| dc.description.abstract | Luke describes John's baptism as a "baptism of
repentance for the remission of sins" (Luke 3:3). He also
reports that John claimed that his baptism was of water in
contrast to the Mightier One's baptism of the Holy Spirit
and fire (Luke 3:16) . Repentance being the work of the
Spirit (John 16:8; 20:22-23), John's water baptism is not to
be diassociated from the Mightier One's Spirit baptisrn.
Though in Luke 3:16 Spirit baptism points to the Pentecost,
the initiaI work of the Spirit in repentance can also be
called Spirit baptism (Luke 3:8; 24:47 ; Acts 2:38; 5:31;
10:43; 11:15-18; 13:38; 26:18; Rom 8:13; Gal 5:22-23).
Luke 3:16 contains three contrasts: iyc,l, ."I,: versus
ouroq, "He"; ridcrr, "water," versus tlueuport &yie, "Holy
Spirit"; and the contrast expressed by the conjunction pdv
. 6d, "on the one hand . . . on the other hand." The
emphatic position of the pronouns dyrir---ourde and their
constant presence in the parallel texts (Luke 3:16; Mark
1:8; John 1:26) show that John was primarlly contrasting
himself to the Mightier One. This is conforming the
context (see especially Luke 3:15). Regarding the contrast
i8cxrr-nvELiporr &yic.o, this duo appears constantly in agreement,
whether in the OT, at Qumran, or in the rest of the NT.
John's baptism is distinguished frorn the Mightier
One's Spirit baptism by the correlatlve conjunction pdu
6e. This conjunction is found in Luke 3:16, but not
in the parallel texts (Mark 1:8; John L:26,33) . Mark 1:8
has only 5d instead of pdv 5a. 6e is weaker than *hld,
"but," and is usually indistinquishable from rrxi, "and."
John 1:26, 33 has neither preu nor 6e. Therefore, Udv 6s
does not oppose water baptism to Spirit baptism; rather, it
connects two clauses.
John' s statement in Luke 3:16 is true, not only in John's
baptism, but also in the Early Church (Acts 10:44-48) and in today's
Christendom. Nobody can baptize with the Spirit; only the Mightier One, Jesus Christ, can do it. | en_US |
