1 Corinthians 10
1For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3They all ate the same spiritual food 4and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert.
(1 Corinthians 10:1-5, NIV)
The Daily DAVEotional
I’ve recently posted several devotionals on the subject of baptism.
The motivation for these posts originated from an online conversation I had with a person who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. You can read more of the details of this conversation from my blog post “Is Baptism Necessary for Salvation?” but the headline is that this person, while making a case for the legitimacy of the Mormon church, claimed that baptism is necessary for salvation.
The Mormon church teaches that Jesus himself appeared to Joseph Smith in order to reinstate apostolic authority that had been lost when the original apostles died off.
Latter Day Saints claim that without living apostles, no baptism is legitimate. And since baptism is necessary for salvation (according to their theology), nobody can legitimately be saved without the Mormon church.
Our dialogue was mainly centered around the claim that baptism is necessary for salvation. It should be noted that there are a number of Christian denominations that also teach that baptism is necessary for salvation, most notably the Church of Christ.
I’ve argued that the fundamental reason some hold to the view of baptismal regeneration is because of a common interpretive error known as eisegesis, which means to read “into the text.”
What is eisegesis?
I can best explain eisegesis by giving an example.
Imagine you grew up in Texas and you’re a big fan of football. After all, in Texas, football is supreme. You played pop warner football as a kid and you also played on your high school football team. You watch your favorite football team every week and the biggest day of the year for you is the Super Bowl.
You then visit Europe where you meet some locals who invite you to join them later that afternoon for a game of “football”. You love “football” so you enthusiastically agree to participate. You even tell them that you will bring the ball.
Later that day, you show up with an American football. The other guys are looking at you strangely, until someone finally asks you, “where’s the ball?”
You toss them the football, but clearly something is wrong.
Finally, one of the guys informs you that in Europe, the word “football” refers to what is known in America as “soccer”.
This may seem like a silly example but it perfectly illustrates eisegesis.
In America, we have a certain understanding of the word “football.” But in Europe, and most of the world for that matter, that same word means and refers to something completely different.
When you’re in Europe, “football” is “soccer”. In Bible study terms, this is what we refer to as “context”. When seeking to understand the meaning of a passage, and particularly words like “baptize”, context matters.
The problem for most people when it comes to baptism is that in our modern culture, almost everyone, when they hear or see the word “baptize” will think about the church ordinance of baptism. Chances are you have either been baptized yourself or you’ve seen someone else get baptized.
Click here to see a A Comprehensive List of Blog Posts Based on Bible Passage Reference
There is almost no scenario where you would think of something other than water baptism whenever you hear or see that word.
But in the New Testament times, the word baptize was not always used the same way we think of it today.
This passage from 1 Corinthians 10 is a perfect example of the diverse and broad usage and meaning of the word.
Paul is writing this passage as a warning to the Corinthians against worshiping idols and he’s using the ancient Israelites as his main illustration.
God miraculously delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians and then, when Pharaoh pursued the Israelites with his army, God, once again supernaturally intervened to rescue His people from Pharaoh’s hand.
Paul is describing these historical events to his readers when he makes this key statement in verse 2:
They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
There’s that word – “baptized”.
But what does it mean in this context?
Certainly, Paul is not saying that the Israelites were immersed in water as we experience the ordinance of baptism today. What does it mean that they were all “baptized into Moses”? What exactly is Paul saying?
In verse 1, Paul explains that “our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea.”
Paul is referencing two things from the exodus encounter. When he says that they “were all under the cloud” he’s referring to the fact that the Israelites were guided by God who led them by day via a visible cloud that moved ahead of them.
When he says that “they all passed through the sea”, he’s referring to the supernatural event where God parted the Red Sea and brought the Israelites to safety on dry ground as they passed through the sea.
So what does Paul mean when he says that “they were all baptized into Moses”? Clearly this “baptism” has nothing to do with being immersed in water for some kind of efficacious benefit.
What Paul is saying is that the Israelites were “identified” with Moses and his leadership when they were “under the cloud” and when they “passed through the sea.” These two exodus events unalterably linked the people to Moses as their leader.
This is important because our tendency when we read passages like this is to import our modern understanding of words and terms into the text instead of seeking to understand what those words and terms meant to the original audience.
We hear the word “football” and immediately think “Dallas Cowboys” when what we’re really talking about is European soccer.
If the word “baptize” has a different meaning in this passage than our traditional understanding, then it must be acknowledged that in other passages where we see the word, our understanding of its meaning should not be limited to our narrow modern perception.
Baptism, in this passage, clearly doesn’t refer to the physical act of immersing someone in water. It’s obvious that Paul’s use of the word here is to indicate that the Israelites were intricately linked with Moses as their leader through the exodus events.
Hence, baptism equals identification.
For more on this topic of baptism, please read the following blog posts:
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Reflection
What comes to your mind when you hear or see the word “football”? What comes to your mind when you see or hear the word “baptize”?
What examples can you think of where a word has a different meaning today than it did in a previous era or to a different audience?
What are some other examples you’ve seen in which people import their modern understanding of a topic or issue onto a biblical text?
If the word “baptize” means “identification”, how does that change or affirm your understanding of the ordinance of baptism within the church?
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