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Forum
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Baptism
Is Immersion,
Historic Witness to Christian Praxis |
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| Fortigurn |
| Posted:
Feb 22 2003, 12:55 AM |
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Archived
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"For thirteen hundred years was baptism
an immersion of the person under water."
- BRENNER
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The earliest first century witnesses:
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80 AD Hermas: "'I have heard, sir,'
said I, 'from some teacher, that there
is no other repentance except that which took
place when we went down into the water
and obtained the remission of our former sins.'
He said to me, 'You have heard rightly,
for so it is'"
The Shepherd 4:3:1
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"The deacon raised his hand, and Publius Decius
stepped through the baptistry door. Standing
waist-deep in the pool was Marcus Vasca the
woodseller. He was smiling as Publius waded
into the pool beside him. ‘Credis?’ he asked.
‘Credo,’ responded Publius. ‘I believe that
my salvation comes from Jesus the Christ,
Who was crucified under Pontius Pilate. With
Him I died that with Him I may have Eternal
Life.’ Then he felt strong arms supporting
him as he let himself fall backward into
the pool, and heard Marcus’ voice in his
ear ---- ‘I baptize you in the Name of the
Lord Jesus’ ---- as the cold water closed
over him."
Schaff-herzog Ency. of Religious Knowledge,
Volume 1, page 435--1966 edition
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Concerning the Didache:
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Jonathan Draper writes (Gospel Perspectives,
v. 5, p. 269):
Athanasius describes it as 'appointed
by the Fathers to be read by those who newly
join us, and who wish for instruction in the
word of goodness' (Festal Letter 39:7).
Hence a date for the Didache in its present
form later than the second century must be
considered unlikely, and a date before
the end of the first century probable.
Draper states in a footnote (ibid., p. 284),
"A new consensus is emerging for a date
c. 100 AD."
Stephen J. Patterson comments on the dating
of the Didache (The Gospel of Thomas and Jesus,
p. 173):
"Of course today, when the similarities between
the Didache and Barnabas, or the Shepherd
of Hermas, are no longer taken as proof that
the Didache is literarily dependent upon these
documents, the trend is to date the Didache
much earlier, at least by the end of the first
century or the beginning of the second, and
in the case of Jean-P. Audet, as early as
50-70 C.E."
Stevan Davies comments on the Didache (Jesus
the Healer, p. 175):
"The Didache is a text that gives instruction
on how a Christian community should treat
itinerant Christian prophets. It was written
sometime in the late first or early second
century and gives good evidence for a
structured church's shift in orientation
away from spirit-possession.
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As for baptism in the first to third centuries:
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'From writers of unquestionable authority,
it is evident, that the primitive christians
continued to baptize in rivers, pools, and
baths, until about the middle of the 3rd century.
Justin Martyr says, that they went with
the catechumens to a place where there was
water, and Tertullian adds, that the candidates
for baptism made a profession of faith twice,
once in the church, and then again when they
came to the water, and it was quite indifferent
whether it were the sea, or a pool, a lake,
or a river, or a bath. Such are the accounts
given by Justin Martyr in his Apology, and
by Tertullian on baptism as quoted by Robinson.
The sacrament of baptism, says Mosheim, was
administered in the first century, without
the public assemblies, in places appointed
and prepared for that purpose, and was
performed by immersion of the whole body in
the baptismal fount.
Ecclesiastical History, Philadelphia edition,
vol. 1. p. 126.
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Justin Martyr is a second century witness. So is
Tertullian (he lived in the second to the third
century, for your information, and wrote throughout
both of them). One of the quotes I provided from
Tertullian was dated 198AD.
Here's another quote, to let you know which
word he used:
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Upon that, we are immersed (Latin:
mergo, to dip, to immerse) three times,
making a somewhat ampler pledge than the Lord
has appointed in the gospel.
Then, when we are taken up, we tast first
of all a mixture of milk and honey. Then,
from that day, we refrain from the daily bath
for a whole week.
Tertullian, c. 211, 3.94.
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Tertullian again:
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"Baptism itself is a corporal act by
which we are plunged into the water,
while its effect is spiritual, in that
we are freed from our sins"
Baptism 7:2
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Irenaeus, 190:
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"`And (Naaman) dipped himself . . .
seven times in the Jordan' (2 Kgs. 5:14).
It was not for nothing that Naaman of old,
when suffering from leprosy, was purified
upon his being baptized, but (this served)
as an indication to us. For as we are lepers
in sin, we are made clean, by means of the
sacred water and the invocation of the Lord,
from our old transgressions, being spiritually
regenerated as new-born babes, even as the
Lord has declared: `Except a man be born again
through water and the Spirit, he shall not
enter into the kingdom of heaven'"
Fragment 34
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Justin Martyr made it clear that baptism required
knowledge, an informed decision an infant could
not make:
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And this washing is called illumination,
because they who learn these things are illuminated
in their understandings. And in the name
of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius
Pilate, and in the name of the Holy Ghost,
who through the prophets foretold all things
about Jesus, he who is illuminated is washed.
Justin Martyr, First Apology of Justin
Martyr, Chapter 61, Christian Baptism, Vol.
1
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Then these fourth century witnesses:
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Cyril of Jerusalem, 360:
For as he who plunges into the waters and
is baptized is surrounded on all sides by
the waters...
Basil of Casearea, 370:
How then do we become in the likeness of his
death? We were buried with him through baptism....How
then do we accomplish the descent into Hades?
We imitate the burial of Christ through
baptism. For the bodies of those being baptized
are as it were buried in water.
Ambrose, 375:
So therefore also in baptism, since it is
a likeness of death, without doubt when
you dip and rise up there is made a likeness
of the resurrection.
375 AD Basil the Great:
This then is what it means to be `born again
of water and Spirit': Just as our dying
is effected in the water [Rom. 6:3, Col. 2:12-13],
our living is wrought
through the Spirit. In three immersions
and an equal number of invocations the great
mystery of baptism is completed in such a
way that the type of death may be shown figuratively,
and that by the handing on of divine knowledge
the souls of the baptized may be illuminated.
If, therefore, there is any grace in the water,
it is not from the nature of water, but from
the Spirit's presence there.
The Holy Spirit, 15:35
381 AD Ambrose of Milan: "Although
we are baptized with water and the Spirit,
the latter is much superior to the former,
and is not therefore to be separated from
the Father and-the Son. There are, however,
many who, because we are baptized with water
and the Spirit, think that there is no difference
in the offices of water and the Spirit, and
therefore think that they do not differ in
nature. Nor do they observe that we are
buried in the element of water that we
may rise again renewed by the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit 1:6[75-76]
John Chrysostom, 390:
Exactly as in some tomb, when we sink our
heads in water, the old man is buried,
and as he is submerged below, he is absolutely
and entirely hidden...
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