On Baptism

Contents

1. 1Tertullian writes on baptism to instruct believers because a woman of the Cainite heresy has been leading many astray by denying baptism, whereas Christians, like fish, are born and live in water.
2. 2Unbelievers stumble at the simplicity of baptism, but God chose foolish and humble things to shame human wisdom, and his power works through what seems impossible.
3. 3Water has great authority from the creation: it was the seat of the Spirit, the instrument by which God ordered the world, the first bearer of life, and a partner in forming man.
4. 4The Spirit who hovered over the waters at creation sanctified the element, so that any water, when God is invoked, becomes a means of sanctification that cleanses both spirit and flesh.
5. 5Pagan washings and demonic haunting of waters are imitations of God's work; the angel stirring the pool of Bethesda foreshadowed the angel of baptism, which restores man to God's likeness and Spirit.
6. 6Baptism in water prepares for the Holy Spirit, as John prepared Christ's way; faith is sealed in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the church, the body of the three, is confessed with them.
7. 7After baptism the newly baptized are anointed, as priests were in the Old Testament and as Christ, the Anointed, was anointed with the Spirit.
8. 8After baptism comes the laying on of hands, by which the Holy Spirit descends like the dove on Christ and the dove after the flood, bringing God's peace to the newly baptized.
9. 9The crossing of the Red Sea, the sweetened water of Marah, and the water from the rock prefigure baptism, and water accompanies Christ throughout his life, even to the cross.
10. 10John's baptism was divine in commission but human in nature: a baptism of repentance preparing for the forgiveness and gift of the Spirit that come only through Christ.
11. 11Christ did not baptize with his own hands; his disciples baptized with John's baptism, since Christian baptism depended on his passion and resurrection.
12. 12Tertullian answers those who question the apostles' salvation because they were not baptized with Christian baptism: they probably received John's baptism, and in any case their faith and close following of Christ could stand in its place.
13. 13Though Abraham was saved by faith alone, after Christ's resurrection faith is bound to baptism, which Christ commanded, as Paul's own baptism shows.
14. 14Paul's statement that Christ did not send him to baptize was aimed at factions in Corinth, not against baptism, for Paul himself baptized.
15. 15There is only one baptism, given once; heretics, who do not share the same God and Christ, do not have true baptism.
16. 16Martyrdom is a second baptism, of blood, which takes the place of baptism in water for those who have not received it and restores it for those who have lost it.
17. 17Bishops, and under them presbyters and deacons, administer baptism; laymen may do so in necessity, but women may not, and the Acts of Paul and Thecla, which suggests otherwise, is a forgery by a presbyter who was deposed.
18. 18Baptism should not be given rashly; Tertullian advises delaying it according to each person's condition, especially for little children and for the unmarried, until they can ask for it knowingly or are settled in life.
19. 19Easter and the fifty days to Pentecost are the most fitting times for baptism, though any day is suitable.
20. 20Candidates should prepare for baptism with prayer, fasting, vigils, and confession of sins; after baptism they should pray for spiritual gifts and remember Tertullian in their prayers.