168 Dimensions of Baptism
hellenistic sources and later Greek versions of the Old Testament.^26 While
the LXX version of Isa. 21.4, r| avonioc ME fJocTm^si ('lawlessness over-
whelms me'), comes close to this usage, G. Delling finds the closest prece-
dent in Symmachus's version of Ps. 69.3, EPaiTTio0Tiv eis aTTepavxous
KaxaSuaecos ('I am immersed into the endlessness of descent') and
Aquila's version of Job 9.31, ev 5ia(j>0opg fkxTrnaeis ME ('You will
immerse me in destruction').^27 In both Gospel passages, Jesus uses forms
of the verb (3CXTTTCO, but there is no need to see either the baptism of John
or Christian baptism as the origin for such a metaphor, as the threat of
disaster in terms of flood waters was ready to hand in the Old Testament
(e.g. 2 Sam. 22.5; Pss. 18.4; 32.6; 42.7; 69.1-2,14-15; 124.4-5).^28 How-
ever, these Old Testament texts 'do not demonstate that to be submerged
signified submission to a fearful death'.^29 From the evidence we have, this
metaphorical use of 'baptism' was Jesus' innovation. Beasley-Murray
argues for the authenticity of the Mk 10.38 and Lk. 12.50 logia on the
basis of Jesus' use of the wordThese two dominical sayings are unique in that they, and they alone in the
Gospels, refer to the coming passion of Jesus in terms of a baptism: He is to
be plunged, not into water but into calamity unto death. In both statements
the term $<XTIT\O\ICX is used, which to this day has not been discovered in
any non-Christian literature. The conviction is gaining ground therefore that
since Jesus Himself employed the term, it reflects His understanding of the
rite of baptism.^30- So J. Nolland, Luke 9.21-18.34 (WBC, 35B; Dallas: Word Books, 1993), p. 708.
- G. Delling, <BATTTIIMABATTTII0HNAI',J/Vbvr2(1957),pp.92-115(lOO-
101), cited by Beasley-Murray, Baptism, p. 74 n. 1, who adds the papyrus from c. 153
BC, Kav'(5rjs on MEXXO|JEV aco0f]vai, TOTE (3aTrn£co|je6a ('And if you have seen [in
a dream] that we will be rescued, precisely then shall we be submerged' [i.e. engulfed
by the calamity], published in UPZ I, no. 70). - Beasley-Murray, Baptism, p. 77: 'The manner in which the Marcan and Lucan
sayings conjoin the baptismal figure with another drawn from the Old Testament sug-
gests that the use of baptism to represent His sufferings was inspired by the Old
Testament precedents, rather than by His own experience of baptism.' Similarly Dunn,
Baptism, pp. 11-12, and Nolland, Luke, p. 708. - W.L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark (NICNT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974),
p. 380 (on the references to Symmachus and Aquila, see n. 85). - Beasley-Murray, Baptism, pp. 72-73. R.T. France, The Gospel of Mark (NIGTC;
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans; Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 2002), pp. 416-17, believes that
'we must suppose that Jesus has coined a remarkable new metaphor, drawing on his
disciples' familiarity with the dramatic physical act of John's baptism, but using it
(somewhat along the lines of secular usage [for being 'overwhelmed' or 'swamped' by