"The above mentioned verb βαπτιζω (
baptizo), which is really the same verb as the parent but with more dynamic, deliberate or willful action: to do an immersion, to plunge in. This verb is used in the classics to describe the deliberate sinking of ships, the "inundating" of a city by throngs of people, or a being up to the ears in debt. It's used 80 times in the New Testament,
SEE FULL CONCORDANCE, but translators should avoid using the verb "to baptize", since in English that verb doesn't do anything other than refer to a relatively modern religious ritual, namely Christianity's ritual of water baptism.
As we describe above, there are quite a few mediums into which one may be immersed, and it's the willful and total immersing that this verb speaks about, not the medium.
At the time when the New Testament was written, this verb referred to the victory over an invisible insidious and merciless killer that lurked in foods and prowled households looking for someone to slay, without reason or explanation. The victory over this hideous threat had been achieved in deep antiquity and although the general gist of the method had been preserved, its effectiveness had abated and folks were once again dying in droves. In the first century it began again to be understood that water does not simply neutralize contaminants but carries them away. Washing has only its life-saving effect when it is done regularly, by full immersion and in living or flowing water.
Since John immersed in water and Jesus in fire and spirit, most of the references to immersal in the New Testament are about immersal in knowledge and social concern. But whatever the medium, the verb clearly speaks of an act that results in a cleansed state. In
ACTS 22:16 it appears in tandem with the verb απολουω(
apolouo), meaning to wash.
On rare occasions, our verb is used to refer to Jewish immersion rituals (
LUKE 11:38,
MARK 7:4), which suggests that the authors of the New Testament used a commonly accepted term to explain that not ritualistic immersion (in stagnant water) leads to cleanness but rather immersion in wisdom and love — likewise, Paul had hijacked terms like Son of God and Savior of the World, which originally were epithets of emperor Augustus, and applied them to Jesus, saying that yes indeed there is such a person, and no it's not the political leader of the world..." ibid
and this whole article seems quite insightful imo, fwiw to anyone