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"There is no standard Greek-English Lexicon that gives sprinkle or pour as meanings of baptizo. The Form of Baptism, p. 43.

Dr. Kleeburg, a celebrated Jewish rabbi of Louisville, Ky., answered certain interrogations propounded to him thus:

1. What does taval mean? It means to immerse, to dip.

2. Does it ever mean to sprinkle or pour? It never means to sprinkle or pour.

3. Did the Hebrews always immerse their proselytes? They did. The whole body was entirely submerged.

4. Were the Jewish ablutions immersion?. Before eating and prayer and after rising in the morning they washed; when they become unclean they must immerse. (Louisville Debate, p. 652.)

Taval is the Hebrew word of which the Greek baptizo is a translation. Taval is Hebrew, baptizo is Greek and immerse is English, and all mean the same thing.

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Maimonides, the learned Jew, was born A. D. 1131 and died 1204. "He is called the Eagle of the Doctors of the Lamp of Israel. He was profoundly versed in the languages and in all the learning of the age. He says: 'Every person must dip his whole body, and wheresoever in the law washing of the body or garments is mentioned, it means nothing less than the whole body.'

Dr. Hibbard, the well known Methodist

writer, says:

66 Within this climate lies the land of Palestine. It is such a climate as * * made the practice of bathing common; and we repeat it, it was this universal custom of bathing * which more than anything else gave a bias to their minds to immersion instead of affusion." Hibbard on Bap., B. 2, p. 152.

Not quite right, Doctor.

The fact is, there is no affusion in baptizo. That's where the bias comes in.

ENG

CHAPTER IV.

WHAT THE ENCYCLOPEDIAS SAY.

NCYCLOPEDIA Americana: "Baptismthat is, dipping, immersion, from the Greek word baptizo."

Edinburg Encyc.:

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In the time of the

Apostles the act was very simple. The person was dipped in water.

Again: "In Scotland sprinkling was never used in ordinary cases till after the Reformation."

"Baptism was originally

Brande's Encyc.: administered by immersion." Kitto's Encyc.: immersed in water." Chambers' Encyc.: "It is, however, indisputable that in the primitive church the ordinary mode of baptism was by immersion, in order to which Baptisteries began to be erected in the third, perhaps in the second century." Encyclopedia Britanica: "The usual mode of performing the ceremony was by immersion."

"The whole person was

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✓ Porson (Episcopalian), says: "The Baptists have the advantage of us; baptizo signifies a total immersion.”

Of Porson the Penny Cyclopedia remarks:

"One of the profoundest Greek scholars-certainly the greatest verbal critic that any age or country has produced." Edinburg Reviewers: "They tell me [says Carson] that it was unnecessary to bring forward any of the examples to prove that the word signifies to dip; that I might have commenced with this as a fixed point universally admitted."

Poole's Continuator: "To be baptized is to be dipped in water.'

Smith's Bible Dictionary: "By the Greek fathers the word baptizein is often used, frequently figuratively, for to immerse or overwhelm with sleep, sorrow, sin, etc. Hence, baptisma properly and literally means immersion."

London Quarterly Review: "There can be no question that the original form of baptism -the very meaning of the word-was a complete immersion in the deep baptismal waters, and that, for at least four centuries any other form was either unknown or else regarded as exceptional, almost a monstrous case.

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Knapp's Theology: "Baptisma, from baptizein, which properly signifies to dip in, to wash by immersion."

The evidence adduced by them is all one way. Several quotations from the encyclopedias will be found in the second chapter of this work. In fact, there is not one of the great literary

productions of any age, or from any people, that speaks adversely on this subject.

You may ransack the libraries of the ancient and modern world, and not a standard work can be found in any language that testifies that sprinkling was primitive and apostolic. The Edinburg Encyclopedia says: "It is impossible to mark the precise period when sprinkling was introduced. It is probable, however, that it was invented in Africa in the second century, in favor of clinics (the sick).

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The new Edinburg Encyclopedia, edited by Sir David Brewster, a Presbyterian, says: "John Calvin was the first man among Protestants that changed the ordinance of baptism."

Such is the testimony of the greatest works, by our wisest men. These volumes are accepted as standard authority by all scholars of every faith.

What, then, must be the conclusion of the unprejudiced mind?

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