The meaning of John's baptism in Luke-Acts

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.