On Baptism 11
Summary: Christ did not baptize with his own hands; his disciples baptized with John's baptism, since Christian baptism depended on his passion and resurrection.
Latin text · CSEL 20:210
Sed ecce, inquiunt, uenit dominus et non tinxit. legimus enim: et tamen is non tinguebat, uerum discipuli eius. quasi reuera ipsum suis manibus tincturum Iohannes praedicasset. non utique sic intellegendum est, sed simpliciter dictum more communi, sicut est uerbi gratia: imperator proposuit edictum aut praefectus fustibus cecidit: numquid ipse proponit aut numquid ipse caedit? semper is dicitur facere, cui praeministratur. ita erit accipiendum, ipse uos tinguet, pro eo quod est, per ipsum tinguemini uel in ipsum. sed ne moueat quosdam quod non ipse tinguebat. in quem enim tingueret? in paenitentiam? quo ergo illi praecursorem? in peccatorum remissionem, quam uerbo dabat? in semetipsum, quem humilitate celabat? in spiritum sanctum, qui nondum ad patrem ascenderat? in ecclesiam, quam nondum apostoli struxerant? itaque tinguebant discipuli eius ut ministri, ut Iohannes antepraecursor, eodem baptismo Iohannis, ne qui alio putet, quia nec exstat alius nisi postea Christi, qui tunc utique a discentibus dari non poterat, utpote nondum adimpleta gloria domini, nec instructa efficacia lauacri per passionem et resurrectionem, quia nec mors nostra dissolui posset nisi domini passione nec uita restitui sine resurrectione ipsius.
English · Claude translation
“But look,” they say, “the Lord came and did not dip.” For we read, “And yet he himself did not dip, but his disciples,” as though John had actually preached that he would dip with his own hands! It is certainly not to be understood so, but as said simply, in the common way of speaking, as, for example, “The emperor has posted an edict,” or “The prefect has beaten him with rods”: does he himself post it, or does he himself beat? He is always said to do a thing for whom it is done by a servant. So “He will dip you” is to be taken as meaning “You will be dipped through him,” or “into him.” But let it not disturb anyone that he himself did not dip. For into what would he have dipped? Into repentance? What then would he want with a forerunner? Into the remission of sins, which he gave by a word? Into himself, whom he was concealing by humility? Into the Holy Spirit, who had not yet come down, since he had not yet ascended to the Father? Into the church, which the apostles had not yet built? So his disciples dipped as ministers, as John the forerunner had, with the same baptism of John, lest anyone think it was with another; for there is no other except the later baptism of Christ, which could not then be given by the disciples, since the glory of the Lord was not yet fulfilled nor the efficacy of the washing established through his passion and resurrection; because neither could our death be undone except by the Lord's passion, nor life be restored without his resurrection.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotation is John 4:2; “He will dip you” is Matt 3:11. The Latin text has “the Holy Spirit, who had not yet ascended to the Father”; the translation supplies the sense (cf. ch. 10 and John 7:39, 16:7).
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Bapt. 11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-baptismo/11/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Bapt. 11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-baptismo/11/).
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