MARSHALL The Meaning of the Verb 'Baptize' 13
Elsewhere in the Scrolls the notion of fire is associated with judgment.^14
The material which we have now assembled is sufficient to suggest onepossibility of interpretation of the phrase 'baptism with fire'. The imagery
here is that of being plunged into a river or lake of fire or of being deluged
with a stream of fire pouring down from heaven.^15 This imagery matches
well with the image of being plunged into a raging sea or river of water
and being overwhelmed and drowned in it, which itself could be used
metaphorically of death at the hand of enemies (2 Sam. 22.5; Ps. 32.6; 69.2-
3,15; 124.40-5;Isa. 43.1). This is precisely the idea which we found in the
Sibylline Oracles, and it may be claimed that, if Christian, this passage
represents a Christian interpretation of the saying of John, and, if Jewish, it
shows that the idea was present in the conceptual background to the New
Testament. In support of this interpretation one may further note that fire is
common in the New Testament as the means of final judgment.
Again, there is a notoriously difficult saying of Jesus: 'I came to cast fire
upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to
be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished!' (Lk.
12.49-50) The collocation here of fire and baptism is significant. F. Lang
claims that the text teaches that 'Jesus will bring a judgment of fire on the
earth in which He Himself will be implicated'.^16 In this case, the reference
is presumably metaphorical; Jesus is referring to the suffering which he is
to undergo by means of a picture drawn from the traditional description of
the last judgment.^17II
Our investigation so far has shown that the verb 'baptize' can be used
appropriately with the concept of fire, since 'fire' could be regarded as a
stream or liquid. There was, therefore, no incongruity in using a verb that
had a literal reference to water with a metaphorical reference to fire. It is- 1QH 4 (old 17).13; 14.18 (old 6.18); 1QS 2.8, 15; 4.13; lQpHab 10.13. For
the Old Testament background, see J. Fichtner, TDNT, V, pp. 399-400; Delling,
'BATTTIIMA',pp. 105-106. - Schweizer, TDNT, VI, p. 399 n. 418. The analogy between baptism and being
plunged in a stream of fire is regarded as 'distant' by H. Schumann, Das Lukasevan-
gelium (HTKNT, 3.1; Freiburg: Herder, 1969), p. 177. - Lang, TDNT, VI, p. 944.
- The phrase 'baptism in fire' is attested in rabbinic Judaism, although the refer-
ence is as late as 300 CE (m. San. 39a, cited in SB I, pp. 121-22; II, p. 21).