Baptism

The rite, meaning, and preparation for baptism.

Passages that substantially address this topic, in date order.

• Didache 7.1Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in running water.
• Didache 7.2Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Other water may be used if running water is not available.
• Didache 7.3Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · If there is not enough water, pour water on the head three times.
• Didache 7.4Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Fast before baptism.
• Didache 9.5Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Only the baptized may share in the Eucharist.
• Epistle of Barnabas 11.1Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · Scripture foretold baptism and the cross.
• Epistle of Barnabas 11.10Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · The river with trees of life.
• Epistle of Barnabas 11.11Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · We go down into baptism full of sin and come up bearing fruit.
• Epistle of Barnabas 11.2Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · Jeremiah: Israel forsook the fountain of life.
• Epistle of Barnabas 11.5Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · Isaiah: the sure water and the king in glory.
• Epistle of Barnabas 11.6Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · Psalm 1: the tree planted by streams of water.
• Epistle of Barnabas 11.8Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · The tree and the water in Psalm 1 are the cross and baptism.
• Epistle of Barnabas 16.8Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · Forgiven and made new, we become God's dwelling.
• Epistle of Barnabas 6.11Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · Forgiveness renewed us like newly formed children.
• Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.3.1 (31.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Some teachers say there is no repentance after baptism.
• Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.3.2 (31.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The baptized ought not to sin again.
• Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.3.3 (31.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · New believers receive forgiveness at baptism, not a later repentance.
• Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.3.6 (31.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · After baptism there is one repentance; repeated sin and repentance is of no use.
• Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 8.2.2 (68.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Those with budding sticks are sealed and sent into the tower.
• Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 8.6.3 (72.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Hermas asks for the meaning, so that those who broke their baptismal seal may repent.
• Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.12.4 (89.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · No one enters God's kingdom without receiving the name of the Son.
• Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.13.2 (90.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The virgins are holy spirits, powers of the Son of God; the name without their garment is useless.
• Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.16.2 (93.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · They had to come up through water to be made alive.
• Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.16.3 (93.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Before receiving the seal a person is dead; with it he receives life.
• Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.16.4 (93.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The seal is the water of baptism: they go down dead and come up alive.
• Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.16.5 (93.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The apostles, after death, preached to those who had died before and gave them the seal.
• Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.16.6 (93.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The apostles went down alive; the earlier dead went down dead and came up alive.
• Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.17.4 (94.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Sealed by baptism, all nations became one in mind, faith, and love.
• Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.31.1 (108.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Those still round have not yet received the seal of baptism.
• Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.31.4 (108.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The baptized must keep simplicity, forgive offenses, and heal divisions.
• Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 2.2.5 (6.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · For believers there is a limited time for repentance; for the Gentiles, until the last day.
• Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 3.3.5 (11.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The tower stands on water because life is saved through the water of baptism.
• Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 3.7.3 (15.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Stones that cannot reach the water are those who draw back from baptism.
• 2 Clement 6.9Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · If even the righteous cannot save others, we must keep our baptism pure.
• 2 Clement 7.6Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Those who break the seal of baptism face unending punishment.
• 2 Clement 8.6Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Keep the flesh pure and the seal of baptism unstained.
• To the Ephesians 18.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Christ was conceived by Mary, born, and baptized to sanctify the water of baptism.
• To Polycarp 6.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Christians are soldiers of God, armed with baptism, faith, love, and endurance, and rewarded for their works.
• To the Smyrnaeans 8.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Where the bishop is, there the people should be, as the catholic church is where Christ is.
• First Apology 61Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Justin describes baptism: instruction, prayer and fasting, then washing in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, called “illumination.”
• First Apology 62Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Pagan purifications and the custom of removing shoes in temples imitate baptism and Moses at the burning bush, where Christ spoke with him.
• First Apology 65Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · After baptism the new Christian joins the prayers; bread and wine mixed with water are brought, thanks are given, and deacons distribute them, also to those absent.
• First Apology 66Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · The Eucharist is for the baptized only; it is not common bread and drink, but the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus, as the Gospels record.
• Dialogue with Trypho 122.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The prophecies of light for the nations refer to Christians, not proselytes.
• Dialogue with Trypho 13.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The washing Isaiah speaks of is not a ritual bath but the saving washing of faith through Christ's blood.
• Dialogue with Trypho 138.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The eight saved in the flood symbolize the eighth day of Christ's resurrection.
• Dialogue with Trypho 138.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christ is the beginning of a new race regenerated through water, faith, and the wood of the cross, as Noah was saved on wood.
• Dialogue with Trypho 138.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Through water, faith, and wood, the repentant escape the coming judgment.
• Dialogue with Trypho 14.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christian baptism, the washing of repentance, is the water of life; Jewish washings cleanse only the body.
• Dialogue with Trypho 14.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · True washing is of the soul from anger, greed, and envy; the unleavened bread signifies leaving old sins.
• Dialogue with Trypho 18.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Circumcision and the Sabbath were imposed on Israel because of its hardness of heart.
• Dialogue with Trypho 19.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Circumcision was not for all; Jewish washings are broken cisterns compared with the baptism of life.
• Dialogue with Trypho 29.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Gentile believers, baptized with the Holy Spirit, need neither circumcision nor ritual washing.
• Dialogue with Trypho 39.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · God delays judgment because people are still becoming disciples, receiving spiritual gifts.
• Dialogue with Trypho 43.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians receive spiritual circumcision through baptism.
• Dialogue with Trypho 44.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The only way to forgiveness is to know Christ and be baptized.
• Dialogue with Trypho 49.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The spirit of Elijah came first in John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ's first coming.
• Dialogue with Trypho 86.6Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Elisha's floating axe-head prefigures baptism and the cross; Judah's staff marked Tamar's children.
• Dialogue with Trypho 88.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · At Jesus' baptism fire was kindled in the Jordan and the Spirit came like a dove.
• Dialogue with Trypho 88.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christ did not need baptism; he acted for fallen humanity.
• Dialogue with Trypho 88.8Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Jesus the carpenter made plows and yokes; at his baptism the voice said “Today I have begotten you” (Ps 2:7).
• To Autolycus 2.16Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · The blessing of the creatures of the waters foreshadows forgiveness of sins through the water of baptism; peaceable and predatory creatures picture the righteous and the wicked.
• The Instructor 1.12.98Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Jesus, who formed, regenerated, and instructs the human being, shows us the true life; imitating him, we are transformed toward God's image and likeness and learn a simple, self-sufficient life.
• The Instructor 1.6.25Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Christians are not called children because their knowledge is childish: at baptism, as at Christ's baptism, they receive perfection by enlightenment and the Spirit.
• The Instructor 1.6.26Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Baptism enlightens, makes us sons, perfects, and makes immortal; it is called grace, enlightenment, perfection, and washing, and God's gift in it is complete.
• The Instructor 1.6.27Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Believing and being born again already bring perfection in life; God's call is his salvation, and the one enlightened at once passes from darkness into light.
• The Instructor 1.6.28Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Baptism removes sin like a cataract, freeing the spirit's eye to see God; the believer is already in the light, while the fulfillment of the promise awaits the resurrection.
• The Instructor 1.6.29Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Faith already holds eternal life; what it grasps now as promise it receives after the resurrection as rest, while enlightenment dispels the darkness of ignorance.
• The Instructor 1.6.30Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Baptism, the healing medicine of the Word, washes away all sins and changes our character; faith is the one salvation for all, as Paul teaches.
• The Instructor 1.6.31Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · All the baptized are sons of God and equal in Christ; there is no division into “gnostics” and lower “psychics.”
• The Instructor 1.6.32Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Using his opponents' own language of “straining,” Clement says baptism strains away sin; God reveals himself to infants, those born again and clothed with Christ.
• The Instructor 1.6.45Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The milk of the Lord nourishes the reborn and leads to the heavenly Jerusalem; the Word is both food and drink, one substance serving both.
• The Instructor 1.6.49Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · As a mother nourishes her child with milk from her blood, Christ, who gave us new birth, nourishes us with the Word; we are united to him by his blood, his Word, and his training.
• The Instructor 1.6.50Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Blood and milk together symbolize Christ's passion and teaching; as milk mixes well with water, the Word is joined with baptism.
• The Instructor 1.6.51Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Milk mixes with water, honey, and wine, as the Word is joined with baptism, heals and cleanses, and raises the suffering human being to incorruption.
• The Instructor 1.6.52Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Butter fuels the lamp as the Word enlightens; those who call themselves perfect “gnostics” should learn from Paul, who did not claim to have attained perfection.
• The Instructor 2.12.118Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Precious stones and pearls fascinate the foolish like fire fascinates children; the true pearl is Christ, the pure Word, through whom the flesh, reborn in water, becomes precious.
• The Instructor 3.10.52Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Humble self-help and service to others, like Abraham serving his guests, are good exercise; fishing is allowed, but the better fishing is catching people through baptism.
• The Instructor 3.11.59Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Christians should live freely as God's adopted children; a man's signet ring should be worn on the little finger and engraved with a dove, fish, ship, lyre, or anchor, not idols or weapons.
• The Instructor 3.9.48Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The best washing is spiritual, cleansing the inside first, as the Lord taught and Isaiah prophesied; the body can be washed with plain water.
• Exhortation to the Greeks 10.94Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The loving Father calls all to the washing of baptism and offers the whole creation freely to his true children.
• Exhortation to the Greeks 10.99Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Ignorance breeds idolatry; wash in the water of the Word, recognize your Father, and like the Ninevites repent and be saved.
• Exhortation to the Greeks 12.120Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The true mysteries: the Lord initiates, illumines, and seals the believer; Jesus, the eternal High Priest, calls all humankind to incorruption and to his easy yoke.
• Exhortation to the Greeks 9.82Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · God admonishes as a gentle father; those who become like children and are born again enter the kingdom as his firstborn church.
• Exhortation to the Greeks 9.88Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Taste and see that God is good: the Word shines on all, and those saved become one chorus crying “Abba, Father.”
• Prophetic Extracts 12.9Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · with seven others; so the soul emptied of evil must be filled with God, and then the seal of baptism guards it for God.
• Prophetic Extracts 24.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Now the Lord stamps us with faith and other virtues, so that we bear the heavenly image.
• Prophetic Extracts 25.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · John's baptism “with Spirit and fire” was not literal fire, though Heracleon reports that some branded the ears of the baptized; the winnowing image explains it.
• Prophetic Extracts 25.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · As wind separates wheat from chaff, the Spirit separates the soul from what is material.
• Prophetic Extracts 25.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The seeds of life are gathered like wheat; the material perishes when separated; the Spirit separates and the fire consumes.
• Prophetic Extracts 25.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The Spirit corresponds to the bodiless soul, fire to what is material; this fire is not evil but a good power that cleanses, which is why the prophets call it wise.
• Prophetic Extracts 5.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Baptism, the sign of regeneration, is an escape from the rushing stream of matter through Christ's teaching.
• Prophetic Extracts 5.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The Lord leads us out of disorder into shadowless light.
• Prophetic Extracts 6.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Two prophets divided the sea and the river of matter by God's power.
• Prophetic Extracts 6.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · They were pure leaders through whose signs the righteous passed through matter and out of it.
• Prophetic Extracts 7.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Rebirth is by water and spirit, as was the first creation.
• Prophetic Extracts 7.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The Savior was baptized, though he needed no cleansing, to sanctify all water for those reborn, so that body and soul are cleansed.
• Prophetic Extracts 7.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Baptism sanctifies the invisible soul too, as the driving out of unclean spirits shows.
• Prophetic Extracts 8.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Since baptism by water and Spirit protects against a twofold fire, there must be both intelligible and sensible water.
• Prophetic Extracts 8.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Earthly water washes the body; heavenly water, the Holy Spirit, cleanses the invisible soul.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 16.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The dove at Christ's baptism was seen as a body; the church says it was the Holy Spirit, while the Basilideans and Valentinians gave other interpretations.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 22.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The Valentinians read “baptized for the dead” as the angels' baptism on our behalf.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 22.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · They say the angels were baptized for us so that we, bearing the Name, may pass the Limit into the Pleroma.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 22.5Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The Valentinian rite of laying on hands ends with the words “for angelic redemption,” so that the baptized share the redemption of their angels.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 22.6Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · They say the angels were baptized in the Name that descended on Jesus as a dove.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 36.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Jesus was baptized, the undivided being divided, to unite divided humanity with the angels in the Pleroma.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 76.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Christ's birth frees us from Fate, his baptism from fire, his passion from passion, so that we may follow him in everything.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 76.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The baptized have gone into God and received authority over the evil powers.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 76.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Christ commands the apostles to preach and to baptize believers in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
• Excerpts from Theodotus 76.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · into whom we are reborn, raised above all the powers.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 77.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Baptism is death to the old life, in which we renounce the evil powers, and life in Christ.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 77.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Baptism changes the soul, not the body.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 77.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The newly baptized is God's servant and master of the unclean spirits, who now tremble before him.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 78.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · They say Fate holds until baptism; after it astrology is no longer true.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 78.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Not only the washing frees, but the knowledge of who we were and have become, where we came from and where we go, what birth and rebirth are.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 80.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The one born of the mother goes to death; the one reborn by Christ passes to life.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 80.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The reborn die to the world and live to God; death is undone by death and corruption by resurrection.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 80.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Sealed in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the baptized is beyond all hostile powers and bears the heavenly image.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 81.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Fire is of two kinds: bodily fire for bodies, and a pure, bodiless fire that touches demons and the devil.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 81.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Baptism is double: water quenches the visible fire, the Spirit protects against the spiritual fire.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 81.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Air feeds or quenches fire, but the Spirit from above rules even the evil powers.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 82.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Likewise the exorcised baptismal water both drives away evil and receives holiness.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 83.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · One should come to baptism with joy, but also fear, since unclean spirits may go down with the candidate and receive the seal with him.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 84.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Hence the fasts, prayers, raised hands, and kneeling before baptism: a soul is rescued from the lions' mouth, and temptations follow from the angry powers.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 85.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · After his baptism Christ was tempted among the wild beasts, as a pattern for us; having overcome, he was served by angels.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 85.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · We must put on the Lord's armor, which quenches the devil's darts.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 86.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Christ asked whose image was on the coin, so that each should be given to its owner.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 86.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The believer bears God's name as inscription and the Spirit as image; sealed like marked livestock, the faithful soul bears the marks of Christ.
• Excerpts from Theodotus 86.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The sealed are the children already in bed and the wise virgins who enter the prepared good things, while the others are shut out.
• Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 23.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Christ answers: he has given new birth, freedom, and redemption, and will give eternal life and the vision of the Father.
• Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 39.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · who has no place in heaven; and one who has sinned after baptism, through ignorance or weakness, should not think God has condemned him forever.
• Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 42.14Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · The young man stopped, threw down his weapons, wept, and embraced John, baptized a second time by his tears, hiding his blood-stained right hand.
• Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 42.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · The presbyter raised and baptized the young man, then relaxed his care, trusting in the seal of baptism.
• Miscellanies 1.18.89Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Better to read Paul as denying that God made worldly wisdom foolish: unbelief is chosen, not caused by God; the wise are outshone by the gospel as a lamp by the sun; all are called, and those who obey are the called.
• Miscellanies 1.19.96Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Proverbs' stolen bread and water are the heretics' Eucharists, some using only water, contrary to the church's rule; their baptism is “strange water” that sweeps people back into the sea of paganism.
• Miscellanies 1.21.146Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Basilidians celebrate Christ's baptism on 15 or 11 Tybi and date his passion variously; Clement applies Daniel's 2,300 days to the years from Nero's desecration to the fall of Jerusalem.
• Miscellanies 2.13.56Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Those forgiven must sin no more; the first repentance cleanses the life of ignorance; but the Lord foresaw human weakness and the devil's jealous schemes against the forgiven.
• Miscellanies 2.13.57Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · God in mercy allows one second repentance after baptism for those overcome by temptation; but repeated repentance followed by the same sins is no better than unbelief, since such a person sins knowingly.
• Miscellanies 2.13.58Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Converts receive forgiveness once in baptism; one who sins afterward and repents may be pardoned but should feel shame, since there is no second washing; the reborn must abandon their old works, not repent of the same sin again and again.
• Miscellanies 2.3.11Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · If faith were a natural gift, there would be no praise or blame, no repentance, no baptism, no need of the Son or the Father: salvation rests on voluntary faith.
• Miscellanies 2.8.38Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Clement presses dilemmas against Basilides and Valentinus: if ignorance is good, baptism is needless; if evil, evil causes the best things; and the angels' plot against Adam fails on every account of what they knew.
• Miscellanies 2.9.44Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Hermas says the apostles, after death, preached to the righteous dead and gave them the seal of baptism, so that they too were built into the tower; Gentiles who keep the law by nature are a law to themselves.
• Miscellanies 3.11.75Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Peter urges Christians as exiles to abstain from fleshly desires and not use freedom as a cover for evil; Paul teaches that those who died to sin cannot live in it.
• Miscellanies 3.12.82Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul's “come together again” prevents temptation; Christ, the same Lord of law and gospel, replaced polygamy with monogamy; second marriage after a spouse's death is permitted but falls short of the gospel's perfection; baptism replaces the law's washings after intercourse.
• Miscellanies 3.12.83Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The law's washing after emission of seed foreshadowed baptismal rebirth without condemning birth; marriage is not merely of the old law, for the same God gave law and gospel, and what God joined man may not separate.
• Miscellanies 3.12.88Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · We become children again, reborn through water; the married too may care for the Lord's things, and both wife and virgin are holy in the Lord; Paul speaks sternly to restrain those inclined to a second marriage.
• Miscellanies 3.18.109Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · To the pure all things are pure; Paul lists those excluded from the kingdom, from which believers were washed; the libertines “baptize” into immorality under the name of false knowledge; Christians should think on what is true and pure.
• Miscellanies 3.5.43Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Those led by passion cannot know God, and conduct reveals ignorance of him; Paul tells believers, circumcised in Christ and raised with him, to seek things above and put to death sexual immorality and evil desire.
• Miscellanies 3.8.62Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · All must appear before Christ's judgment for deeds done in the body; in Christ one is a new creation, washed from the old life; righteousness has no fellowship with lawlessness, so we must cleanse ourselves in holiness.
• Miscellanies 4.16.101Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul's contentment in plenty and want is the knower's rule; Hebrews recalls believers who, after enlightenment, joyfully endured suffering and loss of goods, and urges endurance and faith.
• Miscellanies 4.20.126Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Marriage conducted according to reason, in faith, with hearts cleansed and bodies washed in baptism, is sanctified; a good marriage is judged by virtue, not wealth or beauty; the wife is God's gift to the husband as a helper.
• Miscellanies 4.22.142Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Outward washing before prayer symbolizes inner purity, holy thought; the image of baptism passed from Moses to the poets, as in Homer's Penelope and Telemachus; true purity is of mind, deeds, words, and even dreams.
• Miscellanies 4.24.153Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · What rests with us is choosing between opposites, such as believing or not; God forgives sins before faith, all of them, not only involuntary ones as Basilides held; punishment aims at preventing future sin, not undoing the past.
• Miscellanies 4.24.154Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · God disciplines to improve the sinner, warn others, and protect the wronged; correction is by teaching or by punishment; sins before baptism are forgiven, those after are cleansed by discipline; unbelievers are like chaff.
• Miscellanies 4.25.160Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Job's “naked I shall depart” means leaving free of sin, as Christ calls us to become like children, pure as when born of the womb of water in baptism; the lamp of the ungodly will be quenched.
• Miscellanies 5.2.15Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Plato speaks of the love that begets like, and of teachers begetting pupils, as Christians call instruction rebirth and Paul begot the Corinthians in Christ; Empedocles speaks of Love, and Parmenides of seeing absent things with the mind.
• Miscellanies 5.6.39Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The oracle signifies prophecy and judgment by the Word; the robe the incarnation; the high priest changing garments on the Day of Atonement signifies the knower rising beyond the baptized faithful, cleansed no longer by water but by the Word of knowledge.
• Miscellanies 5.8.55Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The law and prophets were types until John, who, pointing to Christ, confessed himself unworthy to loose his sandal, that is, to baptize with his power, and so loosed the meaning of the prophecies; Roman will ceremonies are also symbolic.
• Miscellanies 6.14.109Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The believer must put off the passions; knowing is more than believing, and the one who sinned after baptism bears the pain of seeing others receive what he lacks, a grief that remains even when purifying punishments end.
• On Idolatry 6Tertullian · ca. 196–211 · Even apart from the law, the baptismal renunciation of the devil forbids making idols; one who makes them for others to worship offers them his own soul.
• On the Shows 24Tertullian · ca. 197–202 · The shows belong to the devil's pomp renounced at baptism, and even pagans recognize a Christian by his refusal to attend them; to go back is to desert to the enemy.
• On the Shows 4Tertullian · ca. 197–202 · At baptism Christians renounce the devil, his pomp, and his angels, and since the shows are bound up with idolatry, that vow covers them too.
• On Baptism 1Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Tertullian 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.
• On Baptism 10Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · John'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.
• On Baptism 11Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Christ did not baptize with his own hands; his disciples baptized with John's baptism, since Christian baptism depended on his passion and resurrection.
• On Baptism 12Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Tertullian 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.
• On Baptism 13Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Though Abraham was saved by faith alone, after Christ's resurrection faith is bound to baptism, which Christ commanded, as Paul's own baptism shows.
• On Baptism 14Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Paul's statement that Christ did not send him to baptize was aimed at factions in Corinth, not against baptism, for Paul himself baptized.
• On Baptism 15Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · There is only one baptism, given once; heretics, who do not share the same God and Christ, do not have true baptism.
• On Baptism 16Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Martyrdom 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.
• On Baptism 17Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Bishops, 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.
• On Baptism 18Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Baptism 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.
• On Baptism 19Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Easter and the fifty days to Pentecost are the most fitting times for baptism, though any day is suitable.
• On Baptism 2Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Unbelievers 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.
• On Baptism 20Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Candidates 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.
• On Baptism 3Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Water 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.
• On Baptism 4Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The 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.
• On Baptism 5Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Pagan 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.
• On Baptism 6Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Baptism 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.
• On Baptism 7Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · After baptism the newly baptized are anointed, as priests were in the Old Testament and as Christ, the Anointed, was anointed with the Spirit.
• On Baptism 8Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · After 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.
• On Baptism 9Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The 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.
• On Prayer 13Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · What matters in prayer is a clean spirit and hands clean of sin, not ritual handwashing, which some practice in imitation of Pilate.
• On Repentance 12Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The fires of volcanoes foreshadow Gehenna; since exomologesis is the second remedy after baptism, the sinner should use it, like Nebuchadnezzar, and not reject it, like Pharaoh.
• On Repentance 2Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · God himself instituted repentance after Adam's fall, calling Israel to it through the prophets and John the Baptist, so that the heart might be cleansed for salvation; it belongs to sins only, never to good deeds.
• On Repentance 5Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Repentance once made must not be undone by returning to sin: this is contempt and ingratitude toward God and a triumph for the devil; nor may anyone claim that inward fear of God excuses outward sin.
• On Repentance 6Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Catechumens must not put off repentance, presuming on baptism to wash away sins committed meanwhile; true repentance must come before baptism, which seals a faith already changed.
• On Repentance 7Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · After baptism, God has left open one further repentance for grave sin, but only once; the sinner should not abuse it, nor despair, but gratefully accept the remedy.
• Prescription against Heretics 20Tertullian · ca. 203 · Christ sent the apostles, who founded churches in every city; all later churches derive from these and so are apostolic, united in peace, brotherhood, and hospitality by the one tradition.
• Prescription against Heretics 29Tertullian · ca. 203 · If the church had erred until the heretics came, all its baptisms, gifts, ministries, and martyrdoms would have been in vain; but truth comes before its copies, and the true doctrine foretold the heresies.
• Prescription against Heretics 36Tertullian · ca. 203 · Anyone may visit the apostolic churches, such as Corinth, Philippi, Ephesus, and Rome, where the apostles taught and died; Rome's faith, shared with Africa, is the one from which the heresies broke away.
• Prescription against Heretics 40Tertullian · ca. 203 · The devil imitates Christian sacraments in pagan mysteries, as in Mithraism, and likewise twists Scripture into heresy, which is a kind of idolatry.
• Prescription against Heretics 41Tertullian · ca. 203 · Heretics live without discipline: no distinction between catechumens and believers, women who teach and baptize, and careless, shifting ordinations.
• Against Marcion 1.14Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Even tiny creatures show the Creator's skill; Marcion's own Christ loved the Creator's man and uses the Creator's water, oil, milk, honey, and bread in his sacraments, and the Marcionites themselves live on the Creator's world.
• Against Marcion 1.28Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion's god hands sinners over to the Creator's fire, and his baptism makes no sense: he forgives sins he never charged, frees from a death he never imposed, and washes flesh he will not save.
• Against Marcion 1.29Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion baptized only the celibate and those who divorced, condemning marriage; Tertullian answers that marriage is good, blessed by the Creator, and that celibacy is better only as a free choice, while abolishing marriage would destroy both holiness and the human race.
• Against Marcion 3.12Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ fulfills the name Emmanuel in its meaning, “God with us,” which is what Christians, even Marcionites, confess him to be.
• Against Marcion 4.11Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The call of Levi, the question of fasting, Christ as bridegroom, and the sayings on new wine and patches all show Christ fulfilling the Creator's law and prophets, not separating from a foreign god.
• Against Marcion 4.9Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The call of fishermen fulfills Jeremiah; Christ's cleansing of the leper and his command to show himself to the priest confirm the law, as Elisha's cure of Naaman prefigured.
• Against Marcion 5.10Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Paul's arguments against those who denied the resurrection, his analogies of seed and body, the first and last Adam, and the change of the flesh at the end all assume the resurrection of the body, which Marcion denies.
• Against Praxeas 26Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · The other Gospels confirm that Christ is the Son: the angel announces the Spirit and power of the Most High coming upon Mary, and Jesus throughout speaks of the Father as another, ending with baptism into three names, by triple immersion.
• Refutation of All Heresies 10.21.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Christ descended on Jesus at baptism and left him at the passion.
• Refutation of All Heresies 10.23.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Theodotus held that the Christ descended at baptism and that Christ is not God.
• Refutation of All Heresies 10.29.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Elchasaites use incantations, baptisms invoking the elements, astrology, and magic.
• Refutation of All Heresies 10.34.5Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus closes: Christ, the God over all, washes away sin and renews humanity; whoever obeys and imitates him will be made like him, a god by grace for his glory.
• Refutation of All Heresies 5.7.19Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · They claim Paul's words hide their mystery, and that their baptism brings unfading pleasure.
• Refutation of All Heresies 5.7.40Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · They distinguish mortal fleshly birth from immortal spiritual birth of water and spirit.
• Refutation of All Heresies 6.41.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Marcus's followers promise a second rite after baptism, called redemption,
• Refutation of All Heresies 6.41.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · They use the promise of a second forgiveness, and further promises, to keep their followers bound to them.
• Refutation of All Heresies 6.42.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Irenaeus exposed these rites, which some deny; Hippolytus has inquired carefully into their two washings.
• Refutation of All Heresies 7.33.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · For Cerinthus the Christ descended on Jesus at his baptism and left him before the passion.
• Refutation of All Heresies 7.35.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Theodotus held that Jesus, a man born of a virgin, received the Christ-Spirit at his baptism; his followers differed on whether he ever became God.
• Refutation of All Heresies 8.10.7Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · At his baptism Jesus received a copy of his body in the water, so that at the cross his soul, stripping off the flesh, would not be found naked.
• Refutation of All Heresies 8.10.8Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Docetae read John 3:5–6 as the water-body of baptism, and Jesus' thirty years as the thirty Aeons.
• Refutation of All Heresies 9.12.26Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Under Callistus a second baptism was introduced, and his community, which admitted all to communion, took the name Callistians.
• Refutation of All Heresies 9.13.4Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The book proclaimed a new forgiveness of sins through a further baptism, dated to Trajan's third year (about AD 100), which Hippolytus links to Callistus's laxity.
• Refutation of All Heresies 9.15.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The book of Elchasai offers a second baptism for forgiveness to anyone guilty of sexual sins, once they hear the book.
• Refutation of All Heresies 9.15.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The baptized must call seven witnesses, heaven, water, holy spirits, angels of prayer, oil, salt, and earth; Hippolytus mocks these “mysteries.”
• Refutation of All Heresies 9.15.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The book calls adulterers and false prophets to a second baptism in their clothes.
• Refutation of All Heresies 9.15.4Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · For a rabid dog's bite the book prescribes immediate immersion in a river or spring, fully clothed.
• Refutation of All Heresies 9.15.5Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The bitten person prays and invokes the seven witnesses.
• Refutation of All Heresies 9.15.6Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · He vows before the seven witnesses to avoid sin and is baptized in his clothes.
• Refutation of All Heresies 9.16.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The book prescribes repeated cold baths for the sick and possessed, and teaches that some stars are evil.
• Refutation of All Heresies 9.16.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The book warns against beginning work or baptizing on days ruled by evil stars.
• On Prayer 2.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · The mind cannot pray rightly unless the Spirit prays first; so a disciple, though trained in Jewish prayer, asked Jesus to teach them to pray as John had.
• On Prayer 27.12Origen · ca. 233–234 · Christ is food that makes us sons of God, while those who feed on the devil become like serpents; Peter's vision shows that the clean and unclean animals signify kinds of people, all of whom God can cleanse.
• Exhortation to Martyrdom 17Origen · 235 · At their instruction and baptism believers chose to serve the Lord and renounced Satan; to deny now is to break a covenant with God himself.
• Exhortation to Martyrdom 30Origen · 235 · Since baptism cannot be repeated, martyrdom is a second baptism; the souls of martyrs at the heavenly altar minister forgiveness to those who pray, as priests offering themselves.
• Exhortation to Martyrdom 37Origen · 235 · Christ's sword and fire divide the heavenly from the earthly in us; Ambrose must “hate” wife, children, and his own life, in the Gospel's sense, so as to gain them for eternity.
• Exhortation to Martyrdom 39Origen · 235 · Christians hated by the world should endure to the end, not love the passing world, and see that they may have been spared for a martyr's baptism in their own blood.
• On the Trinity 10Novatian · ca. 240–250 · The heretics' Christ, who rejects the Old Testament and comes only in appearance, is a fiction; the true Christ took real flesh from Mary, died, and rose in that body as the pattern of our resurrection.
• On the Trinity 29Novatian · ca. 240–250 · The rule of faith next requires belief in the Holy Spirit, promised by the prophets and given by Christ, who adorns the church with gifts, gives the new birth in baptism, sanctifies believers, and guards the church's truth.
• Against Celsus 1.41Origen · ca. 248 · Origen will answer Celsus point by point in Celsus's order; the Jew mocks the dove at Jesus' baptism and asks who witnessed it.
• Against Celsus 1.44Origen · ca. 248 · The same Spirit that taught Moses about events before his time taught the evangelists about Jesus' baptism; the deeper meaning of the dove is left for another occasion.
• Against Celsus 1.46Origen · ca. 248 · The Spirit who came on Jesus at his baptism still works among Christians in exorcisms, healings, prophecies, and sudden conversions; Isaiah foretold that the Father would send both Christ and the Spirit.
• Against Celsus 1.47Origen · ca. 248 · Josephus confirms that John was a baptizer and links the fall of Jerusalem to the killing of James, the Lord's brother—more reasonably it was because of Jesus himself.
• Against Celsus 1.48Origen · ca. 248 · The prophets' visions and Jesus' opened heavens are perceived by a spiritual "divine sense," not the bodily senses; and Jesus did not boast of his own baptismal vision, which John witnessed.
• Against Celsus 2.69Origen · ca. 248 · Origen explains that Jesus' death and burial carry symbolic meaning for believers, who die and are buried with him in baptism, that his new rock-hewn tomb signifies his purity, and that vanishing from the cross would only have drawn other objections.
• Against Celsus 3.51Origen · ca. 248 · Unlike philosophers who preach to anyone, Christians examine and instruct inquirers before admitting them, expel the immoral, readmit the penitent only after a long probation, and bar the lapsed from church office.
• Against Celsus 3.59Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus mocks Christians for inviting sinners, unlike the pagan mysteries; Origen answers that the sick are first called to healing, and only those purified are then initiated into the deeper mysteries.
• Against Celsus 3.60Origen · ca. 248 · Origen adapts the formulas of the mysteries: those with clean hands, wise speech, and a long-purified soul are admitted to Christianity's deeper mysteries, while the wicked are first called to healing.
• Against Celsus 6.27Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus invents a rite of the Christian “seal” and says Christians call the Creator accursed; Origen rejects this as slander like the old tales of child-eating and orgies spread about Christians.
• Against Celsus 7.51Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus ignores the distinction between the spirit given to all and the fuller gift of the Holy Spirit; Christians, seeing with the soul's eyes, pray to guide the blind to the Word and be light to the world.
• To Donatus 14Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 246 · True security is found only in God's free gift, which lifts a person above the world.
• To Donatus 15Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 246 · Donatus should pray and read Scripture, adorning his soul, the temple of the Holy Spirit, which will last into the resurrection.
• To Donatus 3Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 246 · Before his baptism Cyprian could not believe that a person could be reborn and leave behind ingrained habits.
• To Donatus 4Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 246 · At baptism Cyprian was cleansed and reborn by the Spirit, and what had seemed impossible became possible, all by God's gift.
• To Donatus 5Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 246 · God's Spirit is given without measure to those who remain faithful, and gives power to heal and to drive out demons.
• On the Lord's Prayer 12Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · 'Hallowed be your name' asks that we, sanctified in baptism, may stay holy.
• On the Lord's Prayer 17Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · 'On earth as in heaven' can also mean praying that unbelievers too may be reborn and become heavenly.
• On the Lord's Prayer 9Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · The reborn believer calls God 'Father' because by faith he has become God's son, and he has only one Father in heaven.
• On the Lapsed 24Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Cyprian tells of a man struck dumb after denying Christ and a woman who, possessed after sacrificing, bit her own tongue and died.
• On the Lapsed 8Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Many rushed to sacrifice voluntarily, without waiting to be arrested or questioned, and so destroyed their own salvation at the idols' altars.
• On the Lapsed 9Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Some lapsed Christians drew others into sacrificing, even their baptized infants, who will accuse their parents at the judgment.
• On the Unity of the Catholic Church 11Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Like the false prophets and broken cisterns in Jeremiah, schismatics offer a baptism that does not cleanse but defiles.