Gospel of Mark 1.8 · 1.8

<p><span class="gk">πνεῦμα</span> carries breath, wind, and spirit in a single word, and the entry for it in our lexicon was written for Plato, not for Mark — it is one of forty-four words in this passage that arrived already written from the Greek shelf.</p>gives blast, wind, and breath before it gives spirit.</p><p>The dative without a preposition — <span class="gk">ὕδατι</span>, <span class="gk">Πνεύματι</span> — can be read as instrument ("with water") or as the element one is plunged into ("in water"). Tyndale 1526 chose "with"; the KJV kept "with"; the Revised Version 1881 moved to "in." The choice has carried weight in arguments about the mode of baptism, and the Greek does not settle it.</p>

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