βαπτίζω

From the study of Acts 2:38

Range of meaning

To dip, plunge, immerse, or sink. It is also used for ritual washing: Mark 7:4 and Luke 11:38 use it for Jewish washings before meals. Outside the Bible it can describe a ship sinking or someone being overwhelmed.

Against the English

“Baptize” is a transliteration of the Greek, not a translation, so English readers meet a church word rather than an everyday one. To a first-century hearer it was an ordinary verb for dipping or washing in water, here used for a specific religious act.

How it drifted

Because the word was carried over untranslated, it came to name a church rite whose form (immersion, pouring, sprinkling), recipients and meaning were settled by later traditions. The text itself shows only the plain sense, a washing or immersion in water, framed by John's earlier baptism.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the LXX, Naaman “dipped himself” (ebaptisato) seven times in the Jordan (2 Kings 5:14). Washing after contact with a corpse appears in Sirach 34:25 (31:30), and Judith bathes at a spring (Judith 12:7). Josephus describes John the Baptist's immersion (Antiquities 18.116–119) and insists it was for purifying the body of people whose souls were already cleansed by righteousness. Among the Dead Sea Scrolls, 1QS 3:4–9 says washing in water cleanses only a person who submits in a humble, upright spirit, and it links cleansing with “a holy spirit.” Many ritual immersion pools (miqva'ot) have been excavated near the southern approaches to the Temple Mount.

From the study of John 1:26

Range of meaning

To dip, plunge, immerse or submerge. It can also mean to wash ritually. Used figuratively, it means to be overwhelmed, swamped or 'drowned' (in debt, in troubles, in wine). It is a strengthened form of βάπτω, 'to dip' (as in dyeing cloth).

Against the English

English 'baptize' is not a translation. It is the Greek word spelled in English letters. For modern readers it names a Christian church rite with set forms and meanings, whether sprinkling, pouring or immersion, infant or believer. In John 1:26 the word describes something John the Baptizer did before any church existed: he immersed people in the Jordan as a prophetic act of cleansing.

How it drifted

From the earliest centuries the word was kept untranslated as the name of the Christian rite. Later Latin and English simply carried it over (Latin baptizare). Over time the everyday Greek sense ('dip, immerse, wash') faded behind its use as a church term.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament), Naaman 'dipped himself' (ἐβαπτίσατο) seven times in the Jordan (2 Kgs 5:14). Judith 'bathed' at a spring (Jdt 12:7). Sirach 34:25 (31:30 in some numberings) uses it for washing after touching a corpse. In the New Testament it can mean ritual washing before meals (Mark 7:4; Luke 11:38). Josephus uses it for ships sinking and people being overwhelmed. He also describes John's immersion as a bodily purification for people whose souls had already been cleansed by righteousness (Antiquities 18.116–119).

From the study of John 1:25

Range of meaning

To dip, plunge or immerse. It can also mean to wash ritually by immersion, and figuratively to be overwhelmed or 'drenched' by something (BDAG). In Jewish Greek it is used for ritual washings to remove impurity.

Against the English

'Baptize' is not a translation. It is the Greek word spelled in English letters. So English readers hear a technical church term rather than 'immerse' or 'wash', which is what a first-century Greek speaker heard.

How it drifted

The word was carried over untranslated through Latin (baptizare) into English. It became the name of the Christian sacrament, the formal church rite, and its everyday sense of 'dip, immerse' was lost on English readers.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the Greek Old Testament, 2 Kings (4 Kingdoms) 5:14 says Naaman 'immersed himself' (ebaptisato) seven times in the Jordan. Sirach 34:25 (LXX 31:30) uses it for washing after touching a corpse. Judith 12:7 uses it for Judith bathing at a spring. Josephus (Antiquities 18.116–119) describes John's baptism and says it was not meant to remove sins but to purify the body once the soul had already been cleansed by righteousness. The Dead Sea community (1QS 3.4–9; 5.13–14) practiced repeated immersions tied to repentance.