Preacher Witting

Preacher Witting is the Gatekeeper to Columbia, allowing no one in unless he baptizes them.

Post-Wounded Knee


After the Battle of Wounded Knee, Booker DeWitt came across Witting, who offered to baptize him and wash away his sins.

In one reality, Booker broke away from Witting's grasp and rejected the baptism. After reliving this, Booker tells Elizabeth that "a dunk in the river won't change the things I've done". It's unknown how Witting's life played out after that.

But in another reality, Booker accepted the baptism and was reborn as a different man: Zachary Hale Comstock. It was this baptism that ultimately led Booker and Comstock to confront each other in 1912.

Gatekeeper of Columbia
In the world where Booker became Comstock, Witting eventually became the man who would baptize those who came to Columbia before they entered the city. Witting thus baptizes Booker twice: Once at the latter's conversion into Comstock, and again as Booker enters Columbia.

However, Comstock's reality&mdash;and, consequently that reality's version of Witting&mdash;would cease to exist when Booker replaced his alternate self, who would have become Comstock, and allowed himself to be drowned. This erased any reality where Comstock existed.

Trivia

 * His glossy, grey eyes suggest that Witting is blind. This explains why he did not recognize Booker as the man who was reborn as Comstock.
 * Although suggested as blind, Witting says "I don't know, brothers, but this one doesn't look clean to me".
 * This may possibly be a joke referencing his blindness, or perhaps suggesting the man can see Booker's soul, specifically of his past deeds during Wounded Knee and what happened to his daughter.
 * BioShock Reference: When first approached, Father Witting will exclaim "Is it someone new?". This very same utterance is the phrase the player hears when encountering the first splicer in the game.