Baptising in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Introduction
I have found writing this blog series to be quite demanding. It has been demanding partly because it proposes something that is likely to be unacceptable to many. I think some will be biased against the proposition I am endeavouring to make and at least some of that bias in some cases will be unjustified. The mind shift required before one is able to consider the possibility of the correctness of what I want to suggest could be considerable.
The reader may find the series to be tedious in parts. I hope that it is not found to be too tedious and that some sections of it, even if the reader does not agree with the main tenant being proposed, are actually interesting and perhaps helpful.
The way this series develops is somewhat complicated. I apologise for that. I am sure that some other writer would have made it simpler and would have better presented the material in many ways. For me there was no simple way to proceed. I thought it necessary to consider so many aspects of the problem, the significance and relevance of which would not be immediately clear. Some matters have been raised not because I thought they were all that relevant but because I considered that others might view them as quite relevant. There are bound to be areas that I have not dealt with that others will think should have been.
In some sections I repeat a little of what was written earlier and sometimes I begin to drive towards my conclusion even though the argument is at a preliminary stage. I found it convenient to draw out some implications to some extent earlier rather than later while still trying to lay down a foundation for the final and more explicit conclusion. I sometimes make a suggestion the justification for which is not attempted until later. Sometimes I elaborate upon an item simply for the sake of some sense of “completing” the picture. These features do not lend themselves to creating a steadily flowing document. Again I apologise recognising that there must have been a better way.
In an attempt to make it a little less confusing than it might otherwise be I have tried to map the “journey” undertaken in this series, as it goes from section to section, by indicating at the beginning of almost all sections what is being attempted within that section. As a further aid I now list the headings to the sections as they occur:
Questions
“Immersed” in – with reference to “in”
In the name – with reference to “in”
“Eis”
“Epi”
“En”
“Immersed” in the name
Immersed “epi” the name
Immersed “en” the name
Immersed “eis” the name
In the name – with reference to “the name”
Old Testament Perspectives
Other perspectives
The water “baptism” practice
Water baptism epi/en/eis in the name
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Immersing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Different practices – different understandings?
The teaching of Jesus about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
“Baptizo” – meaning in Matthew 28: 19?
The verbal and situational context of Matthew 28: 19b
The situational context
The verbal context
“Baptising”, “immersing” them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit – a possible understanding
Concluding Remarks
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