* The verses you have quoted make no mention of water baptism
@Mungo.
In Christ Jesus
Chris
It doesn't have to say baptism
with water every time the word baptism is mentioned. That is what baptism is. It's the default unless it is used as a metaphor for something else as in Mk 4:38-39 & LK 12:50.
It what the apostles understood by baptism. It's origins are Jewish
Jewish origins of Baptism
Baptise comes from the Greek word
baptizein which means immerse or dip or plunge. However I think it is wrong to treat
baptizein as simply a Greek word with various meanings. It is the
name of a Jewish, and later Christian, ritual and therefore expresses the meaning of the ritual and not of all the Greek possibilities.
The origins are the ritual purification of full body washing known in Hebrew as
tevilah in a
mikvah (ritual bath).
Mikvah means a gathering of water and so a river is a
mikvah. Since rivers were not commonly available it was any suitable pool of water, but not a free standing bath in the modern sense. It had to be dug into the ground, or built into the structure of a building and should contain rainwater with a minimum of 77 gallons. Bathing would normally be by total immersion and naked to ensure every part of the body was purified.
There seem to be three occasions where a
mikvar is required in Leviticus, those involving birth (including sex and menstruation), death (including skin diseases) and coming into the presence of God. They seem to be a reminder of our uncleanness and the need for purification. So the
mikvar also became a symbol of repentance, of expressing faith that cleansing was available and of asking for it.
When the Jews and Evangelists wrote in Greek they avoided the Greek words for bathe and bath because of the sexual connotations. The Greek communal bathing was a place of gossip (often crude), communal nudity and homosexuality. So they used the word
baptizein (and its derivatives) instead. The word therefore expresses this ritual purification in water. It is unnecessary to say “water baptism” as water was integral to the process, just as it was unnecessary to say a
water mikvar or a
water tevilah. That is what baptism was and is.
Now this baptism was prophesied by Ezekial (Ez 36:25-27):
I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts. I will put my spirit within you….
I will sprinkle clean water upon you – baptism with water
Pre-Christian baptism in the New Testament
John the baptiser appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Mk 1:4).
There was some expectation that the herald of the Messiah would baptise.
“They [the Pharisees] asked him, ‘Why then are you baptising if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?’” (Jn 1:25)
Then Jesus and the apostles themselves baptised in the river Jordan (Jn 3:22)
All of this was baptism in water. This is what the apostles understood by baptism.
Baptism with water is also foretold by Jesus when he says to Nicodemus “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. (Jn 3:5)
Christian Baptism
Baptism was inaugurated and mandated by Jesus just before his ascension into heaven.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Mt 28:19).
In a sense Jesus instituted baptism as a means of salvation at his own baptism in the Jordan. There he was baptised in water
“to fulfill all righteousness” (Mt 3:15), the Holy Spirit hovered over him. The Father watched. Thus in baptism
we fulfil all righteousness.
But was the (Christian) baptism that is referred to in the New Testament with water in the same way as Jesus’ baptism? To answer that we can look at what 3 people understood by baptism in Acts (and remember baptism with water was what they were familiar with already).
Peter
After his speech at Pentecost, Peter said to those assembled:
Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. (Acts 2:38)
What kind of baptism was this? Well we know what Peter understood by baptism because after Cornelius had been baptised by the Holy Spirit, Peter said:
Can anyone withhold the water for baptising these people, who have received the Holy Spirit even as we have? He ordered them to be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ. (Acts 10:47-48).
There are three things to note about this:
1. Baptism was with water
2. It wasn’t John’s baptism because it was in the name of Jesus Christ
3. It wasn’t the so called "baptism with the Holy Spirit" because the Spirit had already fallen on Cornelius and his household (Acts 10:44)
Peter says about Noah and his family being “saved through water. This prefigured baptism, which saves you now” (1Pet 3:20-21). Again the reference is to water, so for Peter baptism was with water. (See post #269 above)
Note that at Pentecost, and with Cornelius, Peter calls this baptism “in the name of Jesus Christ”. Returning to Acts 2:38 we can note that this baptism (like John’s) was for the forgiveness of sins.
Philip
In Acts 8:36-38 we have Philip baptising the Ethiopian, clearly with water.
As they travelled along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said,
“Look, there is water. What is to prevent my being baptised?”
Then he ordered the chariot to stop, and Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water, and he baptised him.
Just prior to this Philip had been baptising in Samaria. So we can reasonably assume that this too was with water.
..once they began to believe Philip as he preached the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, men and women alike were baptized. (Acts 8:12)
Again there are three things to note about this baptism:
1. Baptism was with water
2. It wasn’t John’s baptism because it was in the name of Jesus (Acts 8:16)
3. It wasn’t the so called "baptism with the Holy Spirit" because the Spirit had not yet fallen on them (Acts 8:16). It was when Peter & John laid hands on the that they received the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:17)
Paul
Paul’s own baptism by Ananias was reported in two places, firstly in Acts 9:18 and then reported by Paul in these words
Now, why delay? Get up and have yourself baptised and your sins washed away, calling upon his name. (Acts 22:16). Having sins washed away is clearly a reference to water. And note the connection of the forgiveness of sin to (water) baptism in Acts 2:38, the baptism of John (Mk 1:4, Lk 3:3). So Paul understands baptism as being with water and for the forgiveness of sins.
Then in Acts 19 Paul comes across 12 men at Ephesus who have only been baptised with John’s baptism. He orders them to be baptised
“in the name of Jesus” (verse 4). This, as I showed earlier, is baptism with water. Again this is not "baptism with the Holy Spirit" because the Holy Spirit fell on them after their baptism, when Paul laid hands on them (vs 6).
Finally regarding the quote I gave you:
“..he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit.” (
Titus 3:5). I gave an explanation of this at the end of post #269. But to save you looking it up, here it is - and it is definitely with water..
"…
he saved us through the bath of rebirth and renewal by the holy Spirit (Ti 3:5- NAB).
Note that most translation say something like
washing of regeneration but that misses something important. The word translated as washing is
loutron (G3607) which is a
noun not a verb.
G3067 loutron - From G3068; a bath, that is, (figuratively) baptism:—washing.
There is one other place in the NT where the Greek
loutron is used - Eph 5:25-26, where Jesus is comparing husband and wife to Christ and the Church
"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath [loutron] of water with the word" (NAB). Again other translation use washing.
But
loutron is important. It wasn't just any bath but a
bridal bath. The bath a bride took on the morning before her wedding.
"The bride’s ritual bath took place on the morning of the wedding ceremony itself. The bathing ritual was a pivotal coming-of-age rite for the young bride. Indeed, if a girl died before being married, she would undergo this ritual of bathing after herdeath. The loutrophoros was used in this ritual ceremony to carry water. Vase-paintings seem to suggest that the groom did not bathe or that his bath was less important than the bride’s."
From The Nuptial Ceremony of Ancient Greece and the Articulation of Male Control Through Ritual by Casey Mason, Macalester College.
Christians are the bride of Christ (Eph 5:25-26). So in
Titus 3:5 Paul make bridal imagery of the
loutron [bath in water] cleansing us spiritually to become ready for out nuptials with Christ.