Sunday, April 9, 2023

N. T. Wright: "Baptism" in Romans 6 is Water Baptism

  

. . . some have suggested that Paul is not here primarily referring to the actual event of water baptism, but only using the language as a metaphor for Christian beginnings, conversion and initiation, in general.  As most commentators have agreed, this is unlikely. First-century Christian beginnings included water-baptism; the discussion in vv. 4-5 seems to allude to the physical rite; Paul’s readers would naturally understand the passage in a literal sense. (N. T. Wright, “The Letter to the Romans,” in The New Interpreter’s Bible, 12 vols. [Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2002], 10:533)