The Meaning of βαπτίζειν in Greek, Jewish, and Patristic Literature 25 hazard saved himself by swimming. It is said, that then, holding divers books in his hand, he did never let them go, but kept them always upon his head above water, and swam with the other hand, notwithstanding that they shot marvellously at him, and was driven sometime to duck into the water: howbeit the boat was drowned presently”; T. North) (i). Plutarch, Theseus 24.6: τοῦτο δὲ καὶ Σίβυλλαν ὕστερον ἀποστοματίσαι πρὸς τὴν πόλιν ἱστοροῦσιν, ἀναφθεγξαμένην: Ἀσκὸς βαπτίζῃ: δῦναι δέ τοι οὐ θέμις ἐστίν (“Which oracle, they say, one of the sibyls long after did in a manner repeat to the Athenians, in this verse: ‘The bladder may be dipped, but not be drowned”;’ J. Dryden) (i). Josephus, De bello Judaico 1.437: οὐδὲ γὰρ τούτου καίπερ ὄντος παιδὸς ἐφείσατο, δοὺς μὲν αὐτῷ τὴν ἀρχιερωσύνην ἑπτακαιδεκαέτει, μετὰ δὲ τὴν τιμὴν κτείνας εὐθέως, ἐπειδὴ τὴν ἱερὰν ἐσθῆτα λαβόντι καὶ τῷ βωμῷ προσελθόντι καθ’ ἑορτὴν ἄθρουν ἐπεδάκρυσεν τὸ πλῆθος. πέμπεται μὲν οὖν ὁ παῖς διὰ νυκτὸς εἰς Ἱεριχοῦντα, ἐκεῖ δὲ κατ’ ἐντολὴν ὑπὸ τῶν Γαλατῶν βαπτιζόμενος ἐν κολυμβήθρᾳ τελευτᾷ (“For Herod had not spared even this poor lad [i.e. Jonathan, the brother of his wife Mariamme]; he had bestowed upon him in his seventeenth year the office of high-priest, and then immediately after conferring this honour had put him to death, because, on the occasion of a festival, when the lad approached the altar, clad in the priestly vestments, the multitude with one accord burst into tears. He was, consequently, sent by night to Jericho, and there, in accordance with instructions, plunged into a swimming-bath by the Gauls and drowned”; H. St. J. Thackeray) (i) (cf. sense 1d).60 Achilles Tatius, Leucippe et Clitophon 3.1.3: μετεσκευαζόμεθα οὖν ἅπαντες εἰς τὰ μετέωρα τῆς νηός, ὅπως τὸ μὲν βαπτιζόμενον τῆς νηὸς ἀνακουφίσαιμεν, τὸ δὲ τῇ προσθήκῃ βιασάμενοι κατὰ μικρὸν καθέλοιμεν εἰς τὸ ἀντίρροπον (“We transferred ourselves therefore to that part of the boat which was highest out of water, in order to lighten that part which was down in the sea, and so if possible, by our own added weight depressing the former, to bring the whole again to a level”; S. Gaselee) (ii) (cf. sense 1d). Galen, De venae sectione adversus Erasistrateos Romae degentes 11.214: προσεσθίειν δὲ διδόναι τῶν κιχωρίων συχνὰ εἰς ὄξος μὴ δριμὺ ἐμβάπτοντας καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν σιτίων ἀναλίσκειν (“And you must also frequently give the patient to eat some chicory steeped in mild vinegar”; P. Brain)61 (ii). 60 For a fuller account see A.J. 15.55, where the word βαπτίζω is also used for drowning. 61 Peter Brain, Galen on Bloodletting: A Study of the Origins, Development, and Validity of his Opinions, with a Translation of the Three Works (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), p. 51.