Baptism

1
Baptism
2
Story so far

• Jesus was Israels messiah.
• Jesus bodily resurrection makes possible a way
  of life called Ekklesia, in which Jesus
  followers share a common past, present, and
  future.
• This way of life is open to gentiles. Through
  Jesus and the Spirit, gentiles may be guests in
  the house of Israel.
• Constitutive practices of the church mark off our
  shared way of life the Lords Day, baptism,
  eucharist.

3
Baptism

• How people are made a part of the ekklesia.
• Greek word baptizo, baptizein means (to)
  immerse/immersion
• An action that is specifically the churchs to
  perform (Jesus didnt baptize, only his followers
  -- story of Acts.)
• Jewish antecedent in the mikveh

4
Temple mikveh in Jerusalem
5
Didache, ca. AD 70(from last week)

• "Concerning baptism, baptize in this manner
  Having said all these things beforehand, baptize
  in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
  the Holy Spirit in living water i.e. in running
  water such as a river. If there is no living
  water, baptize in other water and, if you are
  not able to use cold water, use warm. If you have
  neither, pour water three times upon the head in
  the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."

6
Baptismal practice early church

• In early church, baptism had enormous
  implications to be baptized was to be placed in
  a countercultural position at odds with the
  dominant faith systems.
• Three-year period of probation known as the
  catechumenate.
• In at least some churches believers were naked.
• Chrismation and eucharist followed.

7
Baptistry in the Negev, ca. 250-600 AD
8

• Discuss The churchs practice of baptism
  expresses a theological belief in the cycle of
  embodied life, in all its aspects
• Birth
• Naming
• Caring for the body (our own and each others)
• Death
• Resurrection

9
Baptism and Cycle of Embodied LifeKey Texts
10
Romans 64-6

• We were indeed buried with him through baptism
  into death, so that, just as Christ was raised
  from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too
  might live in newness of life. For if we have
  grown into union with him through a death like
  his, we shall also be united with him in the
  resurrection. (NAB)

11
I Corinthians 1212-13a

• The body is a unit, though it is made up of
  many parts and though all its parts are many,
  they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we
  were all baptized by one Spirit into one
  bodywhether Jews or Greeks, slave or free

12
Tertullian, On Baptism

• Lived ca. 160-225.
• Earliest Christian theological treatise on a
  sacrament.

13
(Tertullian, On Baptism)

• Water was the first to produce that which had
  life, that it might be no wonder in baptism if
  waters know how to give life. For was not the
  work of fashioning man himself also achieved with
  the aid of waters? (Tertullian, On Baptism, ch.
  3)

14
(Tertullian, On Baptism)

• with so great simplicity, without pomp, without
  any considerable novelty of preparation, finally,
  without expense, a man is dipped in water and
  then rises again, not much (or not at all) the
  cleaner... Is it not wonderful that death should
  be washed away by bathing? (chapter 2)

15
Baptism and Donatist Schism

• Donatists lapsed priests could not perform valid
  sacraments.
• Augustine On Baptism, principle of Ex Opere
  Operato