Notice the English words _shoot_, _hang_ and _poison_. These express specific outward acts; and, then, in their secondary meaning, they mean to kill, but always to kill in the way indicated by the primary meaning of the word. A man can be hung, shot or poisoned without being killed; but if it is reported that he was hung, shot or poisoned, we would all understand that he was killed. However, you cannot conceive of words so changing their meaning, that when it is said a man was hung, it means that he was shot, or when it is said he was poisoned, it means he was hung. No more is it conceivable that when the Greek word _baptizoo_ (to immerse) was used, it meant to cleanse by sprinkling (_rantizoo_), or when the word _rantizoo_ (to sprinkle) was used, it meant to cleanse by immersing (_baptizoo_). These words refer primarily to separate and distinct outward acts. It is true they may meet in their secondary meaning in the idea _to cleanse_; but they always refer to cleansing in the way indicated by the primary meaning of the word used. When they travel so far from their primary or proper meaning, which has reference to specific outward acts, that their meaning is said to be tropical or metaphorical, they lose their specific idea and have no longer any reference to the specific acts denoted by the words.
It is true that words can and do often change or enlarge their meaning.
But this is always to supply a need created by the lack of a proper word to express an a.s.sociated idea. Now, both the specific and general ideas with reference to the application of water are so copiously supplied with words in the Greek, that they preclude the necessity of changing the meaning of a word like _baptizoo_ to supply such a need.
We have _louoo_, to wash or bathe the body; _niptoo_, to wash a part of the body, as the hands, feet, face, etc.; _plunoo_, to wash clothes; _brechoo_, to wet, to rain; _katharizoo_, to cleanse; _ekcheoo_, to pour; _rantizoo_, to sprinkle; _baptizoo_, to immerse, etc.
Thus we have a threefold guard to keep _baptizoo_ to its primary or proper meaning of _to dip_ or _immerse_. First, an abundance of Greek words to express every general and specific idea about the application of water, except that of immersion; second, the fact that a tropical meaning of a word cannot refer to the specific outward act indicated by the word; and third, the law of interpretation which demands that a word be given its primary or proper meaning in commandments, or plain narrative, unless the context expressly demands a different meaning.
The above definitions of the word _baptizoo_ are taken from Dr.
Thayer"s "New Testament Greek Lexicon." In reply to letters inquiring about Dr. Thayer"s "New Testament Greek Lexicon," the following answers-were received. It is the "best" (Professor Hodge, of Princeton); it is the "very best" (Dr. Alexander, of Vanderbilt University); "nothing can compare with it" (Dr Hersman, president of the Southwestern Presbyterian University). This opinion is practically made unanimous from the fact that Dr. Thayer"s Lexicon is used at all of the leading schools in the country.
A request for an authoritative lexicon that gives "sprinkle" or "pour"
as a meaning of _baptizoo_, elicited the following answers: "There is no such lexicon" (Professor Humphreys, of the University of Virginia, and Professor D"ooge, of Colby University); "I know of none" (Professor Flagg, of Cornell); "I do not know of any" (Professor Tyler, of Amherst). "_Baptizoo_ means _to immerse_. All lexicographers and critics of any note are agreed in this."--_Dr. Moses Stuart._
Thus we learn, through the testimony of experts, without consulting all the numerous Greek lexicons, that they define the word _baptizoo_ as meaning _to immerse_ and that none of them say it means _to sprinkle_ or _to pour_.
The great ma.s.s of Christians know nothing about the Greek experts who make the lexicons, but are much better acquainted with and influenced by the great church leaders and church standards. Therefore we present the following quotations:
_Scholars and Churches Admit that Christ Taught Immersion._
NOTE.--These quotations are taken from a tract of mine on baptism.
I. _Council of Toledo_, 633 (Catholic): "We observe a single immersion in baptism."
2. _Council of Cologne_, 1280 (Catholic): "That he who baptizes when he immerses the candidate in water," etc.
3. _Martini_ (Roman Catholic): "In all of the pontificals and rituals I have seen (except that of Madeleine de Beulieu), and I have seen many, ancient as well as more recent, immersion is prescribed."
4. _Dollinger_ (Roman Catholic): "Baptism was administered by an entire immersion in water." (Chu. History, vol. 2, p. 294.) "A mere pouring or sprinkling was never thought of." (First Age of Chu., p. 318.) "Baptism by immersion continued to be the prevailing practice of the church as late as the fourteenth century." (Hist. Ch., vol. 2, p. 295.)
5. _Ritual of Greek Catholic Church_: "The priest immerses him, saying the servant of G.o.d is immersed, in the name of the Father," etc.
6. _Russian Catechism_ (Greek Catholic): "This they hold to be a point necessary, that no part of the child be undipped in water," etc.
7. _Alex. De Stourdza_ (native Greek): "The verb baptize, _immergo_, has, in fact, but one sole acceptation. It signifies, literally and always, to plunge. Baptism and immersion are, therefore, identical, and to say baptism is by aspersion is as if one should say, immersion by aspersion, or any other absurdity of the same nature." (Con. sur LaDoc.
et L"Esprit, p. 87.)
8. _Dr. Kyriasko_, of University of Athens, Greece: "The verb baptize in the Greek language never has the meaning of to pour or to sprinkle, but invariably that of to dip." (Letter to C. G. Jones, Lynchburg, Va.)
9. _Syrian Ritual_ (Nestorians): "The priest immerses him in water, saying such a one is baptized in the name of the Father," etc.
10. _Martin Luther_: "Baptism is a Greek word. In Latin it can be translated immersion, as when we plunge something into water, that it may be completely covered with water; they ought to have been completely immersed." (The Sacrament of Baptism.)
11. _Lutheran Catechism_, p. 216: "In what did this act (baptism) consist?" Answer: "The one to be baptized was first immersed in water, signifying death, and then he was drawn out again and was dressed with a new dress, as if he now were a different new being."
12. _John Calvin_ (Presbyterian): "The word baptize signifies to immerse, and it is certain that the rite of immersion was observed by the ancient church." (Inst. Book 4, c. 15.)
13. _Richard Baxter_ (Presbyterian): "It is commonly confessed by us to the Anabaptists, as our commentators declare, that in the Apostles"
time the baptized were dipped over head in the water." (Dis. Right to Sac., p. 70.)
14. _Dr. W. D. Powell_, while in Athens, Greece, wrote: "I found that all churches in Greece--the Presbyterian included--are compelled to immerse candidates for baptism, for, as one of the professors remarked, "the commonest day laborer understands nothing else for _baptizoo_ but immersion.""
15. _Zwingle_ (Reformed): "When ye were immersed into the water of baptism, ye wrere engrafted into the death of Christ." (Com. Rom. 6:3.)
16. _John Wesley_ (Methodist): "We are buried with him, alluding to the ancient manner of baptizing by immersion." (Notes on N. T., Rom. 6:4.) "Baptized according to the custom of the first church and the rule of the Church of England, by immersion." (Journal, vol. I, p. 20.) In Savannah, Ga., Sept., 1737, Wesley was found guilty of breaking the laws of the realm, among other things "by refusing to baptize Mr.
Parker"s child otherwise than by dipping." (Jour., vol. I, pp. 42, 43.)
17. _The Methodist Discipline_ of 1846, and the old Discipline compiled by Wesley himself, a.s.sert that "Jesus was baptized in the river of Jordan, and that the sixth of Romans means simply a burial in water."
18. _Adam Clark_ (Methodist): "As they received baptism as an emblem of death, in voluntarily going under the water, so they received it as an emblem of the resurrection into eternal life, in coming up out of the water." (Com., vol. 4, N. T.)
19. _Prayer Book_ (Church of England): "The priest shall dip him in the water, discreetly and warily."
20. _Conybeare and Howson_ (Episcopalians): "It is needless to add that baptism was administered by immersion, the convert being plunged beneath the surface of the water to represent his death to the life of sin, then raised from this momentary burial to represent his resurrection to the life of righteousness. It must be a subject of regret that the general discontinuance of this original form of baptism has rendered obscure to popular apprehension some very important pa.s.sages of Scripture." (Life of St. Paul.)
26. _Prof. L. L. Paine_ (Congregational): "It may be honestly asked by some, Was immersion the primitive form of baptism? As to the question of fact, the testimony is ample and decisive. It is a point on which ancient, medieval and modern historians alike, Catholic and Protestant, Lutheran and Calvinist, have no controversy. No historian who cares for his reputation would dare to deny it, and no historian who is worthy of the name would wish to."
27. _Dr. George Campbell_ (Presbyterian): "I have heard a disputant of this stamp, in defiance of etymology and use, maintain that the word rendered in the N. T. baptize means more properly to sprinkle than to plunge. One who argues in this manner never fails, with persons of knowledge, to betray the cause he would defend; and though in respect to the vulgar, bold a.s.sertions generally succeed as well as arguments, sometimes better, yet a candid mind will disdain to take the help of a falsehood even in support of the truth." (Lect. on Pul. El. Lect, 10, pp. 294, 295.)
28. _Philip Schaff_ (Un. Theo. Sem.): "The baptism of Christ in the river Jordan, and the ill.u.s.trations of baptism used in the N. T., are all in favor of immersion rather than sprinkling, as is freely admitted by the best exegetes, Catholic and Protestant, English and German.
Nothing can be gained by an unnatural exegesis." (Teaching of Apostles, pp. 55,56.)
29. _Paul_: "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." (Rom. 6:4.)
30. _Peter_ says our bodies are washed in baptism, (1 Pet. I:23.)
31. _Mark_: "Jesus--was baptized in [Marg., Greek, _into_] the Jordan"
(Mark 1:9, A. R. V.). He could not have been baptized _into the water_ without being immersed.
_Churches Have Changed Immersion to Sprinkling_.
1. The first record of sprinkling for baptism is that of Novatian, A.
D. 250. It was thought he was dying and, as he could not be immersed, they sprinkled water on him. Thus originated what was called _clinic_ or _death-bed_ baptism. Its introduction was vigorously opposed for centuries and clinics were not admitted to sacred orders, many doubting their baptism.
2. _Pope Stephen III_. In 754 the monks of Cressy asked Stephen III.: "Is it lawful, in case of necessity, occasioned by sickness, to baptize an infant by pouring water on its head from a cup or the hands?" The Pope replied: "Such a baptism, performed in such a case of necessity, shall be accounted valid." Basnage says: "This was accounted the first law against immersion."
3. _The Council of Ravenna_, 1311, decreed: "Baptism is to be administered by trine aspersion or immersion." This was the first authority for sprinkling except in case of sickness.
4. _Cardinal Gibbons_ (R. Catholic): "Since the twelfth century the practice of baptizing by affusion has prevailed in the Catholic Church, as this manner is attended with less inconvenience than baptism by immersion." (Faith of Our Fathers, p. 275.)
5. _Bishop of Bossuet_ (R. Catholic): "The case (communion under one kind) was much the same as that of baptism by immersion, as clearly grounded on Scripture as communion under both kinds could be, and which, nevertheless, had been changed into infusion, with as much ease and as little contradiction as communion under one kind was established, so that the same reason stood for retaining one as the other. It is a fact most certainly avowed in the Reformation, although some will cavil at it, that baptism was inst.i.tuted by immersing the whole body in water. This fact, I say, is unanimously acknowledged by all the divines of the Reformation: by Luther, by Melancthon, by Calvin, by Casaubon, by Grotius, by all the rest." (Varia. Protest., vol. 2, p. 370.)
6. _Archbishop Kenrick_ (R. Catholic): "The change of discipline which has taken place as to baptism should not surprise us, for, although the church is but the dispenser of the sacraments which her Divine Spouse inst.i.tuted, she rightfully exercises a discretionary power as to the manner of their adminstration. Immersion was well suited to the Eastern nations, whose habits and climate prepared them for it, and was, therefore, practiced in the commencement, whenever necessity did not prevent it. Cases, which at first were exceptional, gradually multiplied, so that, at length, the ordinary mode of baptism was by affusion. The church wisely sanctioned that which, although less solemn, is equally effectual. The power of binding and loosing, which she received from Christ, warrants this exercise of governing wisdom.
It is not for the individuals to question a right which has been at all times claimed and exercised by those to whom the dispensation of the mysteries is divinely intrusted." (Kenrick on Bap., p. 174.)
7. _Haydock, Endorsed by Pope Pius IX_.: "The church, which cannot change the least article of faith, is not so tied up in matters of discipline and ceremony. Not only the Catholic Church, but also the pretended reformed churches, have altered the primitive custom in giving the sacrament of baptism and now allow of baptisms by sprinkling and pouring water upon the person baptized." (Notes on Douay Bible, Matt. 3:16.)
8. _Lutheran Catechism_, p. 208: "What is baptism?" Answer: "To dip under water." "Do we still baptize in that way?" Answer: "No; because of the rough climate, the subject now is only sprinkled."