Dimensions of Baptism Biblical and Theological Studies

128 Dimensions of Baptism

Recognition of 'baptism' as a metaphor has been an important and

significant development in our understanding of the meaning and use of

'baptism' in the earliest churches and its place in Christian initiation, and

this is largely attributable to the work of Dunn.^23 In a number of major

books and articles he has explored this aspect of the use of 'baptism' in the

New Testament.^24 Dunn comments that 'key New Testament phrases like

"baptized into Christ" (Rom. 6.3; Gal. 3.27) were intended as and are best

understood as metaphors rather than as descriptions of the physical act of

The Pauline Evidence', ExpTim 82 (1971), pp. 266-71, who concludes (p. 271) that
there is 'little conclusive evidence to support the view that either Luke or Paul
regarded baptism in water as either the medium or the occasion of the bestowal of the
Holy Spirit'; W.F. Orr and J.A. Walther, / Corinthians: A New Translation (AB, 32;
New York: Doubleday, 1976), p. 284: 'It is advisable...to guard against the idea of
incorporation into the body of Christ by sacramental means. It is more to the point to
speak of "corporate personality". The context is concerned with the operation of the
Spirit' (citing in support of this M. Barth, 'A Chapter on the Church—The Body of
Christ. Interpretation of I Corinthians \2\Int 12 [1958], pp. 131-56); R. Banks, Paul's
Idea of Community: The Early House Churches in their Historical Setting (Exeter:
Paternoster Press, 1980), p. 81; C.H. Talbert, 'Paul's Understanding of the Holy Spirit:
The Evidence of 1 Corinthians 12-14', PRS11 (1984), pp. 95-108 (98-99); E.E. Ellis,
Pauline Theology: Ministry and Society (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans; Exeter: Paternoster
Press, 1989), pp. 30-33, who does not discuss 'baptism' as metaphor, though this is
how he understands it. B. Witherington III, Conflict and Community in Corinth: A
Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans;
Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1995), p. 258, sees the reference as 'probably' to conver-
sion not water-baptism. See also the earlier Best, One Body, p. 73.

23. L. Hartman's claim ('Into the Name of the Lord Jesus': Baptism in the Early
    Church [SNTW; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1997], p. 55 n. 7; cf. the same view of
    McDonnell and Montague, Christian Initiation, p. 42) that 'Dunn.. .is virtually alone in
    regarding "baptise" as a metaphor' is to be contested, though it does emphasize Dunn's
    role in highlighting the metaphorical dimension of 'baptism'.


24. See, e.g., Dunn, Baptism, pp. 109-13,139-46; Jesus and the Spirit: A Study of
    the Religious and Charismatic Experience of Jesus and the First Christians as
    Reflected in the New Testament (London: SCM Press, 1975), e.g., pp. 201,260; Unity
    and Diversity in the New Testament: An Inquiry into the Character of Earliest Christi-
    anity {"London: SCM Press, 1977), e.g., pp. 153-54, 159-60; 'The Birth of a Metaphor
    —Baptized in Spirit', ExpTim 89 (1978), pp. 134-38,173-75; The Epistle to the Gala-
    tians (BNTC; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1993), pp. 203-205; 'Baptism and the Unity
    of the Church', e.g., p. 87; The Theology of Paul the Apostle (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark,
    1998), pp. 331, 450-52, 456; '"Baptized" as Metaphor', in Porter and Cross (eds.),
    Baptism, pp. 294-310.