Baptizo

The Greek word baptizō means to immerse, plunge, or submerge—originally used for dyeing cloth (which required complete immersion in dye), ships sinking beneath waves, or even getting drunk (being "immersed" in wine). This everyday term became theologically explosive when John the Baptist deployed it for a ritual washing that publicly marked repentance. Jewish tradition had ritual immersions (mikvah), but John's innovation was making it a one-time, public act of identification with God's coming judgment and renewal.

Jesus's own baptism creates immediate interpretive tension. He had no sin requiring repentance, yet when John hesitated, Jesus insisted: "Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15). By submitting to baptism, Jesus identified with sinful humanity from the start, foreshadowing the cross where he would bear sins not his own. The heavens opened, the Spirit descended, the Father spoke—baptism became the public inauguration of his messianic mission.

Jesus himself used baptizō metaphorically for his coming death: "I have a baptism (baptisma) to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!" (Luke 12:50). His suffering would be total immersion in judgment and wrath. When James and John asked for honor in his kingdom, Jesus asked, "Are you able...to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" (Mark 10:38). Following Christ meant sharing his baptism—his death.

Paul develops baptismal theology most fully: "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead...we too might walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:3-4). Christian baptizō isn't mere ritual washing but participation in Christ's death and resurrection. You go under (death), you come up (resurrection). The old self drowns; the new self emerges.

Paul emphasizes unity through baptism: "in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free" (1 Corinthians 12:13). Baptism incorporates believers into Christ's body, making previous identities secondary to the new corporate identity. "There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism" (Ephesians 4:5)—baptizō creates the visible boundary of the church.

Here's the linguistic controversy: English Bibles transliterate "baptize" rather than translate it as "immerse." Why? When King James's translators worked in 1611, they were explicitly instructed not to translate this word because denominational warfare over baptismal mode (immersion vs. sprinkling) was so intense that any translation would inflame controversy. So they punted—just anglicized the Greek and let churches fight over meaning. We live with that evasion today, which is why "baptism" sounds religious and mysterious rather than concrete and physical. The word means dunk.