I thought this was a useful word picture to add to our understanding of baptism.
To understand what baptism really means we first look at the word baptism or its Greek and Hebrew original word itself. What does it mean?
The word Baptism is derived from the Greek word baptismos (Strong’s #909). The verb in Greek is baptizo (Strong’s #907). It's meaning commonly is given as "to dip or to immerse".
However this is not the primary meaning of the word in Greek. It is only a secondary derived meaning.
The word came into existence from the smithy of Greece. The primary meaning of the word implies a sudden change, which I believe, is the correct implication of the word. It is explained as what happens when a hot iron is dipped in cold water. The state of the material is changed drastically and permanently cast.
Those who are familiar with the old style smithy will understand this well. When a piece of iron is to be remolded into a tool such as axe, knife etc, it is first heated to near melting point and then put on the anvil and is shaped while the iron is red hot. (We got the expression, "strike while it is hot" from this method of recasting)
In that condition it is dipped in cold water where it crystallizes and is permanently cast. When the smith is satisfied with the shape and sharpness of the tool it is once again heated to full glowing red heat and plunged into cold water and brought to normal temperature in a short time. It will then keep the shape and temper for a long time. It can withstand the outside rough world sharply.
(http://www.acns.com/~mm9n/Baptism/100.htm)
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