Immersed!
Exploring a long-obscured foundation truth of the Good News
By P. K. Chamberlain
Baptisms are a vital element of New Testament teaching, as Hebrews 6:1-2 tells us: “…Let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.”
We already know from this that baptisms are important, just like teaching about repentance, faith, the resurrection, and eternal judgment. But like other foundation teachings, there continues to be a big contest over what we should understand about baptisms.
We are going to see what the Bible says about baptisms, and you will likely find some surprises there. For one thing, the New Testament speaks of at least seven different baptisms. Five of the seven may apply to you and me, today. Even the other two are included for our spiritual education, so we have a lot to explore.
Brown, Francis, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, ed., A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1968.
Even-Shoshan, Abraham, A New Concordance of the Bible. Jerusalem: Kiryat Sepher Publishing House Ltd., 1980. [A concordance of the Hebrew Tenach, in Hebrew.]
Hatch, Edwin, and Henry A. Redpath, A Concordance to the Septuagint, 2d edition. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2005.
Kittel, Rudolf, et al., ed., Biblia Hebraica, 14th edition. Stuttgart: Württemburgische Bibelanstalt, 1966.
Liddell, Henry George, and Robert Scott, et al., ed., A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th edition. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1983.
Nestle, Eberhard and Erwin, Barbara and Kurt Aland, et al. ed., Novum Testamentum Graece [Greek New Testament], 27th edition. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1993.
Rahlfs, Alfred, ed., Septuaginta, 9th edition. Stuttgart: Württemburgische Bibelanstalt, 1935.
Young, Robert, Analytical Concordance to the Bible, 22nd American edition. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1969.
