Monday, May 30, 2022

Joseph Ysebaert on 2 Kings 5:14 (LXX) and the use of βαπτιζω and its Reception by Irenaeus of Lyons

  

The oldest, both in the original and in the Greek, is the only one that still allows comparison with its Hebrew equivalent. The story is that of the cleansing of Naaman in the Jordan. The prophet Elisha has ordered the Syrian to bathe seven times in the Jordan in order to be cleansed: λουσαι επτακις . . . και καθαρισθηση 4 Reg. 5.10. Irritated, Naaman thinks that he would do better to bathe in the rivers of Damascus but his servants exhort him to carry out the command by the prophet. The original text three times uses rḥṣ translated every time by λουειν. However, when Naaman finally washes himself in the Jordan the Hebrew uses ṭbl q. intransitively, an unusual voice of βαπτιζειν: και κατεβη Ναιμαν και εβαπτισατο εν τω Ιορδανη επτακι . . . και εκαθαρισθη ib. 5.14.

 

The Hebrew text describes the bath that Naaman finally takes as a ‘plunging of oneself into the river’. One may take into account that rḥṣ does not refer clearly to a complete bath since it is also sued for the washing of hands and feet. Now ṭbl indicates that the washing was complete and the use of this term in the story of Naaman may have influenced its rise as the normal technical term for the ritual bath.

 

In the Septuagint the translator shows understanding of the emphatic description of Naaman’s bath as a sevenfold plunging. To the usual rendering by βαπτειν he prefers the intensive βαπτιζειν and translates the intransitive usage of the Hebrew term by the middle voice. As a result the middle voice of βαπτιζειν obtains a new meaning for an immersion without the connotating of perishing. The spread of this verb as the Greek technical term for the Jewish ritual washing, instead of simply the middle voice of βαπτειν, may now be explained by the fact that the translator used it in the episode of Naaman. (Joseph Ysebaert, Greek Baptismal Terminology: Its Origins and Early Development [trans. M. F. Foran Hedlund; Nijmegen, The Netherlands: Dekker and Van De Vegt N.V., 1962], 29-30)

 

Irenaeus quotes 2 Reg. 5.14 concerning the curing of Naaman with βαπτιζειν in the middle voice but himself uses the passive in order to explain how this purification is a prefiguration of Christian baptism: εβαπτισατο, φησιν, εν τω Ιορδανη επτακις ου ματην παλαι Ναιμαν λεπρος ων βαπτισθεις εκαθαιρετο αλλεις ενδειξιν ημετεραν fr.Gr. 35 (33). (Ibid., 79)