FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146  
147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   >>   >|  
11. A.D. 80-90, Matt. iii. 1-16:; 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 history of the rite in the centuries which followed has been sketched, for we know more clearly what baptism became after the year 100 than what it was before. And that method on which a great scholar[1] insisted when studying the old Persian religion is doubly to be insisted on in the study of the history of baptism and the cognate institution, the 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 series of associated phenomena, and the wild and uncontrolled spirit of comparison, which, by comparing everything, confounds everything." Our earliest detailed accounts of baptism are in the _Teaching of the Apostles_ (c. 90-120) and in Justin 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 Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, in living water. 2. But if thou hast not living water, baptize into other water; if thou canst not in cold, in warm. 3. But if thou hast not either, pour water upon the 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 life and the other of death, with which the tract begins. This body of moral teaching is older than the 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 _Apology_, (c. 140):-- "I will also relate the manner in which we dedicated ourselves to God when we had been made new through Christ. As many as are persuaded and believe that what we teach and say is true, and undertake to be able to live accordingly, are instructed to pray and entreat God with fasting, for the remission of their sins that are past, we praying and fasting with them. Then they are brought by us where there is water, and are regenerated in the same manner in which we were ourselves reg
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146  
147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
baptism
 

baptize

 

Justin

 

baptized

 

manner

 
insisted
 
Teaching
 

Spirit

 
fasting
 

living


Father

 

history

 
spoken
 

things

 
precepts
 

baptizing

 
thrice
 
biddest
 

instructed

 

entreat


undertake

 

persuaded

 

remission

 

regenerated

 

praying

 

brought

 

describes

 

begins

 

teaching

 

Christ


dedicated

 
relate
 

Apology

 

sketched

 

Christian

 
centuries
 

scholar

 
studying
 

Persian

 
method

origin
 

question

 
religion
 
doubly
 

earliest

 

detailed

 
accounts
 

Apostles

 
confounds
 

spirit