The following excerpts come from:
The Demonstrations of Aphrahat, the Persian Sage (trans.
Adam Lehto; Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies 27; Piscataway, N.J.: Gorgias
Press, 2010)
4.19
What glorious mysteries Isaiah saw
in advance! For he said to them, "Your hands are full of blood."
What is this blood which Isaiah saw in advance, if not the blood of Christ
which they took upon themselves and on their children, and the blood of the
prophets whom they killed? It is this blood that is as red as scarlet and
crimson and has marked them, and they cannot be cleansed unless they bathe in
the waters of baptism and receive the body and blood of Christ. Blood is atonement
for by the Blood and body is purified by the Body. Sins are washed away in
water, and prayer speaks with [God's] majesty. (p. 144)
5.22
Previously, Isaiah had established
men from Judah as judges for them, so that a new and cherished plantation might
be planted among them. It is these judges who will sit on twelve thrones and
judge their twelve tribes. [God] said to the judges . . . I dug out its
winepress, [which is] the baptism of the priests. . . . The winepress, the
washing away of their offences, has been thrown down. (p. 164)
6.1
Let not the one who has put on
armour at the waters [of baptism] take off his armour, or else he will be
conquered. (p. 176)
6.10
Let us remain in our natural condition, so that on the day of judgement he might make us partakers of his natural condition. Our Lord took from us a pledge and departed, and he left his own pledge with us when he ascended. (p. 186; cf. 2 Cor 1:22; 5:5; Eph 1:14)
6.14
From baptism we have received the
Spirit of Christ, for at the moment when the priests invoke the Spirit, heaven
opens and the Spirit descends and hovers over the water, and those who are
baptized put [the Spirit] on. For the Spirit stays away from all those who are
born of the flesh, until they come to the water of [re]birth, and then receive
the Holy Spirit. For in the first birth they are born with a natural spirit
which is created within a person, and is not subject to death, as it says,
"The man became a living soul." And in the second birth at
baptism, they receive the Holy Spirit from a small portion of the divinity,
which is also not subject to death. When people die, the natural spirit is
hidden with the body and sensation is taken away from it, and the heavenly
Spirit which they have received goes on to its natural condition. The apostle
has referred to both of these [spirits], for he said, "The body is
buried in a natural state but rises in a spiritual state." . . . [In
the case of] the person who receives the Spirit from the waters [of baptism]
but [then] grieves it, the Spirit departs from him before he dies and goes to
its natural condition, with Christ, and brings accusation against that person
who grieved it. (pp. 192, 193)
6.17
For as long as the Spirit is with
a person, Satan fears to come near him. Obverse, my friend, that even our Lord
who was born of the Spirit, was not tempted by Satan until he received the
Spirit in baptism from on high. Then the Spirit led him out to be tempted by
Satan. But this is the way things are for a person: in the hour in which he
perceives in his soul that he is not fervent in the Spirit and his heart is
falling into attachment to this world, let him understand that the Spirit is
not with him, and let him rise up and pray and keep vigil, so that the Spirit
might come back to him and he might not be conquered by the Adversary. For a
thief does not break into a house until he sees its owner leaving. In the same
way, Satan cannot approach this house which is the body until the Spirit of
Christ departs from it. (p. 195)
11.11
Our God is true and his covenants
are very trustworthy, and each covenant in its time was true and [able to] be
trusted. Those who are circumcized in heart live, and they are circumcized a
second time at the true Jordan, the baptism of the forgiveness of sins. (p.
274)
11.12
When he and his people crossed the
Jordan, Joshua son of Nun circumcized the people a second time with a blade of
flint. Jesus, our Saviour, circumcized a second time with the circumcision of
the heart the peoples who believed in him. They plunged into baptism and were
circumcized by the blade of his word, which is sharper than a two-edged sword.
(p. 274)
12.9
[God] said, “[As for] the
servant bought with money, first let the flesh of his foreskin be circumcized,
and then he may eat of the Passover sacrifice." The servant who is
bought represents the sinful person who repents and is bought by the blood of Christ.
When his heart has been circumcized of evil actions, he then comes to baptism,
the consummation of true circumcision, and he is joined to the people of God,
and participates in the body and blood of Christ. As for where he said "It
must be eaten quickly," this is done in the Church of God, where they
eat the lamb quickly in trembling and fear while standing on their feet,
because they hasten to eat life from the spiritual gift that they have received.
(p. 286)
Further Reading
Edward J. Duncan, Baptism in the Demonstrations of Aphraates the Persian Sage (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1945)
