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Mayflower · #5 (**permalink**) 02-24-2008, 05:20 PM

The Meaning Of The Words According To The Ancient Writers.

1. The Didache or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. This ancient church manual is generally dated in the second century, and gives these instructions for the ordinance:

And concerning baptism, baptize thus: having first gone over all these instructions, baptize into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, in living water. But if thou hast not living water, baptize into other water, and if thou canst not in cold, then in warm. But if thou hast neither, pour out water on the head thrice, into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.—The Didache, chapter VII, quoted from James Heron, Church of the Sub Apostolic Age.

James Heron says, "Indeed, the preposition in the phrase ‘baptize into other water,’ points directly to immersion; and there is little room for doubt that this was the common mode of baptism in early times."—Church of the Sub Apostolic Age, p. 138. Some will doubtless object that this document condones pouring, but it is noteworthy that: (1) This is to be done only as a last resort. This was written when the heresy of baptismal regeneration had begun to make itself felt. (2) Even so, this is not called baptism, for that demands immersion, but the word used is ekcheo, to pour. The writer of the Didache does not prostitute the word baptizo by applying it to pouring. (3) This document is not of divine origin, and so, carries no authority except of example.

2. Barnabas. The epistle bearing the name of Barnabas is now generally acknowledged to be wrongly ascribed to the Biblical Barnabas, but it is of early date, perhaps as early as the first half of the second century. The Epistle of Barnabas says: "We indeed descend into the water full of sins and defilements, but come up, bearing fruit in our heart." This can be nothing other than immersion and emersion.

3. The Shepherd of Hermas. This is also of about the middle of the second century. "‘Why sir,’ I said, ‘did these stones ascend out of the pit, and be applied to the building of the tower, after having borne these spirits?’" "‘They were obliged,’ he answered, ‘to ascend through water in order that they might be made alive; for, unless they laid aside the deadness of their life, they could not in any other way enter into the Kingdom of God...The seal, then, is the water: they descend into the water dead, and they arise alive.’"—Similitude Nine, Chap. 16.

4. Justin Martyr, 140 A. D. speaks in his Apology, Sec. 79, 85, 86, of baptism as a "washing in the water." In his Dialogue with a Jew, 14, he refers to baptism as a "bathing," and connects it with Isaiah’s reference to the cisterns mentioned in Jeremiah 2:13. Certainly both fountains and cisterns in the Holy Land would be more fitting for immersion than for sprinkling.

5. Tertullian, about 204 A. D. On Baptism, chap. 7: "As of baptism itself there is a bodily act, that we are immersed in water, a spiritual effect, that we are freed from sins." On The Resurrection Of The Body, chap. 47: "Know ye not, that so many of us as were immersed into Christ Jesus, were immersed into his death? ...For by an image we die in baptism; but we truly rise in the flesh as did also Christ." Against Praxeas, chap. 26: "And last of all, commanding that they should immerse into the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit."

6. Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus, near Rome. About 225 A. D. Discourse On The Holy Theophany, 10: "For he who goes down into the bath of regeneration, is arrayed against the evil one, and on the side of Christ: He comes up from the baptism bright as the sun, flashing forth the rays of righteousness."

7. Gregory of Nazianus, about 360 A. D. Discourse 40, On The Holy Baptism: "Let us therefore, be buried with Christ by the baptism, that we may also rise with him; let us come up with him, that we may also be glorified with him."

8. Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem about 348 A. D. Instruction III, On Baptism, 12: "For as Jesus assuming the sins of the world died, that having slain sin he might raise thee up in righteousness; so also thou, going down into the water, and in a manner buried in the waters as he in the rock, art raised again, walking in newness of life." Initiation;. II, 4: "And ye professed the saving profession, and sunk down thrice into the water, and again came up. And there, by a symbol, shadowing forth the burial of Christ." Instruction VIII, On the Holy Spirit, II, 14: "For the Lord saith: ‘Ye shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days after this.’ Not in part the grace; but all-sufficing the power! For as he who sinks down in the waters and is baptized, is surrounded on all sides by the waters, so also they were completely baptized by the Spirit."

9. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria. 328 A. D. Discourse On the Holy Passover, 5: "In these benefits thou was baptized, O newly-enlightened; the initiation into the grace, O newly-enlightened, has become to thee an earnest of resurrection; thou has the baptism as a surety of the abode in heaven. Thou didst imitate, in thy sinking down, the burial of the Master; but thou didst rise again from thence, before works witnessing the works of the resurrection."

10. Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea. 370 A. D. On The Holy Spirit, XV, 35: "Imitating the burial of Christ by the baptism; for the bodies of those baptized are as it were buried in the water…The water presents the image of death, receiving the body as in a tomb."

11. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. 374 A. D. On The Sacraments, Book II, chap. 7: "Thou was asked: Dost believe in God the Father Almighty? Thou saidst, I believe; and thou didst sink down, that is, wast buried." The same work, Book III, chap. 1, 1: "Yesterday we discoursed respecting the font, whose appearance is, as it were, a form of sepulcher; into which, believing in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we are received and submerged, and rise, that is, are restored to life."

12. Jerome. 392 A. D. Commentary on the Epistle To the Ephesians, Book II, chap. 4: "And thrice we are immersed (Latin, merqimur), that there may appear one sacrament of the Trinity."

13. Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople. 398 A. D. Commentary on I Con, Discourse 40, 1: "For to be baptized, and to sink down, then to emerge, is a symbol of the descent into the underworld, and of the ascent from thence. Therefore Paul calls the baptism the burial, saying: ‘We were buried, therefore, with him by the baptism into death.’" On The Gospel of John, Discourse XXV: "Divine symbols are therein celebrated, burial and deadness, and resurrection and life. And all these take place together; for when we sink our heads down in the water as in a kind of tomb, the old man is buried, and sinking down beneath is all concealed at once; then, when we emerge, the new man comes up again."

14. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo. 398 A. D. Homily, iv: "After you professed your belief, three times did we submerge (Latin demersemus) your heads in the sacred fountain."

15. Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria. 412 A. D. On Isaiah, Book I Discourse 1, On Isaiah 1:16: The ancients were fond of seeking types and figures for the Christian rite of baptism in the Old Testament. After saying "men are justified, not by works of the law, but through faith and baptism," he adds, "And this the ancient law figured to them as in shadows, and preached before the grace which is through the holy baptism."

These do not exhaust the quotations from these ancient writers, but these are a cross-section of what the early writers had to say about the mode of baptism. We have not recorded any of the later writings, but only those of the first five centuries. For those curious to see the later writers on this subject, Dr. T. J. Conant, in his work "Baptizein" records every usage of the Greek word baptizo in Greek writings still extant, and he also records many instances of later writers to show how they used the word.

In quoting these ancient writers, our only object was to show that they used the word in the sense of immerse, as is the true import of the word. Therefore, we do not in the least, condone the erroneous ideas held by many or even most of them of them, that baptism was a saving ordinance. Since all of grace (unmerited favor), it cannot be obtained by any act of man. Baptism is simply an act of obedience whereby one outwardly confesses what has taken place inwardly. It is an act "of (not for) righteousness," (Matt. 3:15. cf. Tit. 3:5), done by a person who has already become a child of God by completely trusting in the Lord to save him.

Before passing to the next proof, we shall adduce several authorities to further show that baptism was by immersion for thirteen centuries, and that only in recent centuries have men replaced immersion by sprinkling or pouring.

16. Coleman (Congregationalist). Ancient Christianity, chap. 19, sec. 12: "The practice of immersion continued even until the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Indeed, it has never been formally abandoned."

17. Joseph Bingham (Episcopalian). Antiquities of the Christian Church, Book XI, chap. 11, sect. 4: "As this (dipping) was the original apostolical practice, so it continued the universal practice of the Church for many ages."

18. Augusti (Lutheran). Archae, Vol V, p. 5; VII, p. 229: "Immersion in water was general until the thirteenth century, among the Latins; it was then replaced by sprinkling but retained by the Greeks."

19. Whitby (Episcopalian). Annotations on Rom. 6:4: "And this immersion being religiously observed by all Christians for thirteen centuries, and approved by our Church."

20. Hagenbach (Lutheran). Hist. Doct., Vol. II, p. 84, note: "From the thirteenth century sprinkling came into more general use in the West. The Greek Church, however, and the Church of Milano still retained the practice of immersion."

21. J. J. Van Oosterzee (Lutheran). Christian Dogmatics, p. 749 (N. Y. edition): "This sprinkling, which seems to have first come generally into use in the thirteenth century, in the place of the entire immersion of the body, in imitation of the previous baptism of the sick, has certainly this imperfection, that the symbolical character of the act is expressed by it much less conspicuously than by complete immersion and burial under water."

22. Von Colln. History of Doctrine, Vol. II, p. 303: "Immersion in water was general until the thirteenth century among the Latins; it was then displaced by sprinkling, but retained by the Greeks."

23. Dr. Stackhouse, History of the Bible, Book VIII, chap. 1, pp. 1234-1235, note: "Several authors have shown, that we read no where in Scripture of any one’s being baptized, but by immersion; and from the acts of councils and ancient rituals have proved, that this manner of immersion continued (as much as possible) to be used for thirteen hundred years after Christ."

24. Dr. Brenner, Hist. Exhibit. Bapt., p. 306: "Thirteen hundred years was baptism generally and ordinarily performed by the immersion of the person under water, and only in extraordinary cases was sprinkling, or affusion, permitted. These later methods of baptism were called in question, and even prohibited."

25. Encyclopedia Ecclesiastica. Article on Baptism: "Whatever weight, however, may be in those reasons, as a defense for the present practice of sprinkling, it is evident that during the first ages of the Church, and for many centuries afterwards, the practice of immersion prevailed."