| 3. Linguistic Exegesis The verse begins with the narrative verb eipen {εἶπέν | eî-pen} introducing direct discourse, followed by the enclitic te {τε | te} lightly connecting this question to the preceding context. In the question, the fronted prepositional phrase eis ti oun {Εἰς τί οὖν | Eis tí oûn} literally “into what then” places emphasis on the nature of the baptism, and the aorist passive indicative verb ebaptisthēte {ἐβαπτίσθητε | e-bap-tís-thē-te} presents the baptism as a completed reception. The reply shifts to a new speaker marked by hoi de {οἱ δὲ | hoi de} “they, on the other hand,” a common device to signal dialogue. The answer reuses eis {Εἰς | Eis} to maintain parallelism and employs the genitive Iōannou {Ἰωάννου | Iō-án-nou} to specify whose baptism, with baptisma {βάπτισμα | báp-tis-ma} as the head noun. This repetition underscores the alignment created by the preposition and preserves the technical term in both question and answer. |