To DIP, immerse, plunge — an ordinary Greek word used of sinking ships and of dyeing cloth, which every English Bible transliterates instead of translating, so that a reader has to be told what it means. ⚠ What was new in John's use of it was not the water: ritual washing was prescribed by the Law, practised daily at Qumran, and required of a Gentile converting to Judaism. But those washings were SELF-administered and REPEATED. John's is done BY ANOTHER, happens ONCE, and is demanded of JEWS — he treats the children of Abraham as though they needed the convert's bath, which is exactly the offence he names at 3:9. His own baptism is 'for repentance' with water; he says the one coming will baptize 'with the Holy Spirit and fire' (3:11). → first discussed at Matt 3:6