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Is the Aramaic word for baptism based on the word for immersion, as in the Greek?
#3
gregoryfl has correctly pointed you to the root word. Eamd (?wash? and ?stand?) is the Aramaic root of mEamd (?baptism?). A person can wash lightly (sprinkle) or heavily (submerge) - the word allows both options and others in between, so any proposed translation ?immersion? can only be derived (if at all) by greater context.

Together, the Aramaic & Hebrew mEamd suggests a shallow pool with room to mEamd (?stand?), see Psalm 69:2 (?I sink in deep mire, where there is no mEamd (?standing?). I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.?) Psalm 104:6, ?You have covered the deep as with a robe; the waters yEamdu (?stood?) above the mountains.?

Particularly helpful here is the Aramaic mEamudyTha (?pool?), which also comes from this root Eamd (?wash? and ?stand?). See e.g., John 5:2, 5:4, 5:7, 9:7. Native Aramaic speaker Paul Younan has correctly advised that the Aramaic suffix Tha in reference to a body of water can highlight a relative smallness/shallowness (or edge/coast in a larger body of water).

It also helps to know that the root of Eamd (?wash? and ?stand?) is Eam (?union?, ?gravity?). See Fabre d?Olivet, The Hebraic Tongue Restored, Part First, p. 418. This is important because the word origin is fascinatingly symbolic. For example, the first letter in mEamd (?baptize?) is ?mem?, which is the Hebrew letter symbolizing ?water?. And the last letter is ?dalet?, the Hebrew letter symbolizing ?eye of the door?. This symbolism becomes really cool as Eam represents a group of people bound together (i.e., a nation), which the bible often symbolizes as waters (peoples = waters). (Personally, I?ve also enjoyed the mystery that Lake Marmara (?lord, lord?) is in the ?eye of the door? in the shepherd?s staff symbolizing waters/peoples).

The Peshitta of John 1:28 has John the Baptist literally inside the Jordan River when baptizing people. If he only needed to sprinkle a man with water, would he be literally inside the river crossing? He was probably standing too. In Hebrew and Aramaic, Eamd is ?stand?. And mEamd (?position? or ?standing?) is derived from it (see e.g., the Aramaic Eamuda (?pillar?).

When a man commits his life to YHVH the Father, does it make more sense for the priest to sprinkle water like rain, or is it submersion that symbolizes a deep washing? In either case there is no scrubbing mentioned in reference to the word, so what's the point here? I think the whole point is that we can analyze this word both ways, and then each man decides what kind of man he wants to be (that is, decide how he wants to use the word). When you cross the Jordan, do you walk along the coast to find the lowest point, and then cross there (washing your feet cleans the whole body); or do you run up to the river?s deep part, dive in head-first and swim across to the promised land, Halleluyah! If I were reading your story, and the author only said that you ?crossed the river?, I wouldn?t know the manner of your crossing (because I don?t know the context). It?s the same with Eamd (?wash?). And you?ll find this is common in Aramaic & Hebrew, that context is a key to understanding.

I've found I can spend a lot of time reading scholars that discuss the immersion debate in Greek and Latin, and all the different words in Hebrew that seem to have nothing to do really with mEamd. See e.g., Graves et al in Mode of Baptism, where the authors only mention the Peshitta briefly and then note later in the chapter, ?[S]o fully given over to immersion were many lexicographers, that Gesenius tells us this word in Hebrew is ?to dip in, to immerse; hence, to tinge, to dye,? and ?in the Targums often, to dye, to color;?? whereas it nowhere occurs in the Bible at all.? Is this 'immersion' in commentaries productive?

[Image: john-the-methodist.jpg]

Compare Matthew 3:11, John the Baptist prophesied that the messiah Yahshua will baptize with fire and spirit. Now we're getting somewhere...

When spirit comes over you, does it sprinkle you (think of the the exponential power of Yahshua?s blood, and the Hebrew tradition of sprinkling blood on the altar - even a small sprinkling can change your whole world); or is your entire being washed in spirit (spirit is not given in measure)... Ask different people these questions and you?ll receive different answers/experiences. Indeed, a man can have both experiences in different contexts! He can mEamd (?stand?) on two legs.
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Re: Is the Aramaic word for baptism based on the word for immersion, as in the Greek? - by gregglaser - 01-11-2015, 07:55 PM

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