Today's lesson is a continuance of our study into the true meaning of the instructions in Matthew 28:19 and Mark 16:16 and is an attempt to fully and accurately define the words "baptize" and most of it's grammatical variations as those variations are applied both in Matthew 28:19 and in Mark 16:16.
We ended yesterday's lesson by making reference to a recipe for pickling that was written down by an ancient Greek physician and poet named Nicander in about 200 BC.
This is a very relevant reference because in the recipe Nicander uses the ancient Greek words 'bapto' and 'baptizo', in common ancient Greek conversation and can be relied upon to determine the accurate meanings of those two words as they are applied in context.
Nicander says that in order to make a pickle, the vegetable should first be 'dipped' (bapto) into boiling water and then 'baptized' (baptizo) in the vinegar solution. Both verbs, bapto and baptizo, concern the immersing of vegetables in a solution. But the first, bapto, is temporary. The second, the act of baptizing the vegetable, produces a permanent change.
As we can see from the common Greek usage of those words, bapto means to simply dip an item into some substance then remove it. 'Baptizo', means to place an item into some substance permanently.
It would do well to make note that baptizo is the ancient Greek word from which our English word "baptize" was transliterated, NOT bapto.
I related all of this to demonstrate that the word most aptly fitting what we call water baptism today, is the ancient Greek word "bapto", NOT "baptizo" since bapto means to dip and remove whereas baptizo means to immerse and leave permanently.~
Tomorrow we will begin explain how applying the accurate definitions to those two words as they appear in the lesson text completely changes the most common understanding of the instructions that Jesus left with His apostles in Matthew 28:19 and Mark 16:16.
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