The Meaning of the Word “Baptism”

Rev. Ronald Hanko

Rev. Hanko is a minister in the Protestant Reformed Churches in America and has authored a number of books, including (among others) the following: Doctrine According to Godliness: A Primer on Reformed Doctrine (2004), The Coming of Zion’s Redeemer: Commentary on Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi (2015). He was also the joint author of Saved by Grace: A Study of the Five Points of Calvinism (1995) and its accompanying study guide (all of which can be purchased at http://www.cprc.co.uk and http://www.rfpa.org).

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It has often been claimed that the New Testament word “baptism” always and only means “to immerse” or “to submerse.”  Carson, a Baptist, says: “Baptism in the whole history of the Greek language has but one [meaning].  It not only signifies to ... immerse, but it never has any other meaning.”[1]  Not only do Baptists claim this, but many paedobaptists concede the point.  Among Baptists, therefore, this understanding of the word leads to an insistence that baptism by immersion is the only valid baptism.

      

A little word study will show, however, that it is not the case that baptism means immersion.  Indeed, the word tells us nothing at all about the mode of baptism.  That must be learned from other considerations.

      

Such study will show that there are a number of passages in the New Testament in which the word cannot and does not have the meaning “immerse” or “submerse.”  We plead, therefore, with those who believe otherwise, to hear our side of the matter and not just to charge us with blindly following human traditions in not practicing baptism by immersion.

Matthew 20:22-23

One passage is Matthew 20:22-23:    

And Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask.  Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?  They say unto him, we are able.  And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of the Father.

To understand baptism as “immersion” in this passage is impossible.  This is easily seen if one simply substitutes the word immersion or immersed for the word baptism or baptized in the verses.  That Jesus is referring to His suffering and death is evident from the reference to His cup in Matthew 26:39: “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.”  Drinking of that cup and being baptized are the same thing in Matthew 20:22-23.  Drinking and being immersed are two very different things.

      

To say that He was to be immersed in suffering or death, or that his suffering and death are an immersion means little.  As we will see, the idea is rather that He would come into the closest possible contact with suffering and death: He would taste suffering and death to the full.  If we understand baptism to mean coming into contact with suffering and death, then the idea of baptism and drinking fit nicely together.

Mark 7:1-5

Nor can baptism mean immersion in Mark 7:1-5, where Scripture speaks of the washing of cups, pots, brazen vessels, and of tables, and uses the Greek word “baptize” for these washings:

Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem.  And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.  For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.  And when they come from the market, except they wash [i.e., baptize themselves—RH], they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing [i.e., baptizing—RH] of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.  Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?

Here, though the word “baptize” might mean immersion in reference to the cups, pots and vessels, it is ridiculous to think that it must have that meaning in relation to tables, or to think that the Pharisees immersed themselves every time they came from the market.

Luke 11:37-38

In Luke 11:37-38 we read that Jesus was criticized by the Pharisees for not washing before dinner:

And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat.  And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed [i.e., baptized himself—RH] before dinner.

Here, too, the word translated “washed” in the KJV is a form of the Greek word “baptize,” but cannot mean immersion in the sense that Jesus took a bath before dinner.  It does not even necessarily refer to the immersion of His hands (cf. also the previous passage, Mark 7:2-5).  Jewish tradition, summarized in the Talmud, did not require immersion, but speaks of “hands made clean as far as the wrist …” “If he poured the first water over the hands as far as the wrist and poured the second water over the hands beyond the wrist and the latter flowed back to the hands, the hands nevertheless become clean.”[2]  In Jewish tradition, therefore, the baptizing of hands referred to pouring water over the hands, not to immersing them.

Holy Spirit Baptism

That baptism does not mean immersion is also clear from the verses that describe the gift of the Holy Spirit as a baptism.  None of these passages refer to an immersion, but to the outpouring, shedding forth or sprinkling of the Spirit:

Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. (Isa. 32:15)

For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring. (Isa. 44:3)

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. (Joel 2:28-29)

And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him. (Matt. 3:16)

                                                                                                    

And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.  And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. (John 1:32-33)

While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.  And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. (Acts 10:44-45)

I Corinthians 10:2

Even more important is I Corinthians 10:2, which in the Greek speaks literally of the Israelites being baptized into Moses: “And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.”  Of this passage we will have more to say, but it should be noted here that the Israelites, though they were baptized, were never immersed in the cloud or the sea: they went over on dry ground (Exod. 14:16, 22, 29; 15:19).  Indeed, the verse speaks of their being baptized in the cloud and in the sea, but into Moses by the cloud and sea.  Can the verse possibly be saying that they were immersed in Moses?  The word must mean something else.  It means, once again, that they were brought into the closest possible contact with Moses as a mediator.

I Peter 3:20-21

I Peter 3:20-21 speaks of the flood as one of the great Old Testament pictures of baptism:

Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This Old Testament baptism was not by immersion either, and the word “baptism,” when used by Peter to describe the flood, cannot mean “immersion.”  Noah and his family were not immersed in the waters of the flood.

I Corinthians 1:13

Paul speaks of baptism in I Corinthians 1:13 (“Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?”) and Jesus Himself speaks of it in Matthew 28:19 as baptism in (literally “into”) the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost”).  What could it possibly mean to be immersed in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit or in any other name?  It means, rather, to be brought into the closest possible contact with that great Name.

I Corinthians 12:13

The same is true of I Corinthians 12:13, which speaks of being baptized into one body:

For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

Can the Word of God be saying that we are immersed in one body?  It is difficult to see how that could have any meaning.  Indeed, in the rest of the verse, the comparison is not to a bath or some kind of immersion, but to drinking!  Once again, the emphasis is not on immersion but on the closest possible contact with something—in this case, the body of Christ which is the church.

Hebrews 9:10

Finally, Hebrews 9:10 speaks of the many “washings” of the Old Testament as “baptisms” and makes specific mention of three of those baptisms in verses 13, 19 and 21, none of which were immersions, but were sprinklings or pourings:

Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. (10)

For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh (13)

For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people (19)

Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. (21)

Those who do not know Greek should understand that the word translated “washings” in the KJV is really the Greek word “baptisms.”  This can easily be checked in a good concordance.  The washings or baptisms referred to were all by sprinkling or pouring (cf. Exod. 24:7-8; Lev. 14:4-7, 49-52; 16:14, 19; Num. 19:18-19).     

What, then, does the word baptism mean?  It means to bring two things into the closest contact, so that the condition of the one is changed by the other.  One can therefore be baptized with fire, with the sword, with the Spirit, into death or into Moses, all of which bring about great changes in one’s condition, without ever being immersed in anything.

      

Dale defines “baptize” thus:

Whatever is capable of thoroughly changing the character, state or condition of any object, is capable of baptizing that object: and by such change of character, state or condition does, in fact, baptize it.[3]

Even today, we use the word “baptism” in this sense when we speak of a soldier’s first battle as a “baptism by fire.”  Then, too, the idea is not that he is immersed in enemy fire, but rather that he, for the first time, comes into close contact with it, and is forever changed by such contact.

      

Thus, to be baptized into Moses meant that Israel was brought into contact with him as the God-appointed and typical mediator, in such a way that their condition was changed from slavery to freedom.  That Christ was baptized with death does not mean He was immersed in it, but that He was brought into the closest possible contact with it so that His condition was changed from being counted guilty before God, to being justified on our behalf.

      

When Scripture says, therefore, that we are baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection (Rom. 6:1-6), it is not saying that somehow we are immersed in those events (whatever that would mean).  It refers instead to the fact that we, through faith, are brought into contact with His death and resurrection, by which our condition is completely changed:

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

That is the meaning of baptism and the reality of baptism for us!

      

It should be evident that this is the real meaning of the word “baptism” from the fact that it perfectly fits all the Scripture passages in which the word is used.  The meaning “immersion” does not so fit, in spite of all the Baptist protestations to the contrary.

      

The point, then, of this chapter is that the word baptism does not and cannot mean only, ever and always immersion, as the Baptists insist.  In fact, the word says nothing about the mode of baptism.  That must be determined from other Scriptures.  If baptism does not mean immersion, however, one of the principal Baptist arguments for immersion is destroyed.

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FOOTNOTES:

1. Alexander Carson, Baptism in its Modes and Subjects (Philadelphia, 1845), p. 19.

2. Cf. Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959), vol. II, pp. 9-15.

3. Dale, Classic Baptism, pp. 352-54.  Quoted in Adams, The Meaning and Mode of Baptism, p. 4.

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