included in the designation of the rite, any more than the rising of the Redeemer could be included in the words denoting his crucifixion and burial.” “We repeat with emphasis, for the consideration of our Baptist brethren; Christian baptism is no mere literal and senseless ‘dipping,’ assuring the frightened candidate of a safe exit from the water; it is a symbolical immersion, in which the believer goes, in a sublime and solemn trust, into a figurative burial, dying to sin for a life with Christ; and just as far as Mr. Dale’s distinction holds good (which even thus far he has not established), baptizo, and not bapto is the only suitable designation of the baptismal ordinance. The early Israelites were baptized to Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They emerged indeed, and were intended to emerge at last. But it was in their wondrous march, through that long and fearful night, with the double wall of water rolled up on each side, and the column of fiery cloud stretching its enshrouding folds above them,—it was in this, and not in the closing emersion that they were baptized into their allegiance to their great Lawgiver and Leader.”[[103]]
Of the baptism of Israel, we shall take notice hereafter. In these passages, it is evident that the distinguished professor 1869, pp. 142, 143. is as much disturbed at the apparition of his own raising as is Dr. Conant. At first he seems determined to face it squarely, and calls upon his Baptist brethren to look and see that it is nothing dangerous. But suddenly, he crosses himself, and starts back in a hurried talk of the resurrection of Christ and the rising of his people to newness of life; all of which is very true and precious, but, has no more to do with the question in hand, himself being witness, than has the doctrine of original sin. The question is, the meaning of baptizo, and the professor admits that it has no part in the resurrection. The very perplexing position in which he found himself, is some apology for the confusion of ideas and the incongruities which appear in his statements. He is discussing the relative merits of the two words bapto and baptizo. The former, in its primary and ordinary meaning, he can but acknowledge, engages both to put its subject into the water and take him out again; while baptizo only puts him in. The latter, says the professor, was chosen because of this its distinctive import, because the command was, not “to put the people into the water and take them out again; but to put them under the water,—to submerge them.” But before he is done, we are told that the coming out, “though essential to the completeness of the transaction could not be included in the designation of the rite.” Does “the transaction,” here mean the life saving operation which he confides to the “instinctive love of life, common sense,” etc? Or, are we correct in supposing it to mean that baptismal rite which he is discussing? And if the latter be the design, how is the statement to be reconciled with the reason just before given for the employment of baptizo, because it does not take the subject out of the water, while bapto does? Waiving this difficulty, the question occurs,—Why the rising “could not be included in the designation of the rite,” seeing bapto was ready to add that very idea to the meaning of baptizo? The question is anticipated by the professor, and the answer given. It is because the latter word has “greater length, weight, and dignity of form!” The meaning of the words was a secondary consideration! Bapto has but two syllables, while baptizo has three. It has the advantage, therefore, in a greater length, and a buzzing zeta, to add to its “weight and dignity of form!” Or, perhaps, the superior “weight” of the one word over the other consists in the fact that while bapto accurately expresses the hasty resurrection which the instinct of life and other influences specified so happily, though not invariably, connect with the administration of the rite, baptizo maintains a dignified silence on that part of the subject. But the professor drifts back again to his first position. He insists that the baptism of Israel into Moses was received in their “wondrous march” enclosed between the walls of water, and enshrouded in the cloud, “and not in the closing emersion.” And yet, even here, his protest that bapto itself would not have given absolute assurance of exit, looks like a disposition to weaken the force of “the distinctive import” of baptizo.
However these “dark sayings of the wise” are to be interpreted, the facts remain, that, confessedly, the word chosen by the Savior to designate the rite of baptism does not include in it the idea of emersion, typical of resurrection,—that it was chosen in preference to a kindred word which does distinctly express that idea,—and that the best reasons suggested by Baptist scholarship for this remarkable fact are, that burial and not resurrection was the doctrine symbolized; and that baptizo sounds best! Such are the results of the elaborate researches of the scholarly Conant, confirmed by the eminent learning of Kendrick, divines than whom the Baptist churches have had none more zealous or more competent. Essentially the same is the definition reached through the exhaustive studies of our own departed Dale.
Thus, according to the Baptist rendering of the gospel commission, we are to go into all the world and submerge every creature,—a command which neither contains nor implies authority in any one to neutralize it by a systematic rescue of its subjects from the “liquid grave.” A result of the most serious import to our Baptist brethren follows from these facts. The definition, to dip, for the sake of which they have so long separated themselves, in translating the Scriptures into the languages of the heathen, is demonstrably and confessedly false, and the result is a corrupting of the word of God.
The force of these facts against the very foundations of the immersion fabric is utterly destructive. But the matter does not rest even here. Dr. Conant recognizes in baptizo a second meaning. The word does not even limit itself to “submerge and nothing but submerge.” It also “expressed the coming into a new state of life or experience, in which one was, as it were enclosed or swallowed up, so that temporarily or permanently he belonged wholly to it.”[[104]] Thus, the man who is brought under the control of a passion of anger, fear, or love, or who is overcome with wine or sleep, was by the Greeks said to be baptized with these things. So, in the Scriptures, he who is under such control that he is “led of the Spirit,” is said to be “baptized with the Spirit.” This meaning of baptizo no candid scholar can deny; and in it we have already seen abundant relief from all the perplexities of the immersion theory. Respecting it, however, a caution is necessary. A mere momentary impulse or influence by which one is seized, but, instantly, released, is not a baptism, in the classic sense. The word expressed a control which not only seizes but holds its object. It brings him “into a new state of life or experience.” This use of the word flows from the primary meaning, to submerge, as expressive not of comprehensive control, only, but of continuance. Nothing analogous to a momentary dipping was known to the Greeks as a baptism.
Section LXXVI.—The Prepositions.
In the common English version of the New Testament, the translations which occur in connection with baptism are such as to show an evident bias on the part of the translators in favor of immersion. In fact they were, all of them, immersionists, if not by personal conviction, then, by constraint of law. They were members, and with a few exceptions clergymen of the church of England, by law established. That church had originally[originally] incorporated among its ordinances, baptism by trine immersion. By the parliamentary revision during the reign of Edward VI, the book of prayer was so altered as to require but one immersion. The rubric for baptism was and is to this day in these words:—“Then the priest shall take the child in his hands, and ask the name; and naming the child, shall dip it in the water, so it be discreetly and warily done, saying, ‘N., I baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.’ And, if the child be weak, it shall suffice to pour water upon it, saying the aforesaid words.”[[105]]