The Duty Circumstances And Benefits Of Baptism Determined By Evidence With An Appendix Shewing The Meaning Of Several Greek Words In The New Testament Etc PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1914 edition. Excerpt: ... THE EARLY MODE OF ADMINISTERING BAPTISM p I i HUS far we have considered certain linguistic principles and facts which have become a large part of the subjectmatter of the controversy over baptism. We have found no "law" of language to sustain the immersionist contention that the Greek word baptizo when used in the context in which the New Testament employs it must possess its primary or root meaning of "immerse" or "dip." On the contrary, we have found this word taking on changed meanings in particular circumstances through association. Our appeal to linguistic scholarship has shown that this word in its New Testament use refers to a rite, a ceremony, including in its connotation the significance of the ceremony and not merely the physical act by which the ceremony was carried out. The essential significance of the ceremony, its function and meaning, as nearly as our English terms can state it may be expressed as initiation or induction into a religious order, carrying with it also the ideas of consecration and moral cleansing. The pivotal fallacy of the immersionist dogma may be stated thus: It has allowed this functional content to drop out of the meaning of the word baptizo and has retained only the physical act by which this essential function was performed. The word, however, in its New Testament usage, as we will see yet more clearly when we come to an examination of the Scripture text itself, refers primarily to the function of initiation and only incidentally to the particular physical act. In a later chapter we shall consider this distinction of function and form more fully. At the present let us ask as to the origin and early mode of administering the rite called baptism. Quite outside of Christian or Hebrew influence we find...