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BAPTISM
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BAPTISM . The Gr. words 0arriuµos and /Sarni r a (both of which occur in the New Testament) signify " ceremonial washing," from the verb /3arri-w, the shorter See also:form /3arrw meaning " See also:dip " without See also:ritual significance (e.g. the See also:finger in See also:water, a robe in See also:blood). That a ritual washing away of See also:sin characterized other religions than the See also:Christian, the Fathers of the See also: 6o-65, See also:Col. ii. 11, 12; Eph. iv. 5, V. 26. A.D. 60-7o, See also:Mark x. 38, 39. A.D. 80-90, Acts i. 5, ii. 38-41, viii. 16, 17, X. 44-48, xix. 1-7, xxii. 16; 1 Pet. iii. 2o, 21; Heb. x. 22.
A.D. 90-100, See also: 18–20; Mark xvi. 16. The baptism of John is mentioned in the following:—A.D. 6o-7o, Mark i. 1-11. A.D. 80-90, Matt. iii. 1-16.; See also:Luke iii. 1-22, vii. 29, 30; Acts i. 22, X. 37, xiii. 24, xviii. 25, xix. 3, 4. A.D. 90-100, John i. 25-33, iii. 23, X. 40. It is best to defer the question of the origin of Christian baptism until the See also:history of the rite in the centuries which followed has been sketched, for we know more clearly what baptism became after the See also:year too than what it was before. And that method on which a See also:great See also:scholar' insisted when studying the old See also:Persian See also:religion is doubly to be insisted on in the study of the history of baptism and the cognate institution, the See also:eucharist, namely, to avoid equally " the narrowness of mind which clings to matters of fact without rising to their cause and connecting them with the See also:series of associated phenomena, and the See also:wild and uncontrolled spirit of comparison, which, by comparing everything, confounds everything." Our earliest detailed accounts of baptism are in the Teaching of the A postles (c.9o–I 20) and in See also:Justin See also:Martyr. The Teaching has the following: 1. Now concerning baptism, thus baptize ye: having spoken beforehand all these things, baptize into the name of the See also:Father and of the Son and of the See also:Holy Spirit, in living water. 2. But if See also:thou hast not living water, baptize into other water; if thou canst not in See also:cold, in warm.
3. But if thou bast not either, pour water upon the See also:head thrice, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
4. Now before the baptism, let him that is baptizing and him that is being baptized fast, and any others who can; but thou biddest him who is being baptized to fast one or two days before.
The " things spoken beforehand " are the moral precepts known as the two ways, the one of See also:life and the other of See also:death, with which the tract begins. This See also:body of moral teaching is older than the See also:rest of the tract, and may go back to the year A.D. 80.'
Justin thus describes the rite in ch. lxi. of his first See also:Apology, (c. 140)
1 See also: Then they are brought by us where there is water, and are regenerated in the same manner in which we were ourselves regenerated. For in the name of God, the Father and See also:Lord of the universe, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit, they then receive the washing with water." In the sequel Justin adds: " There is pronounced over him who chooses to be See also:born again, and has repented of his sins, the name of God the Father and Lord of the universe, he who leads to the laver the See also:person that is to be washed calling Him by this name alone. For no one can utter the name of the ineffable God, and this washing is called See also:Illumination (Gr. diwrcvµos), because they who learn these things are illuminated in their understandings. And in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius See also:Pilate, and in the name of the Holy See also:Ghost, who through the prophets foretold all things about Jesus, he who is illuminated is washed." In ch. xiv. of the See also:dialogue with Trypho, Justin asserts, as against Jewish See also:rites of See also:ablution, that Christian baptism alone can purify those who have repented. " This," he says, " is the water of life. But the cisterns which you have dug for yourselves are broken and profitless to you. For what is the use of that baptism which cleanses the flesh and body alone ? Baptize the soul from wrath, from envy and from hatred; and, lo! the body is pure." In ch. xliii. of the same dialogue Justin remarks that " those who have approached God through Jesus Christ have received a See also:circumcision, not carnal, but spiritual, after the manner of See also:Enoch." In after ages baptism was regularly called illumination. See also:Late in the 2nd See also:century Tertullian describes the rite of baptism in his See also:treatise On the Resurrection of the Flesh, thus: 1. The flesh is washed, that the soul may be freed from stain. 2. The flesh is anointed, that the soul may be consecrated. 3. The flesh is sealed (i.e. signed with the See also:cross), that the soul also may be protected. 4. The flesh is overshadowed with See also:imposition of hands, that the soul also may be illuminated by the Spirit. 5. The flesh feeds on the body and blood of Christ, that the soul also may be filled and gated with God. 6. He also mentions elsewhere that the neophytes, after baptism, were given a See also:draught of See also:milk and See also:honey. (The See also:candidate for baptism, we further learn from his tract On Baptism, prepared himself by See also:prayer, fasting and keeping of vigils.) Before stepping into the font, which both sexes did quite naked, the neophytes had to renounce the See also:devil, his pomps and angels. Baptisms were usually conferred at See also:Easter and in the See also:season of See also:Pentecost which ensued, and by the See also:bishop or by priests and deacons commissioned by him. Such are the leading features of the rite in Tertullian, and they reappear in the 4th century in the rites of all the orthodox churches of East and See also:West; Tertullian testifies that the Marcionites observed the particulars numbered one to six, which must therefore go back at least to the year 150. About the year 300, those desirous of being baptized were (a) admitted to the catechumenate, giving in their names to the bishop. (b) They were subjected to a See also:scrutiny and prepared, as to-See also:day in the western churches the See also:young are prepared for See also:confirmation. The catechetic course included instruction in monotheism, in the folly of polytheism, in the Christian See also:scheme of salvation, &c. (c) They were again and again exorcized, in order to rid them of the lingering taint of the See also:worship of demons. (d) Some days or even See also:weeks beforehand they had the creed recited to' them. They might not write it down, but learned it by See also:heart and had to repeat it just before baptism. This rite was called in the West the traditio and redditio of the See also:symbol. The Lord's Prayer was communicated with similar solemnity in the West (traditio precis). The creed given in See also:Rome was the so-called Apostles' Creed, originally compiled as we now have it to exclude Marcionites. In the East various other symbols were used. (e) There followed an See also:act of See also:unction, made in the East with the oil of the catechumens blessed only by the See also:priest, in the West with the priest's saliva applied to the lips and ears. The latter was accompanied by the following See also:formula: " Effeta, that is, be thou opened unto odour of sweetness. But do thou flee, 0 Devil, for the See also:judgment of God is at See also:hand." (f) Renunciation of Satan. The catechumens turned to the west in pronouncing this; then turning to the east they recited the creed. (g) They stepped into the font, but were not usually immersed, and the priest recited the baptismal formula over them as he poured water, generally thrice, over their heads. (h) They were anointed all over with See also:chrism or scented oil, the priest reciting an appropriate formula. Deacons anointed the See also:males, deaconesses the See also:females. (i) They put on See also: The preparatory fasts of the catechumens must have helped to establish the Lenten fast, if indeed they were not its origin. Certain features of baptism as used during the earlier centuries must now be noticed. They are the following: (1) Use of fonts; (2) Status of baptizer; (3) See also:Immersion, submersion or aspersion; (4) See also:Exorcism; (5) Baptismal formula and trine immersion; (6) The See also:age of baptism; (7) Confirmation; (8) Disciplina arcani; (9) Regeneration; (1o) Relation to repentance; (11) Baptism for the dead; (12) Use of the name; (13) Origin of the institution; (14) Analogous rites in other religions. 1. Fonts.—The New Testament, the See also:Didache, Justin, Tertullian and other early See also:sources do not enjoin the use of a font, and contemplate in See also:general the use of See also:running or living water. It was a Jewish See also:rule that in ablutions the water should run over and away from the parts of the body washed. In acts of martyrdom, as late as the age of See also:Decius, we read of baptisms in See also:rivers, in lakes and in the See also:sea. In exceptional cases it sufficed for a martyr to be sprinkled with his own blood. But a martyr's death in itself was enough. See also:Nearchus (c. 250) quieted the scruples of his unbaptized friend Polyeuctes, when on the See also:scaffold he asked if it were possible to attain salvation without baptism, with this See also:answer: " Behold, we see the Lord, when they brought to Him the See also:blind that they might be healed, had nothing to say to them about the holy See also:mystery, nor did He ask them if they. had been baptized; but this only, whether they came to Him with true faith. Wherefore He asked them, Do ye believe that I am able to do this thing ? " Tertullian (c. 200) writes (de Bapt. iv.) thus: " It makes no difference whether one is washed in the sea or in a See also:pool, in a See also:river or See also:spring, in a See also:lake or a ditch. Nor can we distinguish between those whom John baptized (tinxit) in the See also:Jordan and those whom See also:Peter baptized in the See also:Tiber." The See also:custom of baptizing in the rivers when they are annually blessed at Epiphany, the feast of the Lord's baptism, still survives in See also:Armenia and in the East generally. Those of the Armenians and Syrians who have retained adult baptism use rivers alone at any See also:time of year. The church of See also:Tyre described by See also:Eusebius (H. E. x. 4) seems to have had a font, and the church order of Macarius, bishopof Jerusalem (c. 311-335), orders the font to be placed in the same See also:building as the See also:altar, behind it and on the right hand; but the same order See also:lays down that a font is not essential in cases of illness for " the Holy Spirit is not hindered by want of a See also:vessel." 2. Status of Baptizer.—Ignatius (Smyrn. viii.) wrote that it is not lawful to baptize or hold an See also:agape (Lord's Supper) without the bishop. So Tertullian (de Bapt. xvii.) reserves the right of admitting to baptism and of conferring it to the summus sacerdos or bishop, See also:Cyprian (Epist. lxxiii. 7) to bishops and priests. Later canons continued this restriction; and although in outlying parts of Christendom deacons claimed the right, the See also:official churches accorded it to presbyters alone and none but bishops could perform the confirmation or See also:seal. In the Montanist churches See also:women baptized, and of this there are traces in the earliest church and in the See also:Caucasus. Thus St Thekla baptized herself'in her own blood, and St Nino, the See also:female evangelist of See also:Georgia, baptized See also: These elements were old, but scarcely See also:primitive; and the archaic rite of the Key of Truth (see See also:PAULICIANS) is without them. See also:Basil, in his See also:work On the Holy Spirit, confesses his See also:ignorance of how these and other features of his baptismal rite had originated. He instances the blessing of the water of baptism, of the oil of See also:anointing and of the baptizand himself, the use of anointing him with oil, trine immersion, the formal renunciation of Satan and his angels. All these features, he says, had been handed down in an unpublished and unspoken teaching, in a silent and sacramental tradition. 5.. The Baptismal Formula.--The trinitarian formula and trine immersion were not uniformly used from the beginning, nor did they always go together. The Teaching of the Apostles, indeed, prescribes baptism in the name of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, but on the next See also:page speaks of those who have been baptized into the name of the Lord—the normal formula of the New Testament. In the 3rd century baptism in the name of Christ was still so widespread that See also:Pope See also:Stephen, in opposition to Cyprian of See also:Carthage, declared it to be valid. From Pope Zachariah (Ep. x.) we learn that the See also:Celtic missionaries in baptizing omitted one or more persons of the Trinity, and this was one of the reasons why the church of Rome anathematized 1 See also:Rogers' See also:essay on Baptism and Christian See also:Archaeology in Studia Biblica, vol. v. them; Pope See also:Nicholas, however (858-867), in the Responses ad consulta Bulgarorum, allowed baptism to be valid tan/um in nomine Christi, as in the Acts. Basil, in his work On the Holy Spirit just mentioned, condemns baptism into the Lord alone as insufficient. Baptism " into the death of Christ " is often specified by the Armenian fathers as that which alone was essential. See also:Ursinus, an See also:African See also: For pagan lustrations were normally threefold; thus See also:Virgil writes (Aen. vi. 229): Ter sodas pura circumtulit unda. See also:Ovid (Met. vii.' 189 and See also:Fasti, iv. 315), See also:Persius (ii. 16) and See also:Horace (Ep. i. 1. 37) similarly speak of trine lustrations; and on the last mentioned passage the scholiast Aero remarks: " Heuses the words thrice purely, because See also:people in expiating their sins, plunge themselves in thrice." Such examples of the See also:ancient usage encounter us everywhere in See also:Greek and Latin antiquity. 6. Age of Baptism.—In the See also:oldest Greek, Armenian, Syrian and other rites of baptism, a service of giving a Christian (i.e. non-pagan) name, or of sealing a See also:child on its eighth day, is found. According to it the priest, either at the See also:door of the church or at the See also:home, blessed the See also:infant, sealed it (this not in Armenia) with the sign of the cross on its forehead, and prayed that in due season (iv «aipga eu8Erw) or at the proper time (Armenian) it may enter the holy See also:Catholic church. This rite announces itself as the analogue of Christ's circumcision. On the fortieth day from See also:birth another rite is prescribed, of churching the child, which is now taken into the church with its See also:mother. Both are blessed by the See also:clergy, whose See also:petition now is that God " may preserve this child and cause him to grow up by the unseen See also:grace of His See also:power and made him worthy in due season of the washing of baptism." As the first rite corresponds to the circumcision and naming of Jesus, so does the second to His presentation in the See also:temple. These two rites really begin the catechumenate or See also:period of instruction in the faith and discipline of the church. It depended on the individual how See also:long he would wait for See also:initiation. Whenever he See also:felt inclined, he gave in his name as a candidate. This was usually done at the beginning of See also:Lent. The bishop and clergy next examined the candidates one by one, and ascertained from their neighbours whether they had led such exemplary lives as to be worthy of See also:admission. In case of strangers from another church certificates of See also:character had to be produced. If a See also:man seemed unworthy, the bishop dismissed him until another occasion, when he might be worthier; but if all was satisfactory he was admitted, in the West as a competens or asker, in the East as a qlwr^.O vos, i.e. one in course of being illumined. Usually two sponsors made themselves responsible for the past life of the candidate and for the sincerity of his faith and repentance. The essential thing was that a man should come to baptism of his own See also:free will and not under compulsion or from See also:hope of gain. 1Vlacarius of Jerusalem (op. cit.) declares that the grace of the spirit is given in answer to our prayers and entreaties for it, and that even a font is not needful; but only the wish and See also:desire for grace. Tertullian, however, in his work On Baptism, holds that even that is not always enough. Some girls and boys at Carthage had asked to be baptized, See also:Mid there were some who urged the granting of their See also:request on the See also:score that Christ said: " Forbid them not to come unto Me" (Matt. xix. 14), and: "To each that asketh thee give" (Luke vi. 3o). Tertullian replies that " We must beware of giving the holy thing to See also:dogs and of casting pearls before See also:swine." He cites r Tim. v. 22: " See also:Lay not on thy hands hastily, lest thou See also:share in another's sins." He denies that the precedents of the See also:eunuch baptized by See also: It would appear from the homilies of See also:Aphraates (c. 340) that in the See also:Syriac church also it was usual to renounce the married relation after baptism. Cyril of Jerusalem, in his Catecheses, insists on " the longing for the heavenly polity, on the goodly See also:resolution and attendant hope " of the catechumen (See also:Pro. See also:Cat. ch. i.). If the resolution be not genuine, the bodily washing, he says, profits nothing. " God asks for nothing else except a goodly determination. Say not: How can my sins be wiped out? I tell thee, by willing, by believing " (ch. viii.). So again (Cat. I. ch. iii.) " God gives not his holy treasures to the dogs; but where he See also:sees the goodly determination, there he bestows the See also:seed of salvation. . . . Those then who would receive the spiritual saving seal have need of a determination and will of their own. . . . Grace has need of faith on our See also:part." In Jerusalem, therefore, whither believers flocked from all over Christendom to be buried, the official point of view as late as A.D. 350 was entirely that of Tertullian. Tertullian's scruples were not long respected in Carthage, for in Cyprian's works (c. 250.) we already hear of new-born infants being baptized. In the same region of See also:Africa, however, Monica would not let her son See also:Augustine be baptized in boyhood, though he clamoured to be. She was a conservative. In the Greek See also:world See also:thirty was a usual age in the 4th century for persons to be baptized, in See also:imitation of Christ. It is still the age preferred by the Baptists of Armenia. But it was often delayed until the deathbed, for the primitive idea that mortal sins committed after baptism were sins against the Holy Spirit and unforgivable, still influenced men, and survived among the See also:Cathars up to the 14th century. The fathers, however, of the 4th century emphasized already the danger of deferring the rite until men fall into mortal sickness, when they may be unconscious or paralysed or otherwise unable to profess their faith and repentance, or to See also:swallow the See also:viaticum. Gregory Theologus therefore (c. 340) suggests the age of three years as suitable for baptism, because by then a child is old enough, if not to understand the questions put to him, at any See also:rate to speak and make the necessary responses. Gregory sanctions the baptism of infants only where there is imminent danger of death. " It is better that they should be sanctified without their own sense of it than that they pass away unsealed and uninitiated." And he justifies his view by this, that circumcision, which foreshadowed the Christian seal (a. pay's), was imposed on the eighth day on those who as yet had no use of See also:reason. He also urges the analogue of " the anointing of the doorposts, which preserved the first-born by things that have no sense." On such grounds was justified the transition of a baptism which began as a spontaneous act of self-See also:consecration into an See also:opus operalum. How long after this it was before infant baptism became normal inside the See also:Byzantine church, we do not exactly know, but it was natural that mothers should insist on their children being liberated from Satan and safeguarded from demons as soon as might be. The See also:change came more quickly in Latin than in Greek Christendom, and very slowly indeed in the Armenian and Georgian churches. Augustine's insistence on See also:original sin, a See also:doctrine never quite accepted in his sense in the East, hurried on the change. 7. Confirmation.—In the West, however, the sacrament has been saved from becoming merely magical by the rite of confirmation or of reception of the Spirit being separated from the baptism of regeneration and reserved for an adult age. The English church confirms at fifteen or sixteen; the See also:Roman rather earlier. The catechetic course, which formerly preceded the complete rite, now intervenes between its two halves; and the sponsors who formerly attested the worthiness of the candidate and received him up as anadochi out of the font, have become god-parents, who take the baptismal vows vicariously for infants who cannot answer for themselves. In the East,on the contrary,the complete rite is read over the child, who is thus confirmed from the first. The Roman church already foreshadowed the change and gave a See also:peculiar salience to confirmation as early as the 3rd century, when it decreed that persons already baptized by heretics, but reverting to the church should not be baptized over again, but only have hands laid on them. It was otherwise in Africa and the East. Here they insisted in such cases on a repetition of the entire rite, baptism and confirmation together. The Cathars (q.v.) of the middle ages discarded water baptism altogether as being a Jewish rite, but retained the laying on of hands with the traditio precis as sufficient initiation. This they called the spiritual baptism, and interpreted Matt. xxviii. 19, as a command to practise it, and not water baptism. 8. Disciplina arcani.—The communication to the candidates of the Creed and Lord's Prayer was a See also:solemn rite. Cyril of Jerusalem, in his instruction of the catechumens, urges them to learn the Creed by heart, but not write it down, On no See also:account must they divulge it to unbaptized persons. The same rule already meets us in See also:Clement of See also:Alexandria before the year zoo. In time this rule gave rise to what is called the Disciplina arcani. Following the See also:fashion of the pagan mysteries in which men were only permitted to gaze upon the sacred See also:objects after See also:minute lustrations and scrupulous purifications, Christian teachers came to represent the Creed, Lord's Prayer and Lord's Supper as mysteries to be guarded in silence and never divulged either to the unbaptized or to the pagans. And yet' Justin Martyr, Tertullian and other apologists of the 2nd century had found nothing to conceal from the See also:eye and See also:ear of pagan emperors and their ministers. In the 3rd century this love of mystification reached the See also:pitch of hiding even the gospels from the unclean eyes of pagans. Probably Mgr. See also:Pierre Battifol' is correct in supposing that the Disciplina arcani was more or less of a make-believe, a See also:bit of belletristic trifling on the part of the over-rhetorical Fathers of the 4th and 5th centuries. It is in them that the See also:atmosphere of mystery attains a maximum of intensity. They clearly felt themselves called upon to out-See also:trump the pagan Mystae. Yet it is inconceivable that men and women should spend years, even whole lives, as catechumens within the See also:pale of the church, and really remain ignorant all the time of the Trinitarian Epiclesis used in baptism, of the Creed, and above all of the Lord's Prayer. Wherever the Disciplina arcani, i.e. the See also:obligation to keep See also:secret the formula of the threefold name, the creed based on it and the Lord's Prayer, was taken seriously, it was akin to the See also:scruple which exists everywhere among primitive religionists against revealing to the profane the knowledge of a powerful name or magic formula. The name of a deity was often kept secret and not allowed to be written down,as among the See also:Jews. 9. Regeneration.—The idea of regeneration seldom occurs in the' New Testament, and perhaps not at all in connexion with baptism; for in the conversation with Nicodemus, John iii. 3-8, the words " of water and " in v. 5 offend the context, spiritual 'Etudes historiques, Essai sur Disc. arc. (See also:Paris 19o2). re-birth alone being insisted upon in vv. 3, 6, 7 and 8; moreover, Justin Martyr, who cites v. 5, seems to omit them. Nor is there any mention of water in ch. i. 13, where, according to the oldest See also:text, Christ is represented as having been born or begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. In r Pet. i. 3, it is said of the See also:saints that God the Father begat them anew unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus, and in v. 23 that they have been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible through the word of God. But here again it is not clear that the writer has in view water baptism or any rite at all as the means and occasion of regeneration. In the conversation with Nicodemus we seem to overhear a protest against the growing tendency of the last years of the 1st century to substitute formal sacraments for the free afflatus of the spirit, and to "See also:crib, See also:cabin and confine" the See also:gift of prophecy. The passage where re-birth is best put forward in connexion with baptism is Luke iii. 22, where ancient texts, including the See also:Gospel of the See also:Hebrews, read, " Thou art my beloved Son, this day have I begotten Thee." These words were taken in the sense that Jesus was then re-born of the Spirit an adoptive Son of God and See also:Messiah; and with this See also:reading is See also:bound up the entire adoptionistschool of Christology. It apparently underlies the symbolizing of Christ as, a See also:fish in the art of the catacombs, and in the literature of the 2nd century. Tertullian prefaces with this idea his work on baptism. Nos pisciculi secundum IXOTN See also:nostrum Jesum Christum in aqua nascimur. " We little fishes, after the example of our Fish Jesus Christ, are born in the water." So about the year 440 the Gaulish poet Orientius wrote of Christ; Piscis natus aquis, auctor baptismatis ipse est. " A fish born of the waters is himself originator of baptism." But before his time and within a See also:hundred years of Tertullian this symbolism in its original significance had become heretical, and the orthodox were thrown back on another explanation of it. This was that the word IXOTE is made up of the letters which begin the Greek words meaning " Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour," An entire See also:mythology soon See also:grew up around the idea of re-birth. The font was viewed as the womb of the virgin mother church, who was in some congregations, for example, in the early churches of See also:Gaul, no See also:abstraction, but a divine See also:aeon watching over and sympathizing with the children of her womb, the recipient even of See also:hymns of praise and humble supplications. Other mythoplastic growths succeeded, one of, which must be noticed. The sponsors or anadochi, who, after the introduction of infant baptism came to be called god-fathers and god-mothers, were really in a spiritual relation to the children they took up Out of the font. This relation was soon by the canonists identified With the blood-tie which connects real parents with their off-spring, and the corollary See also:drawn that children, who in baptism had the. same god-See also:parent,, were real See also:brothers and sisters, who might not marry either each the other or real children of the said god-parent. The reformed churches have set aside this fiction, but in the Latin and Eastern churches it has created a distinct and very powerful See also:marriage See also:taboo. ro. Relation to Repentance.—Baptism . justified. the believer, that is to say, constituted him a See also:saint whose past sins were abolished. Sin after baptism excluded the sinner afresh from the divine grace and from the sacraments. He See also:fell back. into the status of a catechumen, and it was much discussed from the 2nd century onwards whether he could be restored to the church at, all, and, if so, how. A rite was devised, called exhomologesis, by which, after a fresh See also:term of repentance, marked by austerities more strict than any Trappist monk imposes on himself to-day, the persons lapsed from grace could re-enter the church. In effect this rite was a repetition of baptism, the water of the font alone being omitted. Such restoration could in the earlier church only be effected once. A second See also:lapse from the See also:state of grace entailed perpetual exclusion from the sacraments, the means of salvation. As has been remarked above, the terror of See also:post-baptismal sin and the fact that only one restoration was allowable influenced many as late as the 4th century to remain catechumens all their lives, and, like See also:Constantine, to receive baptism on the deathbed alone. The same scruples endured among the See also:medieval Cathars. (See See also:PENANCE and See also:NOVATIANUS.) I r. Baptism for the Dead.—Paul, in I Cor. xv. 29, glances at this as an established practice See also:familiar to those whom he addresses. Three explanations are possible: (I) The saints before they were quickened or made alive together with Christ, were dead through their trespasses and sins. In baptism they were buried with Christ and See also:rose, like Him, from the dead. We can, therefore, See also:paraphrase v. 29 thus: " Else what shall they do which are baptized for their dead selves ?" &c. It is in behalf of his own sinful, i.e. dead self, that the sinner is baptized and receives eternal life. (2) Contact with the dead entailed a pollution which lasted at least a day and must be washed away by ablutions, before a man is re-admitted to religious cult. This was the rule among the Jews. Is it possible that the words " for the dead " signify " because of contact with the dead " ? (3) Both these explanations are forced, and it is more probable that by a make-believe See also:common in all religions, and not unknown in the earliest church, the sins of dead relatives, about whose salvation their survivors were anxious, were transferred into living persons, who assumed for the nonce their names and were baptized in their behalf, so in vicarious See also:wise rendering it possible for the sins of the dead to be washed away. The See also:Mormons have this rite. The idea of transferring sin into another man or into an See also:animal, and so getting it purged through him or it, was widespread in the age of Paul and long afterwards. See also:Chrysostom says that the substitutes were put into the beds of the deceased, and assuming the See also:voice of the dead asked for baptism and remission of sins. Tertullian and others attest this custom among the followers of See also:Cerinthus and See also:Marcion. 12. Use of the Name.—In Acts iv. 7, the rulers and priests of the Jews summon Peter and inquire by what power or in what name he has healed the lame. Here a belief is assumed which pervades ancient magic and religion. Only so far as we can get away from the See also:modern view that a person's name is a trifling See also:accident, and breathe the atmosphere which broods over ancient religions, can we understand the use of the name in baptisms, exorcisms, prayers, purifications and consecrations. For a name carried with it, for those who were so blessed as to be acquainted with it, whatever power and See also:influence its owner wielded in See also:heaven or on See also:earth or under the earth. A See also:vow or prayer formulated in or through a certain name was fraught with the See also:prestige of him whose name it was. Thus the psalmist addressing See also:Jehovah cries (Ps. liv. 1): " See also:Save me, 0 God, by Thy name, and judge me in Thy might." And in Acts iii. 16, it is the name itself which renders strong and whole the man who believed therein. In Acts xviii. 15, the Jews assail Paul because he has trusted and appealed to the name of a Messiah whom they regard as an overthrower of the See also:law; for Paul believed that God had invested Jesus with a name above all names, potent to constrain and overcome all lesser See also:powers, See also:good or evil, in heaven or earth or under earth. Baptism then in the name or through the name or into the name of Christ placed the believer under the influence and tutelage of Christ's See also:personality, as before he was in popular estimation under the influence of stars and horoscope. See also:Nay, more, it imported that personality into him, making him a See also:limb or member of Christ's body, and immortal as Christ was immortal. Nearly all the passages in which the word name is used in the New Testament become more intelligible if it be rendered personality. In Rev. xi. 13, the revisers are obliged to render it by persons, and should equally have done so in iii. 4: " Thou hast a few names (i.e. persons) in See also:Sardis which did not See also:defile their garments." (See CoNSECRATION.) 13. Origin of Christian Baptism.—When it is asked, Was this a continuance of the baptism of John or was it merely the baptism of proselytes?—a distinction is implied between the two latter which was not always real. In relation to the publicans and soldiers who, smitten with remorse, sought out John in the See also:wilderness, his baptism was a See also:purification from their past and so far identical with the See also:proselyte's See also:bath; but so far as it raised them up to be children unto See also:Abraham and filled them with the Messianic hope, it advanced them further than that bath could do, and assured them of a See also:place in the See also:kingdom of God, soon to be established—this, without imposing circumcision on them; for the See also:ordinary proselyte was circumcised as well as baptized. For the Jews, however, who came to John, his baptism could not have the significance of the proselyte's baptism, but rather accorded with another baptism undergone by Jews who wished to consecrate their lives by stricter study and practice of the law. So See also:Epictetus remarks that he only really understands Judaism who knows " the baptized See also:Jew " (rov (3e(3a i vov). We gather from Acts xix. 4, that John had merely baptized in the name of the coming Messiah, without identifying him with Jesus of See also:Nazareth. The apostolic age supplied this See also:identification, and the normal use during it seems to have been " into Christ Jesus," or " in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ," or " of Jesus Christ " simply, or " of the Lord Jesus Christ." Paul explains these formulas as being See also:equivalent to " into the death of Christ Jesus," as if the faithful were in the rite raised from death into See also:everlasting life. The likeness of the baptismal ceremony with Christ's death and resurrection ensured a real See also:union with him of the believer who underwent the ceremony, according to the well-known principle in sacris simulata pro veris accipi. But See also:opinion was still fluid about baptism in the apostolic age, especially as to its connexion with the descent of the Spirit. The Spirit falls on the disciples and others at Pentecost without any baptism at all, and Paul alone of the apostles was baptized. So far was the afflatus of the Spirit from being conditioned by the rite, that in Acts x. 44 if., the gift of the Spirit was first poured out upon the Gentiles who heard the word preached so that they spoke with See also:tongues, and it was only after these manifestations that they were baptized with water in the name of Jesus Christ at the instance of Peter. We can divine from this passage why Paul was so eager himself to preach the word, and See also:left it to others to baptize. But as a rule the repentant underwent baptism in the name of Christ Jesus, and washed away their sins before hands were laid upon them unto reception of the Spirit. See also:Apollos, who only knew the baptism of John (Acts xviii. 24), needed only instruction in the prophetic gnosis at the hands of Priscilla and See also:Aquila in order to become a full See also:disciple. On the other hand, in Acts xix. 1-7, twelve disciples, for such they were already accounted, who had been baptized into John's baptism, i.e. into the name of him that should follow John, but had not even heard of the Holy Spirit, are at Paul's instance re-baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Paul himself lays hands on them and the Holy Ghost comes upon them, so that they speak with tongues and prophecy. Not only do we hear of these varieties of practice, but also of the laying on of hands :together with prayer as a substantive rite unconnected with baptism. The seven deacons were so ordained. And this rite of laying on hands, which was in antiquity a recognized way of transmitting the occult power or virtue of one man into another, is used in Acts ix. 17, by See also:Ananias, in order that Paul may recover his sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost. See also:Saul and See also:Barnabas equally are separated for a certain missionary work by imposition of hands with prayer and fasting, and are so sent forth by the Holy Ghost. It was also a way of healing the sick (Acts xxviii. 8), and as such accompanied by ,anointing with oil (Jas. v. 14). The Roman church then had early precedents for separating confirmation from baptism. It would also appear that in the primitive age confirmation and ordination were one and the same rite; and so they continued to be among the dissident believers of the middle ages, who, however, often dropped the water rite altogether. (See CATIiARS.) More than one See also:sect of the znd century rejected water baptism on the ground that knowledge of the truth in itself makes us free, and that See also:external material washing of a perishable body cannot contribute to the illumination of the inner man, complete without it. St Paul himself recognizes (I Cor. 'vii. 14) that children, one of whose parents only is a believer, are ipso facto not unclean, but holy. Even an unbelieving See also:husband or wife is sanctified by a believing partner. If we remember the force of the words ayLos ayLa. w (cf. I Cor. i. 2), here used of children and parents, we realize how far off was St Paul from the positions of Augustine. The question arises whether Jesus Himself instituted baptism as a See also:condition of entry into the Messianic kingdom. The See also:fourth gospel (iii. 22, and iv. I) asserts that Jesus Himself baptized on a greater See also:scale than the Baptist, but immediately adds that Jesus Himself baptized not, but only His disciples, as if the writer felt that he had too boldly contradicted the older tradition of the other gospels. Nor in these is it recorded that the disciples baptized during their See also:Master's lifetime; indeed the very contrary is implied. There remain two texts in which the See also:injunction to baptize is attributed to Jesus, namely, Mark xvi. 16 and Matt. xxviii. 18-20. Of these the first is part of an appendix headed " of Ariston the See also:elder " in an old Armenian codex, and taken perhaps from the lost compilations of See also:Papias; as to the other text, it has been doubted by many critics, e.g. See also:Neander, See also:Harnack, Dr Armitage See also:Robinson and James See also:Martineau, whether it represents a real utterance of Christ and not rather the liturgical usage of the region in which the first gospel was compiled. The circumstance, unknown to these critics when they made their conjectures, that Eusebius Pamphili, in nearly a score of citations, substitutes the words " in My Name " for the words " baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost," renders their conjectures superfluous. Aphraates also in citing the See also:verse substitutes " and they shall believe in Me "--a paraphrase of " in My Name." The first gospel thus falls into See also:line with the rest of the New Testament. 14. Analogous Rites in other Religions (see also PURIFICATION). —The Fathers themselves were the first to recognize that " the devil too had his sacraments," and that the Eleusinian, Isiac, Mithraic and other mystae used baptism in their rites of initiation. But it is not to be supposed that the Christians borrowed from these or from any See also:Gentile source any essential features of their baptismal rites. Baptism was long before the See also:advent of Jesus imposed on proselytes, and existed inside Judaism itself. It has been remarked that the See also:developed ceremony of baptism, with its threefold renunciation, resembles the ceremony of Roman law known as emancipatio, by which the patria potestas (or power of life and death of the father over his son) was extinguished. Under the law of the XII. Tables the father lost it, if he three times sold his child. This suggested a See also:regular See also:procedure, according to which the father sold his son thrice into mancipium, while after each See also:sale the fictitious See also:vendee enfranchized the son, by manumissio vindicta, i.e. by laying his See also:rod (vindicta) on the slave and claiming him as free (vindicatio in liberiatem). Then the owner also laid his rod on the slave, declaring his intention to enfranchise him, and the See also:praetor by his addictor confirmed the owner's See also:declaration. The third manumission thus gave to the son and slave his freedom. It is possible that this common ceremony of Roman law suggested the triple abrenunciatio of Satan. Like the legal ceremony, baptism freed the believer from one (Satan) who, by the See also:mere fact of the believer's birth, had power of death over him. And as the legal manumission dissolved a son's previous agnatic relationships, so, too, the person baptized gave up father and mother, &c., and became one of a society of brethren the See also:bond between whom was not See also:physical but spiritual. The idea of See also:adoption in baptism as a son and See also:heir of God was almost certainly taken by Paul from Roman law. The ceremony of turning to the west three times with renunciation of the Evil One, then to the east, is exactly paralleled in a rite of purification by water common among the See also:Malays and described by See also:Skeat in his book on See also:Malay magic. If the Malay rite is not derived through Mahommedanism from See also:Christianity, it is a remarkable example of how similar psychological conditions can produce almost identical rites. The idea of spiritual re-birth, so soon associated with baptism, was of wide currency in ancient religions. It is met with in See also:Philo of Alexandria and was familiar to the Jews. Thus the proselyte is said in the See also:Talmud to resemble a child and must bathe in the name of God. The Jordan is declared in 2 See also:Kings v. Io to be a cleansing medium, and Naaman's cure was held to pre-figure Christian baptism. Jerome relates that the Jew who taught him See also:Hebrew communicated to him a teaching of the See also:Rabbi Baraciba, that the inner man who rises up in us at the fourteenth year after puberty (i.e. at 29) is better than the man who is born from the mother's womb. In a Paris See also:papyrus edited by Albr. Dieterich (See also:Leipzig, 1903) under the See also:title of Eine Mithrasliturgie, an ancient mystic describes his re-birth in impressive See also:language. In a prayer addressed to " First birth of my birth, first beginning (or principle) of my beginning, first spirit of the spirit in me," he prays "to be restored to his deathless birth (See also:genesis), albeit he is let and hindered by his underlying nature, to the end that according to the pressing need and See also:spur of his longing he may gaze upon the deathless principle with deathless spirit, through the deathless water, through the solid and the See also:air; that he may be re-born through reason (or idea), that he may be consecrated, and the holy spirit breathe in him, that he may admire the holy See also:fire, that he may behold the See also:abyss of the Orient, dread water, and that he may be heard of the quickening and circumambient See also:ether; for this day he is about to gaze on the revealed reality with deathless eyes; a mortal born of mortal womb, he has been enhanced in excellence by the might of the All-powerful and by the right hand of the Deathless one," &c. This is but one specimen of the pious ejaculations, which in the first centuries were rising from the lips of thousands of mystae, in See also:Egypt, See also:Asia See also:Minor, See also:Italy and elsewhere. The idea of re-birth was in the air; it was the very keynote of all the solemn initiations and mysteries—Mythraic, Orphic, Eleusinian—through which repentant pagans secured See also:pardon and eternal See also:bliss. Yet there is not much See also:evidence that the church directly borrowed many of its ceremonies or interpretations from outside sources. They for the most part originated among the believers, and not improbably the outside cults borrowed as much from the church as it from them. AuTHoRITlEs.—The following ancient works are recommended: Tertullian, De Baptismo (edition with intend. J. M. Lupton, 19(39); Cyril of Jerusalem, Catecheses; Basil, De Spiritu Sancto; Constitutions Apostolicae; Gregory Nazianzen, Orat. 4o; Gregory Nyss., Oratio in eos qui differunt baptismum; Sacrarnentary of See also:Serapion of Thmuis Augustine, De Baptismo contra Donatrstas; Jac. Goar, Rituale Graecorum (gives the current Greek rites) ; F. C. See also:Conybeare, Rituale Armenorum (the oldest forms of Armenian and Greek rites); See also:Gerard G. See also:Vossius, De Baptismo (See also:Amsterdam, 1648) ; Edmond Martene, De See also:Ant. Ecclesiae Ritibus (gives Western rites) (Bassani, 17S8). The modern literature is See also:infinite; perhaps the most exhaustive works are W. F. Rifling, Das Sacrament der Taufe (See also:Erlangen, 1859) ; Jos. See also:Bingham's Antiquities (See also:London, 1834), and W, See also:Wall, On Infant Baptism (London, 1707) ; J. Anrich, Das antike Mysterienwesen (See also:Gottingen, 1894), details the corresponding rites of the Greek mysteries, also A. Dieterich, Eine Mithras Liturgie (Leipzig, 19o3); J. C. Suicer, See also:Thesaurus, sub voce j3nrr w za; Ad. Harnack, Dogmengeschichte (See also:Freiburg See also:im Br. 1894) ; L. See also:Duchesne, Origines du culte chritien (Paris, 1898) ; Mgr. P. Batiffol, Etudes historiques (Paris, 1904) ; J. C. W. See also:Augusti, Denkwiirdigkeiten (Leipzig, 1829—1831) ; Monumenta Ecclesiae Liturgica by Dom Cabrol and Dom Leclercq (Paris, 1902) (a See also:summary of all liturgical passages given in the early Fathers); Corblet, Histoire du sacrement de bapteme (2 vols. Paris, 1881-1882). (F. C. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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