d by the
history of religion to the evidence of the early literature critically
studied, two points stand out as probable. First, Jesus neither
practised nor enjoined baptism of any kind; secondly, the Antiochean
missionaries always practised baptism "in the name of the Lord Jesus."
The second point is so obviously proved both by Acts and the Pauline
epistles that it requires no discussion. The first has the limitations
of the argument from silence, for it rests on the fact that there is no
trace of Baptism by Jesus, either by practice or precept, in the
synoptic gospels, except a single statement in Matt. xxviii. 19, {86}
in which the risen Jesus is represented as commanding the disciples to
undertake the conversion of the Gentiles (_ta ethne_) and their baptism
in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That this verse is
not historical but a late tradition, intended to support ecclesiastical
practice, is shown by the absence of the trine formula of baptism in
Acts and the Epistles, and the extreme reluctance with which the
apostles, who are supposed to have received this revelation, undertook
a mission to the Gentiles. We have to choose between the account in
Matthew, which makes the mission to the Gentiles the result of the
command of the risen Jesus in Galilee, or that in Acts, confirmed by
Paul, which makes it begin much later from the preaching in Antioch of
the scattered adherents of Stephen, and from revelations to Paul and
Peter, on the road to Damascus, and at Joppa. There can be little
doubt that Acts ought to be trusted on this point.

Few problems are more obscure than the question of the growth of
baptism in the Church of this first period. This is due to the fact
that the editor of Acts was convinced that baptism was a primitive
Christian custom even in Jerusalem, though unlike Matthew he does not
attribute it to Jesus. Nevertheless, it is possible to see indications
that his sources did not confirm his opinion. An excellent case can be
made for the view that the source used in Acts i. and ii. originally
regarded the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost as the fulfilment of the
promise attributed to Jesus {87} that his disciples, unlike those of
John, should be baptized in the Holy Spirit not in water. The
exhortation of Peter in Acts ii. that his hearers should repent _and be
baptized_ is so inconsistent with this promise that it seems due to the
redactor. Similarly, too, the baptism of Corne