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Episode 18 - baptism
Today's word is baptism.
Baptism, yes, because we have the baptism of the Lord.
First of all what does it mean?
It means to get wet.
Get wet.
In the Latin of the first apostolic Fathers, it is not translated with baptizzo but with the Latin word
which means to wet, to take a bath. It is a word that as a verb in the Greek Bible,
I mean in the Greek translation of the Old Testament to which we always have to
refer to when we talk about the new Testament, we don't refer too often to the Hebrew,
but rather to the Greek translation, in the Greek Bible it is never there.. it is very rare,
I think it appears two times, and it refers to the purification washing.
What would that be?
If you take the book of Leviticus, you never read the book of Leviticus, did you?
Well, let's say yes, I have read it but I threw it.. Let's say..
Very bad.
It is a very complicated thing, full of strange rules about the mould here and there..
Because the book of Leviticus several times, especially when referring to shady things,
for example some *** diseases or certain facts..
You need to wash.
You need to wash. This thing had become quite a fashion at the times of Jesus, so I don't
know, they would wash in those occasions when it was strictly prescribed by the law, but
generally they thought important to wash with certain criteria, obviously, all the times
that you had to do something very important, just to be sure.
But I think there is a whole story, where Jesus was questioned because he didn't wash
himself up to the elbows.
Because he doesn't wash his hands, but that is not this baptism, this is the fact
that you dive completely, you wash yourself and your clothes, this is very important.
It is really a thing which has a great significance, also in modern Judaism.
The Baptist proposes this thing ..
Baptist because he baptizes.
Because he baptized. So, he proposes a thing that actually everybody did several times a day,
especially the very pious, but he gives to this thing, or better, he underlines about this thing,
something that actually was already there, the aspect of conversion. Because
the impurity and sin are two things..
Close to each other.
Close and distant. Under certain aspects they are close, under other aspects they are distant. So
what purifies from impurity, purifies also from sin under certain aspects, so there is also
an aspect of conversion.
Yes.
It is a complex talk which would bring us into categories which are very far from our common
way of thinking, but which help us understand that it was quite normal, it could be very
understandable for the listeners of the Baptist which would say: "We have to convert, so
so we take a ritual bath".
But Jesus did not baptize anybody?
The Gospel of John explicitly says that he did not baptize anybody. In John 4:2
it is said that he was not.. I mean, John first says: " Jesus was baptizing on
the shores of the Jordan", but then, the author thinks about it and says: "although in fact it
was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples".
Why?
Well, actually, on the one hand we notice that in the case of the Baptist it is him who is being baptized.
Right, that's true.
On the other hand, Jesus utilizes sometimes also in the Gospel of John the concept of
baptism to point to the cross, so the death on the cross is seen as a baptism.
So what is actually the problem? That the baptism of John is still completely inside
spirituality, about purity and impurity of the old Testament. Even if it assumes a
Even if it assumes a moral value, it doesn't matter, we also have this fact in the spirituality of the Old
Testament. The baptism of Jesus is something completely different because he is
receiving this baptism, he is the one who becomes.. who purifies with this act..
he does not really purify himself, but takes on himself the purification, to be more correct.
And so the Christian baptism changes completely its key. As it is said in Romans 6: "For if we
have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his". So
the baptism of the Baptist is repeated every time that it is deemed necessary, the baptism of
Christ is the joining at.. to the sacrifice which the son of God
offers once and forever for the salvation of the world on the cross.