140 Dimensions of Baptism
himself 'truly'. Theodore Beza also notes that sacramental language in-
volves several kinds of metonymy, and uses as an example 'the container
for the contents' in the use of 'cup'.^73
In some studies metonymy and synecdoche are conflated into one cate-
gory or their definitions are even reversed.^74 But this should be avoided.
Wright defines synecdoche as 'using a word to stand for the whole of
which the literal referent is only a part, or a part of which the literal
referent is the whole',^75 and adds that 'At its simplest synecdoche is seen
in a single word'.^76 This is clearly relevant to the argument here that
'baptism' in 1 Cor. 12.13 stands for the whole of the conversion-initaitionprocess.
As defined above, synecdoche is the more appropriate trope for under-
standing how Paul uses 'baptism' in 1 Cor. 12.13.^77 This is implicit inF.F.- For references see J. Pelikan, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Devel-
opment of Doctrine. IV. Reformation of Church and Dogma (1300-1700) (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1984), p. 194: H. Bullinger, Summa of the Christian
Religion 8.8 (Zurich, 1556), p. 151r, andFive Decades of Sermons 5.9 (Zurich, 1552),
p. v. 368; J. Calvin, Replies to Joachim Westphal 1 (CR 37.36) and ,4 Clear Explana-
tion of the Sound Doctrine of the True Participation of the Flesh and Blood of Christ in
the Holy Supper, in Refutation of the Nebulous Ideas of Heshusius (CR 37.472);
T. Beza, On the Lord's Supper 3 (BezTract 1.213); Against Matthias Flacius Illyricus
4; 10 (BezTract 2.128-29; 141). Zwingli also interpreted a number of references to
baptism (1 Pet. 3.20-21; Eph. 5.26; Rom. 6.3-4; Gal. 3.27; Titus) as examples of meton-
ymy, see e.g. Zwingli's 'On Original Sin', in The Latin Works and the Correspondence
ofHuldereich Zwingli (trans. WJ. Hinke; Philadelphia: Heidelberg Press, 1922), II,
p. 28, cited by J.W. Cottrell, 'Baptism According to the Reformed Tradition', in D.W.
Fletcher (ed.), Baptism and the Remission of Sins: An Historical Perspective (Joplin:
College Press, 1990), pp. 39-81 (46). - So Wright, Voice, p. 23 n. 52, citing R. Etchells, A Reading of the Parables of
Jesus (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1998), p. 8. Similarly, G.B. Caird, The Lan-
guage and Imagery of the Bible (London: Duckworth, 1980), p. 137, notes that some
linguists (literary scholars?) classify synecdoche and metonymy as metaphor because
all three consist in the transference of a name from one referent to another, though he
believes this blurs the important distinction that in synecdoche and metonymy the link
between the two referents is contiguous while in metaphor it is comparative. - Wright, Voice, p. 7. See his detailed discussion of synecdoche, pp. 193-207. Cf.
A. Fletcher, Allegory: The Theory of a Symbolic Mode (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University
Press, 1964), p. 85, who observes that Quintilian, Institutes 8.6.21, 'equatefd] synec-
doche with ellipsis, which occurs "when something is assumed which has not actually
been expressed'", cited by Wright, Voice, p. 194. - Wright, Voice, p. 194.
- Interestingly, in his brief discussion of synecdoche, Caird, Language and