122 Dimensions of Baptism
George Beasley-Murray develops this interpretation in considerable
detail. He begins with a statement about baptism as initiation: 'we meet
here an explicit declaration that baptism leads into the Church'. He then
raises the question of whether Paul is referring to water-baptism or using
baptism as a figure for the gift of the Spirit.^3 He supports the view that
baptism 'in or by one Spirit' is water-baptism^4 by four considerations.
First, in 1 Cor. 6.11 baptism is characterized as 'in the name of the Lord
Jesus and in the Spirit of our God' which is linked to 12.13 by the theme
of consecration: the believer is consecrated by the Spirit in baptism thus
making them a member of the consecrated people. Secondly, in Acts the
primitive Church witnessed the fulfilment of the Baptist's prophecy of the
Coming One's baptism in the Spirit first at Pentecost and then its admini-
stration of baptism to those who respond to the gospel. Thirdly, Gal. 3.27-28 links baptism to Christ with baptism to the Church, a transition from
Christ to the body, the Church, a pattern which is reproduced in 1 Cor.
12.13. Fourthly, the similarity between Gal. 3.27-28 and 1 Cor. 12.12-13
is also seen in that in baptism into Christ and his Church all social distinc-tions are obliterated. 'If in Gal. 3 this happy result follows on Christian
baptism and in 1 Cor. 12.13 it follows on baptism in the Spirit, the
inference is not unreasonable that the two baptisms are one.'
Contemporary Studies in Honour of R.E.O. ^/te(JSNTSup, 171; Sheffield: Sheffield
Academic Press, 1999), pp. 173-209 (190-92). A more open interpretation is held by
C.F.D. Moule, The Holy Spirit (MLT; London: Mowbray, 1978), who, p. 33, com-
ments that baptism 'is accompanied by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2.38,1 Cor. 12.13, etc.)',
but later, p. 77, qualifies this when he notes that in the Pauline letters 'it is impossible
to find demonstrative proof that Spirit and water baptism go together' and that the
water-metaphor in 1 Cor. 12.13 'would certainly be appropriate //literal water was in
mind' (italics added), adding the observation that in Acts Spirit-baptism seems to be
contrasted with water-baptism (Acts 1.5 and 11.16, while 8.16 has a gap between the
two).
- G.R. Beasley-Murray, Baptism in the New Testament (Exeter: Paternoster, 1972
[1962]), p. 167. - Beasley-Murray, Baptism, p. 169. On p. 167 he argues that ev ivi TTVEUMcm
should be translated as 'by one Spirit' and not 'in one Spirit' on the analogy of 1 Cor.
6.11 and 12.8-9, and that it inevitably recalls all being baptized into Moses (10.2),
which suggests 'that when Paul uses ev with the verb to baptize he has in view the
element in which baptism takes place'. However, this said, he does not believe that the
basic meaning is materially affected 'since on the one interpretation the Spirit is
viewed as the Agent of baptism to membership in the Body and on the other He is the
element in which one is baptized so as to be in the Body'.