Eckhard Schnabel, «The Meaning of Baptizein in Greek, Jewish, and Patristic Literature.» filologia-neotestamentaria, Vol. 24 (2011) 3-40 page 19

Vol 24 (2011)

Eckhard Schnabel, «The Meaning of Baptizein in Greek, Jewish, and Patristic Literature.», Vol. 24 (2011) 3-40

The treatment of the Greek term Baptizein in the standard English lexicons is unsystematic. The use of the English term ‘to baptize’ for the Greek term Baptizein in English versions of the New Testament is predicated on the assumption that the Greek verb has a technical meaning which warrants the use of a transliteration. Since the first fact is deplorable and the second fact is unsatisfactory, an investigation into the meaning of the Greek term in Greek, Jewish, and patristic literary and documentary texts is called for in order to define the meaning of the term in classical and Hellenistic Greek with more precision than usually encountered in New Testament research, with a view to construct a more helpful lexicon entry for Baptizein.

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The Meaning of βαπτίζειν in Greek, Jewish, and Patristic Literature 19 3. The use of βάπτειν and βαπτίζειν in Greek, Jewish, and Patristic texts The following survey of the use of βάπτειν and βαπτίζειν in Greek, Jewish, and Patristic texts52 provides not merely references but cites relevant Greek texts with sufficient context that allows readers to bet- ter grasp the use of βάπτειν and βαπτίζειν in the primary sources. The examples are cited in the order of the established meanings.53 (i) Physical (‘literal’) uses Homer, Odyssea 9.392: εἰν ὕδατι ψυχρῷ βάπτῃ μεγάλα ἰάχοντα φαρμάσσων (“And as when a smith dips a great axe or an adze in cold water amid loud hissing to temper it”; A. T. Murray) (VIII). Aeschylus, Prometheus vinctus 862-863: γυνὴ γὰρ ἄνδρ’ ἕκαστον αἰῶνος στερεῖ, δίθηκτον ἐν σφαγαῖσι βάψασα ξίφος (“For every wife shall strike her hus- band down, dipping a two-edged broadsword in his blood”; H. W. Smyth) (VI) (cf. sense 1e). Aesop, Fabulae 75 (The Monkey and the Dolphin, version 1, lines 14-15): καὶ ὁ δελφὶς ἐπὶ τοσούτῳ ψεύδει ἀγανακτήσας βαπτίζων αὐτὸν ἀπέκτεινεν (“The dolphin, indignant at these falsehoods, dipped the monkey under the water and drowned him”; G. F. Townsend) (VI) (cf. sense 1d). Hipponax, Fragmenta 26 + 26a: ὁ μὲν γὰρ αὐτῶν ἡσυχῆι τε καὶ ῥύδην θύννάν τε καὶ μυσσωτὸν ἡμέρας πάσας δαινύμενος ὥσπερ Λαμψακηνὸς εὐνοῦχος κατέφαγε δὴ τὸν κλῆρον: ὥστε χρὴ σκάπτειν πέτρας τ’ ὀρείας, σῦκα μέτρια τρώγων καὶ κρίθινον κόλλικα, δούλιον χόρτον ... οὐκ ἀτταγέας τε καὶ λαγοὺς καταβρύκων, οὐ τηγανίτας σησάμοισι φαρμάσσων, οὐδ’ ἀττανίτας κηρίοισιν ἐμβάπτων (“For one of them, at his ease and lavishly, dined every day on tuna and spicy cheesecake, just like some eunuch from Lampsakos, and ate up his estate. So now he has to dig rocks on the hillside, nibbling a modicum of figs and barley bread, the fodder of 52 The most recent survey of the meaning of βαπτίζειν and of βάπτειν is that of Ferguson, Baptism, 38-59. Other recent treatments, after A. Oepke’s article in the first volume of the Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament, published in 1933 (pp. 527-28; in TDNT 1.529-30), are Ysebaert, Greek Baptismal Terminology, 12-83; Chadwick, Lexicographica Graeca, pp. 59-62. An older study is that of Thomas Jefferson Conant, The Meaning and Use of Baptizein, Philologically and Historically Investigated (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1977 [orig. 1861]). 53 Upper case Roman numerals refer to centuries B.C., lower case Roman numerals to centuries A.D.