The Meaning of βαπτίζειν in Greek, Jewish, and Patristic Literature 11 1. to wash (in some contexts, possibly by dipping into water), with a view to making objects ritually acceptable, to wash, to purify, washing, purifica- tion; 2. to employ water in a religious ceremony designed to symbolize purifica- tion and initiation on the basis of repentance, to baptize; 3. to cause someone to have a highly significant religious experience in- volving special manifestations of God’s power and presence, to baptize (explained as ‘a figurative extension of meaning’ of the second sense) A comparison of these lexicon entries reveals the following problems. (1) The organization of the lexical entries is arbitrary. For βαπτίζω, LSJ lists both literal and metaphorical meanings in one single lexical unit, while the extended meanings for βάπτω are listed in terms of four separate lexical units. DGE organizes the meanings according to transitive and intransitive uses. BDAG distinguishes a Jewish sense of βαπτίζω from a New Testament sense, which is not very convincing since it can be argued that ceremonial washings by Jews ″for the purpose of purification⁇ also renew a relationship with God, the second lexical sense which is specified for John the Baptist, for Jesus, and for the ″Christian sacrament⁇. BDAG’s entry for βαπτίζω is more informed by New Testament tradition-history and theology rather than by lexicography. The arbitrariness of the lexical senses that the lexicons give for the two verbs is the result of the practice of indicating meaning by glosses rather than by definitions.23 (2) The entries violate the principle that in the organization of related meanings of a term, ″no more meanings than are completely necessary to account for the evidence⁇ should be adopted.24 LSJ could have integrated all three senses given for βαπτίζω in the lexical unit ″dip, plunge⁇, or provided two lexical senses, one for ″dip, plunge (in a liquid)⁇ and one for ″be overwhelmed (by debts, arguments, wine)⁇; the six lexical units for βάπτω could either be integrated into the single sense ″immerse (in a liquid), dip⁇, or a literal and a figurative sense could be distinguished. As regards the entry for βαπτίζω in DGE, there is no need as far as meaning is concerned to distinguish between the senses B.I and B.II. As regards BDAG, there is no lexicographical necessity to specify that Jews, as well as John, Jesus, and the apostles (who were all Jews!) “use water in a rite” while creating separate sub-categories. Also, the distinction between ritual/ceremonial meanings and non-ritual meanings is superfluous if 23 Cf. John A. L. Lee, ″The Present State of Lexicography⁇, p. 69. 24 Eugene A. Nida and Johannes P. Louw, Lexical Semantics of the Greek New Testa- ment (A Supplement to the Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Seman- tic Domains; SBLRBS 25; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992), p. 42.