Il battesimo in Cristo Gesù

How did the addressees of the Letter to the Romans understood the preposition εἰς in Rom 6:3? How did they understand the expression in which this preposition occur, and how did they understand the Baptism of which Paul speaks of in Rom 6? Was the discourse of Paul entirely new to the members of the community of Rome, or was the explanation of the meaning of Baptism in Rom 6:3-4 aimed at reminding and clarifying concepts that they already knew? In Rom 6:3-4, Paul expresses concepts which in part - and for some members of the community of Rome - are traditional, and familiar (cf. Rom 15:15). With the explanation of the "Christian" Baptism, Paul also clarifies aspects of traditional concepts that the addressees of the Letter - or some of them - "ignore", or have not understood well enough. Explaining the Baptism in Christ Jesus, Paul refers to the eschatological promises related to the Temple, accomplished by the death and resurrection of Jesus and with the gift of the Holy Spirit. After speaking of Baptism in the First Letter to the Corinthians (cf. 1 Cor 3:16; 6:11; 10:1-4; 12:12-13), and in the Letter to the Galatian (cf. Gal 3:27), Paul explains again the "Christian" Baptism in a Letter to the community of Rome, before arriving at the capital of the Empire, and supposing that the members of this community already knew the content of his previous Letters (cf. Rom 16:3-5; 1 Cor 16:19). The fidelity to the Temple by a group of disciples of Jesus living in Rome, and the "actualized" eschatology of one other group may explain the reason why, while speaking of the "Christian" Baptism, Paul does not explicitly mention the Temple. For the first group, the omission is aimed at indicating the meaning of the Jerusalem Temple after the death and resurrection of Jesus, celebrated with the rite of Baptism. For the other group, the omission of the mention of the Temple is aimed at clarifying the temporal and sacramental meaning of the "Christian" Baptism, in relationship to the eschatological Temple. In explaining the Baptism in the Letter to the Romans, Paul addresses the members of the community who are Gentiles too. An explicit mention of the Temple could have been a cause of misunderstanding for this group that was more familiar with the functioning and meaning of the pagan temples than with the meaning of the Temple of Jerusalem.