To baptize
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βαπτίζω can refer to dipping or immersing, ritual washing, being overwhelmed, or performing baptism. New Testament settings include John's baptism, Jesus' baptism, washings, suffering imagery, Christian baptism in Acts, and baptism language in Paul's arguments.
Reader summary
Full entry for βαπτίζω (G907) · Open the biblical lexicon
βαπτίζω can refer to dipping or immersing, ritual washing, being overwhelmed, or performing baptism. New Testament settings include John's baptism, Jesus' baptism, washings, suffering imagery, Christian baptism in Acts, and baptism language in Paul's arguments.
The BSB source-word alignment has 77 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include baptized (5), baptizing (5), to be baptized (5), baptize (4), they were baptized (4).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 3:6. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (21), John (13), Mark (13), 1 Corinthians (10).
This entry includes 9 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
βαπτίζω can refer to dipping or immersing, ritual washing, being overwhelmed, or performing baptism. New Testament settings include John's baptism, Jesus' baptism, washings, suffering imagery, Christian baptism in Acts, and baptism language in Paul's arguments. The object, preposition, agent, and discourse determine what the verb contributes. Its etymological relation to βάπτω does not by itself settle the amount of water, the proper recipients, or a full sacramental theology.
Galatians 3:27 says that those baptized into Christ have put on Christ, within Paul's argument about faith, sonship, unity, and Abraham's promise. Romans 6:3 asks whether believers know that those baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death, then develops death to sin and newness of life. Matthew 28:19 includes baptizing the nations in the singular name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as part of making disciples. These passages give baptism serious Christological, communal, and ethical significance while leaving disputed questions to be argued from the whole biblical witness rather than from this verb alone.
The local index records about 77 occurrences of βαπτίζω across ritual washing, John's ministry, Christian baptism, and figurative suffering or overwhelming. Pauline constructions with "into" belong to arguments about Christ, death, the body, and identity, but the verb alone does not specify how sign and saving reality relate.
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
Paul joins being baptized into Christ with putting on Christ. The verse belongs to the paragraph's movement through faith, sonship, unity, and heirship; it does not by itself define the causal relation between the rite and every reality named there.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
This adjacent verse, rather than a direct occurrence of βαπτίζω, describes the unity of those who are one in Christ Jesus across Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female. Its implications must be worked out from Galatians and the wider canon, not limited or expanded by the baptism verb alone.
Or aren’t you aware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
Paul asks whether the Roman believers know that baptism into Christ Jesus is baptism into His death. Verses 4-11 develop burial, newness of life, and reckoning themselves dead to sin; the argument should not be reduced to a lexical claim about εἰς or the verb.
And having been buried with Him in baptism, you were raised with Him through your faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead.
This verse uses the related baptism noun, not G907 directly. It joins burial with Christ in baptism, being raised with Him, faith, and God's action, making it an important canonical parallel without allowing the verb alone to adjudicate sacramental efficacy.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Baptizing belongs to making disciples of all nations and is expressed in relation to the singular name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The verse establishes the triune wording while leaving questions about exact recitation, mode, and validity beyond the verb's lexical scope.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. Immersion as religious rite signifying identification with Christ's death and entrance into his community.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 80 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I dip, submerge, baptize
Read verseI dip, submerge, baptize
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Read verseI dip, submerge, baptize
Read verseI dip, submerge, baptize
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Read verseI dip, submerge, baptize
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
How this verb appears across 72 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 77 lexical occurrence verses.
βαπτίζω is built from this root:
Describes union with Christ in his death and resurrection.Acts 8:26-40
Baptism marks public allegiance to Jesus following belief.Romans 6:1-14
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Galatians 3:27 places baptism inside Paul's movement from faith and sonship to being clothed with Christ, unity in Christ, and heirship according to promise. A preacher should follow that sequence without making the water mechanically produce every reality named in the paragraph or reducing baptism to an optional visual aid. Romans 6 likewise uses baptism into Christ's death as the ground for an ethical appeal to walk in newness of life.
Christian traditions explain the relation among baptism, faith, Spirit, church, and saving union differently. The companion should make those textual connections visible while refusing to settle recipient, mode, regeneration, or ecclesial-authority debates through lexical claims. Baptismal teaching should also protect the equal dignity of those in Christ without using Galatians 3:28 as a shortcut around every disputed social or ecclesial question.
Gal.3.27
βαπτίζω is related to βάπτω and occurs in active, passive, and middle forms across several constructions. Lexical sources attest dipping or immersing, washing, overwhelming, and baptizing. Historical formation and general usage inform the range, but neither the verb nor the preposition εἰς by itself settles mode, recipients, efficacy, or the precise relation between rite and union with Christ.
First Corinthians 10 explicitly says Israel was baptized into Moses in the cloud and sea, and First Peter 3 places baptism in typological relation to Noah's flood. Purification washings and prophetic cleansing promises provide broader canonical backgrounds. Each connection is made or governed by its New Testament passage; the verb alone does not prove that Christian baptism simply replaces one Old Testament rite or carries every water image.