We read in the New Testament gospels of the “baptism of John,” spoken of quite specifically, with Jesus and his core original followers all joining that movement through baptism (Mark 27-33; Acts 1:21-22)–but then also the “one” baptism “into Christ” that Paul administers–which in fact makes one “united” with the heavenly Christ and part of his mystical “body” (1 Corinthians 1:14-17; Romans 6:1-4). And then there is the Triune baptism “into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” that is tacked onto Matthew’s gospel at the end, that became a standard formulation in later Christian tradition(Matthew 28:19-20). And one could add others–including the tradition of the three dippings rather than one, and other variations (Didache 7.) Here is a short video interview I did recently with Derek Lambert on this complex and fascinating topic:
Related Articles
Comments are closed.