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T h e F a t h e r s K n o w B e s t
METHODS OF BAPTISM
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This Rock
Volume 4, Number 6
 June 1993 
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THE early Church admitted three valid methods
of baptism: immersion, sprinkling, and pouring. But the Church admitted
only one valid set of baptismal words, the Trinitarian. It wasn't
enough to baptize only in the name of Jesus.
The Didache
"After the foregoing instructions, baptize in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in
living [running] water. If you have no living water, then baptize
in other water, and if you are not able in cold, then in warm. If
you have neither, pour water three times on the head, in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Before baptism,
let the one baptizing and the one to be baptized fast, as also any
others who are able. Command the one who is to be baptized to fast
beforehand for one or two days" (Didache 7:1 [ca. A.D.
70]).
Tertullian
"When we are about to enter the water - no,
just a little before - in the church and under the hand of the
bishop, we solemnly profess that we renounce the devil and his pomps
and his angels. Thereupon we are immersed three times" (The
Crown 3:2 [A.D. 211]).
Hippolytus
"At dawn a prayer shall be offered over the water.
. . . Baptize first the children, and, if they can speak for themselves,
let them do so. Otherwise let their parents or other relatives speak
for them. Next baptize the men, and last of all the women. . . .
The presbyter then takes hold of each of those to be baptized and
commands him to renounce, saying: 'I renounce you, Satan, and all
your servants and all your works.' When he has renounced all these
the presbyter shall anoint him with the oil of exorcism, saying: 'Let
all spirits flee far away from you.' . . . Let them stand naked in
the water. When the one being baptized goes down into the water, the
one baptizing him shall put his hand on him and speak thus: 'Do you
believe in God, the Father Almighty?' And he that is being baptized
shall say: 'I believe.' Then, having his hand imposed upon the head
of the one to be baptized, he shall baptize him once. Then he shall
say: 'Do you believe in Christ Jesus . . . ?' And when he says: 'I
believe,' he is baptized again. Again shall he say: 'Do you believe
in the Holy Spirit and the holy Church and the resurrection of the
flesh?' The one being baptized then says: 'I believe.' And so he is
baptized a third time. Afterward, when he has come out, he is anointed
with the consecrated oil, and the presbyter says, 'I anoint you with
the holy oil in the name of Jesus Christ.' And so each one then dries
himself, and immediately they put on their clothes. Then they come
into the Church" (Apostolic Tradition 21 [ca. A.D. 215]).
Origen
"Why, when the Lord himself told his disciples
that they should baptize all peoples in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, does this apostle employ the name
of Christ alone in baptism, saying, 'We who have been baptized into
Christ'; for indeed, legitimate baptism is had only in the name of
the Trinity" (Commentary on Romans 5:8 [ca. A.D. 250]).
Origen
"The Church received from the apostles the tradition
of giving baptism even to infants. The apostles, to whom were committed
the secrets of divine mysteries, knew that there is in everyone the
innate stain of sin, which must be washed away through water and the
Spirit" (Ibid. 5:9).
Cornelius I
"As [the heretic Novatian] seemed about to die,
he received baptism in the bed where he lay, by pouring. . . . And
when he recovered from his illness he did not receive the other things
which, in accord with the law of the Church, it is necessary to have,
nor was he sealed by the bishop" (Letter to Fabius of Antioch
6:43 [A.D. 251]).
Cyprian
"You have asked also, dearest son, what I thought
about those who obtain the grace of God while they are weakened by
illness - whether or not they are to be reckoned as legitimate
Christians who have not been bathed with the saving water, but have
had it poured over them. . . . I think that the divine benefits can
in no way be weakened or mutilated, nor can anything less take place
in that case, where that which is drawn from the divine gifts is accepted
with full and entire faith both on the part of the giver and the receiver.
. . . In the saving sacraments, when necessity compels and when God
bestows his pardon, divine benefits are bestowed fully upon believers,
nor ought anyone be disturbed because the sick are poured upon or
sprinkled when they receive the Lord's grace" [Letter to
a Certain Magnus 69(76):12 [A.D. 254]).
Cyprian
"He commanded them to baptize the Gentiles in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. How
then do some say that though a Gentile be baptized . . . never mind
how or of whom, so long as it be done in the name of Jesus Christ,
the remission of sins can follow - when Christ himself commands
the nations to be baptized in the full and united Trinity?" (Letter
to Jubianus 73:18 [A.D. 255]).
Cyril of Jerusalem
"You were led by the hand to the holy pool of
divine baptism, as Christ was carried from the cross to this sepulcher
here before us [in the Chapel of the Resurrection in Jerusalem]. And
each of you was asked if he believed in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And you confessed that saving
confession, and descended three times into the water, and again ascended,
and in this there was suggested by a symbol the three days of Christ's
burial" [Catechetical Lectures 20:4 [ca. A.D. 350]).
Basil
Let no one be misled by the fact that the apostle
[Paul] frequently omits the name of the Father and of the Holy Spirit
when mentioning baptism, nor let anyone suppose that the invocation
of the names is a matter of indifference. . . . The naming of Christ,
you see, is the confession of the whole; it speaks the God who anoints,
the Son who is anointed, and the Spirit who is the anointing. . .
. If, then, in baptism the separation of the Spirit from the Father
and the Son is perilous to the one baptizing and useless to the one
receiving, how can it be safe for us to separate the Spirit from the
Father and the Son? . . . So too then are we baptized in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (The
Holy Spirit 12:28 [A.D. 375]).
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