As to the bearing of the prepositions on the present argument, a brief illustration may make it clear to the English reader. In the following citations, the words in italics answer to the Greek prepositions under which respectively they are cited.
1. En. “And were all baptized of him (en) in Jordan.”—Matt. iii, 6. “John did baptize in the wilderness.”—Mark i, 4. “John was baptizing in Enon.”—John iii, 23. “These things were done in Bethabara, beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.”—John i, 28. “The tower in Siloam.”—Luke xiii, 4. “Elias is come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed.”—Matt. xvii, 12. “Turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.”—Luke i, 17. “Lest they trample them with their feet.”—Matt. vii, 6. “Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.”—John xvii, 17. “They that take the sword shall perish with the sword.”—Matt. xxvi, 52. “There is none other name ... by which we must be saved.”—Acts iv, 12. “He will judge the world ... by that man whom he hath ordained.”—Ib. xvii, 31. “Now revealed by the Spirit”—Eph. iii, 5. “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.”—Phil. ii, 10. From these illustrations two deductions are manifest (1.) En does not always mean in. It may mean with or by, instrumentally. “With the sword.” “The name by which,” etc. It may mean by a mediate agent. “Revealed by the Spirit.” “He will judge the world by that man.” It may mean at, by, or in, locally. “In Enon.” “At Siloam.” It may be used in a yet more general signification, as, “At the name.” Other meanings might be stated, but these are sufficient (2.) If, by reason of the phrase “in Jordan,” we must understand that John immersed his disciples into the Jordan, it of necessity follows that he also immersed them “into Enon,” and “into the wilderness.” In short, the expression indicates that the Jordan was the place at which the baptizing was done:—this, and this only. Why it was done there, we shall presently see.
2. Eis. “Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized of John (eis) in Jordan.”—Mark i, 9. “They went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch and he baptized him.”—Acts viii, 38. These passages mutually illustrate each other and show that the going into the water was not the baptizing. “He came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth.”—Mat. ii, 23. “He cometh to a city of Samaria,” but he remained outside, at the well, while the apostles went “into the city,” whence the Samaritans “went out of the city and came to him.”—John iv, 5, 8, 28, 30. “He loved them to the end.”—Ib. xiii, 1. “I speak to the world.” Ib. viii, 26. “If thy brother trespass against thee.”—Matt, xviii, 15. “Therefore” (Literally, to this) “came I forth.”—Mark i, 38. “What are they among so many.”—John vi, 9. “The Son which is in (on) the bosom of the Father.”—John i, 18. “He went up into (to, or, on,) a mountain.”—Matt., v, 1. “Depart unto the other side.”—Ib. viii, 18. “Fell down at his feet.”—Ib. xviii, 29. Eis is even used in express contrast with entrance into. “The other disciple did outrun Peter, and first (ēlthen eis) came to the sepulchre, ... yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him and (eis-ēlthen eis) entered into the sepulchre.”—John xx, 4-6. This illustrates a usage concerning eis. When entrance into is to be expressed by the mere force of the word, it must be doubled. See Matt. vi, 6; x, 5, 12; Luke ix, 34, etc. The same remark applies to ek, in the sense of out of. But neither of these words is ever used in duplicated form, with reference to baptism. It is evident that the word of itself determines no more as to the mode of the baptism of Jesus than does en. The ordinary office of eis is to point to the terminus of a preceding verb of motion. When it is said that Jesus came and dwelt (eis) in a city called Nazareth, en would have been the proper preposition to express the in-dwelling; but eis is preferred because the city was the terminus of the coming “He came (eis) to a city.” So Mark above uses the same word, not because of its appropriateness to the baptizing, which is always elsewhere expressed by en, but because the Jordan was the terminus (eis) to which he came from Galilee.
3. Ek. “And when they were come up (ek) out of the water.”—Acts viii, 39. In his gospel, Luke the author of this account thus uses the preposition. “Saved from our enemies.”—Luke i, 71. “Every tree is known by its own fruit, for of thorns men do not gather figs; nor of a bramble-bush gather they grapes.”—Ib. vi, 44. “He cometh from the wedding.”—Ib. xii, 36. “All these have I kept from my youth up.”—Ib. xviii, 21. So far as this word determines, Philip and the eunuch may have come up from the water, without having been in it, at all.
4. Apo. “Jesus when he was baptized, went up straightway (apo) out of the water.”—Matt. iii, 16. Apo never means, “out of,” as here translated; but, “from,” “away from.” “When Jesus was come down from the mountain.”—Matt. viii, 1. “From whom do kings take tribute?”—Ib. xvii, 25. “Cast them from thee.”—Ib. xviii, 8. “Beginning from the last unto the first.”—Ib. xx, 8.
From these illustrations, which might be multiplied indefinitely, it is evident that the prepositions will not bear the stress put upon them by the Baptist argument. Not only are they, in themselves, insufficient to constitute a reliable basis for the conclusions sought; but the statements to which they belong have respect, not to the mode of the baptism, but to the places of it. They are defined by the phrases, “in Jordan,”—“in Enon,”—“in Bethabara.” Recent Baptist writers have had the courage to follow their principles to the result of translating John’s words,—“I immerse you in water, but he shall immerse you in the Holy Ghost and in fire,”—a rendering from which the better taste, if not the better scholarship, of the translators of King James’s version revolted. The thorough consideration already given in these pages to the baptism of the Spirit justifies an imperative denial of the correctness of this translation. If any thing in the Bible is clear, it is that the baptism administered by the Lord Jesus is not an immersion, but an outpouring.
On the question of the prepositions in this connection, light is shed by an expression of the apostle Paul. “By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, ... and have been all made to drink one Spirit.”—1 Cor. xii, 13. Of this passage we have already indicated that “into,” as found in the last clause, in the common version (“to drink into one Spirit”), is spurious, and that potizo (“made to drink”), properly signifies, to apply water or other fluid, whether externally or internally, to water, to cause to drink. In this passage, we have both the prepositions, en and eis, each dependent on the one verb, baptizo, but each having its own distinctive subject. “Baptized (en), in one Spirit (eis), into one body.” Into which of these media does the immersion take place? Shall we follow the Baptist interpretation of the words of John, “He shall immerse you in the Holy Ghost?” But in the first place, we have seen that this is false to the real manner of the baptism in question; which consists in a shedding down of the Spirit. In the second, how then, in harmony with Baptist principles, are we to understand the other clause of the passage,—“Immersed in one Spirit, into one body?“ Are there here two immersions by one act? the one subject put at one and the same time into two different media? Moreover, the language with which the apostle closes the passage, while it is in perfect accord with the true mode of the baptism of the Spirit, is altogether incongruous to the Baptist interpretation. If we are baptized with or by the Spirit, shed upon us, we may consistently be said to drink (or, to be watered with) the Spirit. For, the earth and its vegetation drink the rain that falls upon them. But if we must be immersed in the Spirit, Paul’s language implies that in order that men be caused to drink they are to be immersed in the water. “Immersed in one Spirit, and all made to drink one Spirit.”
But the phrase, en heni Pneumati, does not mean “in one Spirit.” As we have seen, the preposition may and often does mean “with,” or “by,” the Spirit, as the agent or instrument. Especially by Paul, the writer of the passage in question, is the phrase so used,—“Through Him we both have access (en heni Pneumati), by one Spirit unto the Father.”—Eph. ii, 18. Here is the very phrase in question. Through the Lord Jesus, the Mediator, by his Spirit as the instrument, who, being sent by him helpeth our infirmities, in prayer (Rom. viii, 26), we have access to the Father’s presence. Again,—“On whom,” as the chief corner stone, “we are builded together, for an habitation of God (en Pneumati), by the Spirit,” who is the efficient builder of the spiritual temple. Again, the apostle tells of the mystery which is “now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets (en Pneumati), by the Spirit” (Eph. iii, 5), and exhorts us, “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled (en) with the Spirit” (Ib. v, 18), and to “pray with all prayer and supplication (en) by the Spirit.”—Ib. vi, 18. So in the text,—“With, or, by one Spirit,” the instrument and agent of grace shed on us abundantly by Jesus Christ “are we all baptized”—brought into a new state of incorporation “into one body,” which he pervades and controls as the Spirit of life. Into it we are not immersed; but, united by his common in-dwelling power, are made daily “to drink of that one Spirit,” which is in us, “a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”—John iv, 14.
It is not necessary to the present purpose to dwell further on the signification and bearing of the prepositions. The moment baptizo ceases to mean, to dip, and nothing else, the prepositions lose all determining force upon the questions at issue. If John’s disciples were dipped or submerged in Jordan all is plain, and discussion is at an end. But if John baptized in Jordan, the question still remains,—How did he baptize? This is very clearly illustrated by the case of the Ethiopian eunuch, if we accept the immersion rendering of the prepositions. “They went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch.” They have now reached the place, in the water, if you will. But the baptism is yet to be performed.—“And he baptized him.” But how did he do it? The baptism is now ended; but both are still in position “in the water;” out of which they are then stated to have come. (Acts viii, 38, 39.)