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The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

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use "begiessen" when the h<strong>and</strong> is bathed by the tears which pour or drop<br />

upon it; but if the h<strong>and</strong> were bathed by immersing it in water, a German<br />

would no more use "begiessen" to designate that act than we would use<br />

"pour." We affirm what every German scholar knows, that with any<br />

allusion, direct or indirect, to the mode in which a liquid can be brought<br />

into contact with an object, "begiessen" never means, <strong>and</strong> never can mean,<br />

either in whole or inclusively, "to immerse." It is so remote from it as to be<br />

antithetical to it, <strong>and</strong> is the very word used over against the terms for<br />

immersion, when it is desirable distinctly to state that Baptism is not to be<br />

performed by immersion.<br />

But if "begiessen" could ever mean to immerse, or include that idea,<br />

we shall demonstrate specially that it has not that force in Luther's<br />

German. Luther uses the word giessen upwards of fifty times in his<br />

translation of the Bible, <strong>and</strong> invariably in the primary sense of pour. <strong>The</strong><br />

word "begiessen," in which the prefix "be" simply gives a transitive<br />

character to the "giessen"--as we might say "bepour,"--he uses five times.<br />

Twice he uses it in the Old Testament, to translate "Yah-tzak," which, in<br />

twenty other passages he translates by "giessen," to pour. <strong>The</strong> two<br />

passages in which begiessen is used are, Gen. xxxv. 14, "Jacob poured<br />

(begoss) oil thereon,"--hardly, we think, immersed his pillar of stone in oil;<br />

Job xxxviii. 38, "Who can stay the bottles of heaven, when the dust<br />

groweth (Marg. Hebr. is poured, begossen) into hardness,"--hardly<br />

meaning that the compacting of the mire is made by immersing the ground<br />

into the showers. Three times Luther uses "begiessen" in the New<br />

Testament, 1 Cor. iii. 6, 7, 8, "Apollos watered: he that watereth (begossen,<br />

begeusst)"--referring to the sprinkling, or pouring of water on plants. So<br />

Luther also says: "Hatred <strong>and</strong> wrath are poured over me (ueber mich<br />

begossen)," Jena Ed. v. 55.<br />

We have shown that the general usage of the language does not<br />

allow of the interpretation in question. We have shown that, if it did,<br />

Luther's German does not. We shall now show that if both allowed it<br />

anywhere, it is most especially

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