And when the Pharisee
saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner. (Luke 11:38)
Commenting
on the use of the verb βαπτιζω in this passage, Robert P. Booth wrote the following, showing how
it is the accepted conclusion of most of scholarship that βαπτιζω, in both profane and sacred
usages denotes immersion:
. .
.in Luke, the Pharisee is surprised that before the meal Jesus οὐ πρῶτον ἐβαπτίσθη.
He aorist passive ἐβαπτίσθη literally means ‘was dipped (or immersed)’, which
implies the whole body.
We think Luke means immersion of the whole
body since he uses the verb βαπτιζω in describing John’s baptizing in his ch. 3,
and John had adapted the Jewish ritual tebilah
in which the body was immersed. The verb is an intensive or iterative form of
the verb βαπτω both of
which mean to dip or immerse (Bauer, s.v.).
Thus at 2 Kings 5.14 (LXX) Naman ἐβαπτίσατο ἐν τῷ Ιορδάνῃ. A Luke 11:38 the
verb implies the body and not the hands, since in the NT the verb νιπω is used for the washing of the
hands (e.g. Mark 7.3; Mt. 15.2) and the face (Mt. 6.17), but not the body. (Robert
P. Booth, Jesus and the Laws of Purity:
Tradition History and Legal History in Mark 7 [Journal for the Study of the
New Testament Supplement Series 13; Sheffield: Sheffield University Press,
1986], 24)
The other
instances of ἐβαπτίσθη as used elsewhere in the New Testament are used with
respect to the ordinance of baptism:
And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus
came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized (ἐβαπτίσθη) of John in Jordan.
(Mark 1:9)
And immediately there fell from his eyes as
it has been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized
(ἐβαπτίσθη). (Acts 9:18)
And when she was baptized (ἐβαπτίσθη), and
her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to
the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us. (Acts
16:15)
And he took them the same hour of the night,
and washed (λουω) their stripes; and was baptized (ἐβαπτίσθη), he and all his,
straightway. (Acts 16:33)
