94 Dimensions in Baptism
observations on most if not all verses in a given work—to find neglect of
what stands out as a potentially significant grammatical and theological
issue. It is probably not surprising, therefore, to find that many treatments
devoted to the topic of baptism also fail to comment on this point.^8
For those who do attempt to analyze the issues involved, there are three
positions represented, though it is sometimes difficult to know the final
position of a given scholar on how to understand the use of the middle
voice. The first position of those who attempt an analysis is to claim that
Acts 22.16 indicates that Paul baptized himself. The arguments used by
scholars who hold to this position are several. The most well-known
advocate of self-administered baptism is B. Easton, who contends, on the
basis of finding what he posits are traces of the middle voice usage of
(3aTTTi£co in early Christian literature, that early Christians were involved
in self-administered baptism.^9 What Easton generally notices is that there
are variant readings with middle forms in a number of places in the New
Testament. What Easton concludes is that many of these variants occur in
the Lukan writings because Luke's Greek background led him to use the
passive form to reflect Christian technical usage for a Jewish ablution (e.g.
Lk. 11.38), but that this usage was changed to the middle form by early
scribes who knew of the early practice of self-administered baptism. Pas-
sages worth noting, besides Acts 22.16, where the middle form remains,
are those where the middle form is a variant, especially in the Western
tradition, in such places as 1 Cor. 10.2 (P46C B K L P), Lk. 3.12 (700),
11.38 (P45 700) and 12.50 (3^10 954). Easton does not, however, apparentlyApostles (New York: Crossroad, 1997); R.C. Tannehill, The Narrative Unity of Luke-
Acts: A Literary Interpretation. II. The Acts of the Apostles (Philadelphia: Fortress Press,
1990); C.S.C. Williams, The Acts of the Apostles (BNTC; London: A. & C. Black,
1957); R. Wallace and W. Williams, The Acts of the Apostles: A Companion (London:
Bristol Classical Press, 1993).- E.g. O. Cullmann, Baptism in the New Testament (trans. J.K.S. Reid; SBT, 1;
London: SCM Press, 1950); J.D.G. Dunn, Baptism in the Holy Spirit (Philadelphia:
Westminster Press, 1970); K. Aland, Did the Early Church Baptize Infants? (trans.
G.R. Beasley-Murray; Library of History and Doctrine; London: SCM Press, 1963). - B.S. Easton, 'Self-baptism', AJT 24 (1920), pp. 513-18, for whose account I
rely upon J. Ysebaert, Greek Baptismal Terminology: Its Origins and Early Develop-
ment (Graecitas Christianorum Primaeva, 1; Nijmegen: Dekker, 1962), pp. 45-46; and
G.W.H. Lampe, The Seal of the Spirit: A Study in the Doctrine of Baptism and Con-
firmation in the New Testament and the Fathers (London: Longmans, Green, 1951),
p. 86. - This manuscript is a tenth-century minuscule according to F.H. A. Scrivener, A