Friday, December 31, 2021

The theology of baptism in Ephrem the Syrian (306-373) vs. Feeneyism

In his commentary on Tatian's Diatessaron, it appears that Ephrem the Syrian (306-373) believed one would appropriate the saving graces of water baptism, in extraordinary instances, through other means than literal water baptism. In his comments on the "baptism" of the apostles, we read:


The disciples were baptizing, because they [themselves] had been baptized. They would not have been able to baptize others if they [themselves] had not been baptized. The meaning of this therefore is that the one who has bathed does not need anything [further]. If you wish, [you can understand] from this that they were baptized with water. And if [you can understand] from this that they were baptized with water. And if not, take note that he said to them, You are cleansed because of my word which I have spoken with you. Accept that this word was baptism for them, since baptism is rendered holy by this same word. Just as John was rendered holy by the commandment that he had received, so too he rendered holy that baptism, which had been entrusted [to him].

 

Moreover, [some] say that, when he gave them his body, this was a baptism for them. For, if they had been baptized or were baptized, but without possessing faith in his body and blood, [how] could he have first said to them, if you do not eat and drink you will not have life? When these were angry, he said to the twelve, Do you too wish to go away? Simon said to him, We believe and we know. In what did they believe, if not in that which those [others] were unable to believe – that is to say, they were not even [able] to listen to it. (Saint Ephrem's Commentary on Tatian's Diatessaron: An English Translation of Chester Beatty Syriac MS 709 with Introduction and Notes V § 15-16 [trans. Carmel McCarthy; Journal of Semitic Studies Supplement 2; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993, 2000], 101)