Did Christ command his disciples to baptize with water?

Let us search the New Testament and see what it says.

We find the four evangelists and Peter each render Christ's command to
his apostles in very different language.

Matthew's version[1] is generally adduced to support water baptism.

We cannot assume that in Matthew, our Saviour's words are quoted
verbatim, while Mark, Luke, John and Peter are all in error or less
reliable, particularly as this part of Matthew claims for itself to have
been written a long time after, as appears by the statement that "This
saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day."[2]

Seven different accounts of the "apostolic commission" are given in the
New Testament.[3]

Did not each of these writers express in his own language what he
understood to be Christ's command to his disciples and will not these
seven different records all agree in substance if genuine?

Let us seek that interpretation which harmonizes them all and not pin
our faith to the popular conception of one version alone.

We will turn first to the one only recorded allusion which our Saviour
ever made to water baptism.[4]

We here find that he commanded his apostles not to depart from