On Baptism 4
Summary: 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.
Latin text · CSEL 20:203–204
Sed ea satis erit praecerpsisse, in quibus et ratio baptismi recognoscitur, primum illa, qua iam tunc etiam ipso habitu praenotabant ad baptismi figuram dei spiritum, qui ab initio superuectabatur super aquas, super aquas intinctorum moraturum. sanctum autem utique super sanctum ferebatur et ab eo, quod superferebatur, id quod ferebat sanctitatem mutuabatur, quoniam subiecta quaeque materia eius, quae desuper imminet, qualitatem rapiat necesse est, maxime corporalis spiritalem et penetrare et insidere facilem per substantiae suae subtilitatem. ita de sancto sanctificata natura aquarum et ipsa sanctificare concepit. nemo dicat: numquid ipsis enim aquis tingimur, quae tunc in primordio fuerunt? non utique ipsis, nisi ex ea parte qua genus quidem unum, species uero complures. quod autem generi adtributum est, etiam in speciem redundat. ideoque nulla distinctio est, mari quis an stagno, flumine an fonte, lacu an alueo diluatur, nec quicquam refert inter eos quos Iohannes in Iordane et quos Petrus in Tiberi tinxit. nisi et ille spado, quem Philippus inter uias fortuita aqua tinxit, plus salutis aut minus retulit. igitur omnes aquae de pristina originis praerogatiua sacramentum sanctificationis consequuntur inuocato deo. superuenit enim statim spiritus de caelis et aquis superest sanctificans eas de semetipso, et ita sanctificatae uim sanctificandi combibunt. quamquam ad simplicem actum competat similitudo, ut, quoniam uice sordium delictis inquinamur, aquis abluamur. sed delicta sicut non in carne comparent, quia nemo super cutem portat maculam idololatriae aut stupri aut fraudis, ita eiusmodi in spiritu sordent, qui est auctor delicti. spiritus enim dominatur, caro famulatur. tamen utrumque inter se communicant reatum, spiritus ob imperium, caro ob ministerium. igitur medicatis quodammodo aquis per angeli interuentum et spiritus in aquis corporaliter diluitur et caro in eisdem spiritaliter mundatur.
English · Claude translation
But it will be enough to have picked out first those points in which the reason of baptism is also recognized: first, that the Spirit of God, who from the beginning was borne over the waters, was already then marked out, even by his very posture, as the figure of baptism, as one who would abide over the waters of the baptized. And the holy was, of course, borne over the holy; and from that which was borne over it, that which bore it borrowed holiness, since every underlying material must seize the quality of that which hangs over it, above all a bodily material that of a spiritual one, which easily penetrates and settles in through the subtlety of its substance. Thus the nature of the waters, sanctified by the Holy One, itself conceived the power to sanctify. Let no one say, “Are we then dipped in the very waters that existed then in the beginning?” Not the very same, of course, except in the sense that the genus is one while the species are many; and what is attributed to the genus overflows into the species too. And so it makes no difference whether one is washed in a sea or a pool, a river or a spring, a lake or a trough; nor is there any difference between those whom John dipped in the Jordan and those whom Peter dipped in the Tiber, unless that eunuch whom Philip dipped on the road in water found by chance obtained more salvation, or less. All waters, therefore, from the ancient prerogative of their origin, obtain the sacrament of sanctification when God is invoked. For the Spirit immediately comes down from heaven and rests over the waters, sanctifying them from himself; and so sanctified they drink in the power to sanctify. Although the likeness fits the simple act too: since we are defiled by sins as by dirt, we are washed with water. But just as sins do not appear on the flesh (for no one carries on his skin the stain of idolatry or of fornication or of fraud), so such things make foul the spirit, which is the author of the sin. For the spirit rules, the flesh serves. Yet both share the guilt between them: the spirit because of its command, the flesh because of its service. Therefore, when the waters have been in a manner medicated by the intervention of the angel, both the spirit is bodily washed in the waters and the flesh is spiritually cleansed in the same.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The allusions are to Gen 1:2, John's baptism in the Jordan (Matt 3:6), and Philip's baptism of the eunuch (Acts 8:36–38). Peter's baptizing in the Tiber is a tradition, not found in Scripture. “Fornication” here renders stuprum (illicit intercourse). The “angel” of baptism is developed in chs. 5–6.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip (e for c); doubled syllable in the digital text; stray letter in the digital text): aquae i de → aquae de; sanetificandi → sanctificandi; reatum tum → reatum.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Bapt. 4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-baptismo/4/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Bapt. 4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-baptismo/4/).
Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)
Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text