Overview
What is Fairfield arguing?
This page traces the argument of the fifteen letters in order, so the book can be understood before it is read in full. It reports Fairfield’s reasoning; the edition itself takes no theological position.
- 1
The central question is the meaning of baptizo.
Fairfield argues that the dispute is not about reverence for the ordinance but about what a single Greek word means: whether it names a mode of applying water or an act of ceremonial purification.
Read the letter - 2
Classical Greek usage does not automatically determine New Testament usage.
Fairfield contends that examples drawn from classical writers cannot by themselves settle the sense a word carries in Jewish and Christian religious writing.
Read the letter - 3
Bapto shows how meanings develop.
In Fairfield's reading, bapto plainly came to mean dyeing as well as dipping, which shows that a word can outgrow its earliest physical sense.
Read the letter - 4
The Septuagint shows Jewish religious usage.
Fairfield turns to the Greek Old Testament to examine how Greek-speaking Jews used baptism and washing language in a religious setting.
Read the letter - 5
Ceremonial purification supplies the key context.
Fairfield argues that the Mosaic purifications, performed by sprinkling and pouring as well as washing, provide the idea carried into Christian baptism.
Read the letter - 6
Some New Testament baptisms cannot naturally mean immersion.
Fairfield examines Hebrews 9:10, Mark 7, and related passages, contending that the acts described are washings rather than immersions.
Read the letter - 7
John's baptism, the Jordan, and Ænon are examined.
Fairfield contends that these narratives describe place and circumstance without stating a mode.
Read the letter - 8
The apostolic baptisms are considered case by case.
Pentecost, the eunuch, the jailer, Cornelius, and Lydia are examined for what the record does and does not say.
Read the letter - 9
The argument from Romans 6 is answered.
Fairfield argues that burial and resurrection language describes union with Christ rather than prescribing a mode.
Read the letter - 10
Early Christian writers are reviewed.
Fairfield cites Justin Martyr, Cyprian, and Chrysostom as evidence that the early churches recognized more than one mode.
Read the letter - 11
His conclusion: baptism signifies ceremonial cleansing with water.
Fairfield concludes that the ordinance signifies purification and does not require one exclusive mode.
Read the letter