Baptism or Immersion?
To many people today, baptism is the act of being sprinkled with water when you’re a baby. However, baptism was originally full immersion in water.
This is both:
- Described in the Bible text (Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:10; Acts 8:38-39; Colossians 2:12; Hebrews 6:4), and…
- Conveyed by both the Greek and Aramaic words, which can also mean ‘washing,’ ‘dipping,’ or even ‘to sink’.
The tradition of sprinkling or pouring water over someone seems to have begun in later decades to make things easier. The first mention of it is probably in the Didache (AD ~60-150), which says that merely pouring water over someone is an acceptable alternative for times when a large body of water is unavailable.
Also, Christian Baptism was originally a modified form of fully immersive Jewish ritual washing.
Therefore, to fully convey the original meaning, this translation uses ‘immersion’, ‘immersing’, and ‘immersed’. Further, ‘John the Baptist’ becomes ‘John the Immerser’.