CROSS The Meaning of 'Baptisms' in Hebrews 6.2 167
- Mark 10.38-39 and Luke 12.50
The metaphorical use of 'baptism' has received considerable attention in
recent years.^21 Its basis rests in Jesus' own use of 'baptism' in reference to
his 'undergoing an "immersion" of suffering'^22 in Mk 10.38-39 and Lk.
12.50, which are the most unequivocal examples of the metaphorical use
of baptism in the New Testament.^23
In Mk 10.38-39 Jesus challenges James and John on the extent they are
prepared to follow him:' "Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or tobe baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized (j\ TO f}aTTTia|JCC o
eyco (3aTTTi£o|jai (3aTrna0fivai)?" And they said to him, "We are able."
And Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink you will drink; and with thebaptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized (KOU TO (3a TT-
Tia|ja o eyco (3aTrn£o|jai (3aTrna0Tiaea0E)".' There is a similar saying in
Lk. 12.50 in the context of Jesus' teaching the disciples on preparing for
the coming judgment:' "I have a baptism with which to be baptized (PCXTT-
Tiaya §e exco fJaTrnaSfjvai): and how I am taken up with it until it is
accomplished!"' According to Luke, Jesus speaks of the eschatological
conflagration as anticipated by his own death on the cross which he refers
to in terms of a 'baptism'.^24 The metaphorical use of 'baptism' for being
overwhelmed^25 by catastrophe is absent from the LXX, though it is used in- Most recently J.D.G. Dunn, '"Baptized" as Metaphor', in Porter and Cross
(eds.), Baptism, pp. 294-310. See also my 'Spirit- and Water-Baptism in 1 Corinthians
12.13' in the present volume. - G.R. Beasley-Murray, Jesus and the Kingdom of God (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans;
Exeter: Paternoster Press, 1986), p. 248. - For a recent discussion of these sayings, see E.W. Burrows, 'Baptism in Mark
and Luke', in Porter and Cross (eds.), Baptism, pp. 99-115 (106-11). - Beasley-Murray, Kingdom of God, p. 249, writes, 'The term "baptism" in Luke
12.50 is self-evidently used in a referred sense and denotes an immersion in or
plunging beneath destructive waters'. - I.H. Marshall, 'The Meaning of the Verb "to Baptize'", EvQ 45 (1973), pp.
130-40 (p. 137): 'From the linguistic point of view, a broader meaning of the Greek
term is certainly possible. While the normal meaning of the verb is certainly that of
immersion in water, it took on the metaphorical meaning of being overwhelmed by
something', citing Josephus {War 4.137, of a city overwhelmed by disaster, and Ant.
10.169, a person overcome by drink), and Plato (Symposium 176b, of people soaked in
wine) in support. See Marshall's revision of this article in the present volume. Simi-
larly R.A. Campbell, 'Jesus and his Baptism', TynBul 47 (1996), pp. 191-214 (194,
202-203).