Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The earliest explicit reference to baptism by affusion occurs in the Didache (c. AD 100), the seventh chapter of which gives instructions on how to baptize, which include affusion: …But if you have no living water, baptize into other water; and if you cannot do so in cold water, do so in warm.
Gundry notes the emphasis the author of Matthew gives to how quickly Jesus gets out of water of the Jordan.An emphasis not found in Mark or Luke. Gundry believes this is because the baptism would traditionally have been followed by a confessing of sins and the author of Matthew wanted to be clear that Jesus, who had no sins, did not undergo this part of the ritual.
In the West, baptism by aspersion and affusion slowly became the common practice in later centuries. In aspersion, an aspergillum may be used to place the water on the skin. The Roman Catholic Church regards baptism by aspersion as valid only if the water actually flows on the person's skin and is thus equivalent to pouring ("affusion"). [1]
The passages that comprise John 4:10–26 are sometimes referred to as the Water of Life Discourse. [4] These references in the Gospel of John are also interpreted as the Water of Life. [3] The term is also used when water is poured during Baptismal prayers, praying for the Holy Spirit, e.g., "Give it the power to become water of life". [5] [6]
One of the earliest of the Church Fathers to enunciate clearly and unambiguously the doctrine of baptismal regeneration ("the idea that salvation happens at and by water baptism duly administered") was Cyprian (c. 200 – 258): "While he attributed all the saving energy to the grace of God, he considered the 'laver of saving water' the instrument of God that makes a person 'born again ...
Although the term "baptism" is not today used to describe the Jewish rituals (in contrast to New Testament times, when the Greek word baptismos did indicate Jewish ablutions or rites of purification), [1] [2] the purification rites (or mikvah—ritual immersion) in Jewish law and tradition are similar to baptism, and the two have been linked.
Godescalc Evangelistary, commemorating the Baptism of Charlemagne's son in Rome in 781 with an image of the Fountain of Life.. The Fountain of Life, or in its earlier form the Fountain of Living Waters, is a Christian iconography symbol associated with baptism and/or eucharist, first appearing in the 5th century in illuminated manuscripts and later in other art forms such as panel paintings.
In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads: I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: The New International Version translates the passage as: "I baptize you with water for repentance.