Chapter LXXVIII: Section LXXVI: The Prepositions

In the common English version of the New Testament, the translations which occur in connection with baptism are such as to show an evident bias on the part of the translators in favor of immersion. In fact they were, all of them, immersionists, if not by personal conviction, then, by constraint of law. They were members, and with a few exceptions clergymen of the church of England, by law established. That church had originally incorporated among its ordinances, baptism by trine immersion. By the parliamentary revision during the reign of Edward VI, the book of prayer was so altered as to require but one immersion. The rubric for baptism was and is to this day in these words:—“Then the priest shall take the child in his hands, and ask the name; and naming the child, shall dip it in the water, so it be discreetly and warily done, saying, ‘N., I baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.’ And, if the child be weak, it shall suffice to pour water upon it, saying the aforesaid words.”[105]

Footnote 105:

“The Two Books of Common Prayer,” set forth by authority of
Parliament, in the reign of King Edward VI, edited by Edward Cardwell,
D.D., Principal of St. Alban’s Hall, Oxford, 1852.

As to the bearing of the prepositions on the present argument, a brief illustration may make it clear to the English reader. In the following citations, the words in italics answer to the Greek prepositions under which respectively they are cited.

1. _En._ “And were all baptized of him (_en_) _in_ Jordan.”—Matt. iii, 6. “John did baptize _in_ the wilderness.”—Mark i, 4. “John was baptizing _in_ Enon.”—John iii, 23. “These things were done _in_ Bethabara, beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.”—John i, 28. “The tower _in_ Siloam.”—Luke xiii, 4. “Elias is come, and they have done _unto_ him whatsoever they listed.”—Matt. xvii, 12. “Turn the disobedient _to_ the wisdom of the just.”—Luke i, 17. “Lest they trample them _with_ their feet.”—Matt. vii, 6. “Sanctify them _through_ thy truth, thy word is truth.”—John xvii, 17. “They that take the sword shall perish _with_ the sword.”—Matt. xxvi, 52. “There is none other name ... _by_ which we must be saved.”—Acts iv, 12. “He will judge the world ... _by_ that man whom he hath ordained.”—Ib. xvii, 31. “Now revealed _by_ the Spirit”—Eph. iii, 5. “That _at_ the name of Jesus every knee should bow.”—Phil. ii, 10. From these illustrations two deductions are manifest (1.) _En_ does not always mean _in_. It may mean _with_ or _by_, instrumentally. “_With_ the sword.” “The name _by_ which,” etc. It may mean _by_ a mediate agent. “Revealed _by_ the Spirit.” “He will judge the world _by_ that man.” It may mean _at_, _by_, or _in_, locally. “_In_ Enon.” “_At_ Siloam.” It may be used in a yet more general signification, as, “_At_ the name.” Other meanings might be stated, but these are sufficient (2.) If, by reason of the phrase “_in_ Jordan,” we must understand that John immersed his disciples _into_ the Jordan, it of necessity follows that he also immersed them “_into_ Enon,” and “_into_ the wilderness.” In short, the expression indicates that the Jordan was the place _at_ which the baptizing was done:—this, and this only. Why it was done there, we shall presently see.

2. _Eis._ “Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized of John (_eis_) _in_ Jordan.”—Mark i, 9. “They went down both _into_ the water, both Philip and the eunuch and he baptized him.”—Acts viii, 38. These passages mutually illustrate each other and show that the going _into_ the water was not the baptizing. “He came and dwelt _in_ a city called Nazareth.”—Mat. ii, 23. “He cometh _to_ a city of Samaria,” but he remained outside, at the well, while the apostles went “_into_ the city,” whence the Samaritans “went out of the city and came to him.”—John iv, 5, 8, 28, 30. “He loved them _to_ the end.”—Ib. xiii, 1. “I speak _to_ the world.” Ib. viii, 26. “If thy brother trespass _against_ thee.”—Matt, xviii, 15. “_Therefore_” (Literally, _to_ this) “came I forth.”—Mark i, 38. “What are they _among_ so many.”—John vi, 9. “The Son which is _in_ (on) the bosom of the Father.”—John i, 18. “He went up _into_ (_to_, or, _on_,) a mountain.”—Matt., v, 1. “Depart _unto_ the other side.”—Ib. viii, 18. “Fell down _at_ his feet.”—Ib. xviii, 29. _Eis_ is even used in express contrast with entrance into. “The other disciple did outrun Peter, and first (_ēlthen eis_) _came to_ the sepulchre, ... yet went he not _in_. Then cometh Simon Peter following him and (_eis-ēlthen eis_) _entered into_ the sepulchre.”—John xx, 4-6. This illustrates a usage concerning _eis_. When entrance _into_ is to be expressed by the mere force of the word, it must be doubled. See Matt. vi, 6; x, 5, 12; Luke ix, 34, etc. The same remark applies to _ek_, in the sense of _out of_. But neither of these words is ever used in duplicated form, with reference to baptism. It is evident that the word of itself determines no more as to the mode of the baptism of Jesus than does _en_. The ordinary office of _eis_ is to point to the terminus of a preceding verb of motion. When it is said that Jesus came and dwelt (_eis_) _in_ a city called Nazareth, _en_ would have been the proper preposition to express the in-dwelling; but _eis_ is preferred because the city was the terminus of the coming “He came (_eis_) _to_ a city.” So Mark above uses the same word, not because of its appropriateness to the baptizing, which is always elsewhere expressed by _en_, but because the Jordan was the terminus (_eis_) to which he came from Galilee.

3. _Ek._ “And when they were come up (_ek_) _out of_ the water.”—Acts viii, 39. In his gospel, Luke the author of this account thus uses the preposition. “Saved _from_ our enemies.”—Luke i, 71. “Every tree is known _by_ its own fruit, for _of_ thorns men do not gather figs; nor _of_ a bramble-bush gather they grapes.”—Ib. vi, 44. “He cometh _from_ the wedding.”—Ib. xii, 36. “All these have I kept _from_ my youth up.”—Ib. xviii, 21. So far as this word determines, Philip and the eunuch may have come up _from_ the water, without having been _in_ it, at all.

4. _Apo._ “Jesus when he was baptized, went up straightway (_apo_) _out of_ the water.”—Matt. iii, 16. _Apo never_ means, “out of,” as here translated; but, “from,” “away from.” “When Jesus was come down _from_ the mountain.”—Matt. viii, 1. “_From_ whom do kings take tribute?”—Ib. xvii, 25. “Cast them _from_ thee.”—Ib. xviii, 8. “Beginning _from_ the last unto the first.”—Ib. xx, 8.

From these illustrations, which might be multiplied indefinitely, it is evident that the prepositions will not bear the stress put upon them by the Baptist argument. Not only are they, in themselves, insufficient to constitute a reliable basis for the conclusions sought; but the statements to which they belong have respect, _not_ to the _mode_ of the baptism, but to the places of it. They are defined by the phrases, “_in_ Jordan,”—“_in_ Enon,”—“_in_ Bethabara.” Recent Baptist writers have had the courage to follow their principles to the result of translating John’s words,—“I immerse you _in_ water, but he shall immerse you _in_ the Holy Ghost and _in_ fire,”—a rendering from which the better taste, if not the better scholarship, of the translators of King James’s version revolted. The thorough consideration already given in these pages to the baptism of the Spirit justifies an imperative denial of the correctness of this translation. If any thing in the Bible is clear, it is that the baptism administered by the Lord Jesus is not an immersion, but an outpouring.

On the question of the prepositions in this connection, light is shed by an expression of the apostle Paul. “By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, ... and have been all made to drink one Spirit.”—1 Cor. xii, 13. Of this passage we have already indicated that “into,” as found in the last clause, in the common version (“to drink _into_ one Spirit”), is spurious, and that _potizo_ (“made to drink”), properly signifies, to _apply_ water or other fluid, whether externally or internally, to water, to cause to drink. In this passage, we have both the prepositions, _en_ and _eis_, each dependent on the one verb, _baptizo_, but each having its own distinctive subject. “Baptized (_en_), _in_ one Spirit (_eis_), _into_ one body.” Into which of these media does the immersion take place? Shall we follow the Baptist interpretation of the words of John, “He shall immerse you _in_ the Holy Ghost?” But in the first place, we have seen that this is false to the real manner of the baptism in question; which consists in a shedding down of the Spirit. In the second, how then, in harmony with Baptist principles, are we to understand the other clause of the passage,—“Immersed _in_ one Spirit, _into_ one body?“ Are there here two immersions by one act? the one subject put at one and the same time into two different media? Moreover, the language with which the apostle closes the passage, while it is in perfect accord with the true mode of the baptism of the Spirit, is altogether incongruous to the Baptist interpretation. If we are baptized with or by the Spirit, shed upon us, we may consistently be said to drink (or, to be watered with) the Spirit. For, the earth and its vegetation drink the rain that falls upon them. But if we must be immersed in the Spirit, Paul’s language implies that in order that men be caused to drink they are to be immersed in the water. “Immersed in one Spirit, and all made to drink one Spirit.”

But the phrase, _en heni Pneumati_, does not mean “_in_ one Spirit.” As we have seen, the preposition may and often does mean “_with_,” or “_by_,” the Spirit, as the agent or instrument. Especially by Paul, the writer of the passage in question, is the phrase so used,—“Through Him we both have access (_en heni Pneumati_), _by_ one Spirit unto the Father.”—Eph. ii, 18. Here is the very phrase in question. Through the Lord Jesus, the Mediator, _by_ his Spirit as the instrument, who, being sent by him helpeth our infirmities, in prayer (Rom. viii, 26), we have access to the Father’s presence. Again,—“On whom,” as the chief corner stone, “we are builded together, for an habitation of God (_en Pneumati_), _by_ the Spirit,” who is the efficient builder of the spiritual temple. Again, the apostle tells of the mystery which is “now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets (_en Pneumati_), _by_ the Spirit” (Eph. iii, 5), and exhorts us, “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled (_en_) _with_ the Spirit” (Ib. v, 18), and to “pray with all prayer and supplication (_en_) _by_ the Spirit.”—Ib. vi, 18. So in the text,—“_With_, or, _by_ one Spirit,” the instrument and agent of grace shed on us abundantly by Jesus Christ “are we all baptized”—brought into a new state of incorporation “into one body,” which he pervades and controls as the Spirit of life. Into it we are not immersed; but, united by his common in-dwelling power, are made daily “to drink of that one Spirit,” which is in us, “a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”—John iv, 14.

It is not necessary to the present purpose to dwell further on the signification and bearing of the prepositions. The moment _baptizo_ ceases to mean, to dip, and nothing else, the prepositions lose all determining force upon the questions at issue. If John’s disciples were dipped or submerged in Jordan all is plain, and discussion is at an end. But if John _baptized_ in Jordan, the question still remains,—_How_ did he baptize? This is very clearly illustrated by the case of the Ethiopian eunuch, if we accept the immersion rendering of the prepositions. “They went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch.” They have now reached the place, _in_ the water, if you will. But the baptism is yet to be performed.—“_And_ he baptized him.” But _how_ did he do it? The baptism is now ended; but both are still in position “_in_ the water;” out of which they are then stated to have come. (Acts viii, 38, 39.)