Sunbury American and Shamokin journal. [volume] (Sunbury, Northumberland Co., Pa.) 1840-1848, 1843-02-11

tcraily translated not "much wster~ hut many wa
ters, evidently in sllr soa to a number Of springs or
small collections Of wsaet Il lie admitted V,y All.
thai no liver or cte,k h"ws near the spo, where
Enon stood. The plurA hydato simply means
! waters. withou, designating the quaotity. Hydoos,
Ivy no means, mus, necessarily mean deep water,
when used in the iasrs oumt-s. We have s,ade
it rule, in order 60 cave room 10 cont ne ourselves
! TO the Greek Of the New Testament, tut we haze
met with an instance Ia q classic author, so spPo>
site. tia, We cannot prevail 81 ourselves 60 omit il
The same word. hydofd. occurs ia al waton Of
Demosthenes against Callicies. at the commences
ment, page liza uh Of Reiske's sd, and p. 27s,
roi. 8, IF Dobson's Oratores Anici wh,re the con.
text and whole object of the oruton render il cer.
tain iha, it desiena'es "rains" II, then. hyaafa-
(wst' r)-csn imply Drops of water fa.H"~ as rain.
why mus we al on"~ 1ularge these hydafa where
1"h'.. aoode, into deep waters or rivets! We
woull describe any river, lake sea, consisting,
not II many waters, "a rather singular EXPIRE sson
in such ease,) bu, Of deep waters. II, then, we
here fnd many waters, much water in our English
Bible. ond W tiers may he rain 40 well ss seas
then we can lawfully understand them to he only
sPri'gs or fountains. Had the idea of dipping eI
is'ed in the mind Of the sacred writer, he would
surely have spoken rather Of deep. than Of many
waters. Indeed, il is cv'en, thst these springs of
water were no, used for dipping. since the 1000
were baptized in Jesusaletn, where no deep waters
found, we shall presently have occasion to
show. IF Baptism and large quantity of water
necessarily connected, we might well say that
could not pray without much water; for in
Acts l6 l3, we read of a company (which wen,
out Of the city, 10y the river side, where prayer
wont 10 I've made" Who does not know ,ha, in
such country as Palestine. John must have found
it particularly important 20 collect the mul'itu,les
who came TO him, and continued with him, st
place where they would have q copious supply of
water! r.
A familiar instance will illustrate our idea Me.
,hodist Camp meetings are frequently held on the
margin Of SOME running stream, or near some CO.
pious supply of water. Why Do they intend to
dip, when they publish that a camp meeting will be
he'll near a creek Is il not their intention to
tinue the spot for several days, and will they not
need "much wafer" for the use Of man and beas,
Let US bu remember ths, "ull Inc land Of Judea and
they Of jerusalem" Mark I, 5, that is, immense
mu'titudes emerged from their popuIcus cities and
towns, and came with csmels and asses-iet US re.
member, that in their country water scarce and
hence single sprirg well Of proportonably high
valuc--let us remember, too, since many came a
| distance, and must have continued on the spot a,
ea.t one night, and III t. too, in sul'ry climate,
| they needed much water" aud we will not won.
der that John selected spo, where water aboundei.
| Blu, does not Matthew tell ns, chap 3, 6, that m
other occasions ",hey wee baptized Of him in jor-
dan !" We answer, No. 1t is not the old Eng
lish language, hut original Greek which must de-
eide. Let the Just referred to decide; How
could they be baptized Of him! In modern Eng
| lish, we would say bv him if an English prepo.
sition may, or rather did express, in the time o
King James, the two dfIeren, IDEAS of by and Of
why is it difficult to conceive that Greek prepos
ton may have shades Of meaning II is wei
known how much the meanings Of Greek preposi
| ,ions vary. II we read, Max /, 4, John did hap
,ize IL, the wilderness" did he dip them in the
at or near jordan. This can, perhaps, be made in
tellig,lIc: even the one word in question, is, il
C;rerk en-, rendered here in. But the same wor'
s,spd. in a similar connection in Luke 49, 4, wher
our Saviour speaks Of ,he tower in Sloan. Sloan
was well known pool Of water, in which our Sa
viour directed man, born blind, to w,sh (John
~ thnt is. his eyes for the word translated ,cast
is sppropuisied to thc wsshing of the hands, fee
face SOC, and seems 10 exclude the idea Of ba'hirs
for which here are other appropriate words. Th
instances in Bretschneider's LeI., given under III
word nipio, subs, initiate this remark IL the ott
five ohapt, rs of the New Testament where il occur
L according 10 the Greek concordance Of T.. Smid
us, it is unifrm'y and expressly applied 10 ,he W
shins u the face, feet or hands. The pool was %
u shallow 10 have allowed bathing of the whole h.
dy, and hence this word (npto) is used. The SUI
! pool is mentioned in Nehemiah 2, Is, where II
5 Hebrew ,erminalion, as in numherlrss instance
. differs from the Greek. The pool lay to The cas'
" Jerusa saism, and the tower stood nesr II. which
meant hy the word en-. Thus, too, we read, He
" 10, l2, Christ sal down the right hand Of God
oi Here the same word occurs. Now, five must trir
u late, IN Jcrdsn, we must translate he sat down
i The right hand cf God; for the word is the sane
p both cases But rs We, of course, umslste 1t at
e. By the right hand, &c, so, 100, we must ,ransl
- at or By the jordan. Sill, il may he said, Il
,hn mus, have immersed our Saviour, for we re
il Matt. ew ,, I6, .And Jesus when he was bapz