Monday, May 30, 2022

Joseph Ysebaert on "Water" being used as a Synonym for "Baptism"

  

The water.—From a term used for the baptismal water the noun υδωρ developed to a certain extent into a name for baptism itself. This development is indicated in the New Testament. When the Spirit descends upon the family of Cornelius, Peter says that one cannot all the same refuse them ‘the water’: μήτι τὸ ὕδωρ δύναται κωλῦσαί τις τοῦ μὴ βαπτισθῆναι τούτου. Pseudo-Barnabas now intends to examine what the Lord has revealed concerning the water and the cross: περι του υδατος και περι του σταυρου Ep. 11.1. Hermas calls the seal the water in order to say that it is conferred in baptism: η σφραγις ουν το υδωρ εστιν Past. 93.4, and alludes to baptism as the water: η ζωη υμων δια υδατος εσωθη και σωθησεται ib. 11.5, cf. 32.1. The term becomes more technical when it is said that Paul promises the water to Thecla: ληψη το υδωρ Act. Paul. Thecl. 25. Origen says that one does not always receive the Holy Spirit after the water: πνευματος . . . ου πασιν μετα το υδωρ εγγινομενου In Jo. 6.33.169. From Tertullian onwards the same development of aqua is found in Latin: de sacramento aquae nostrae Bapt. 1.1, cf. Paen. 6.18, Pass. Perp. 3.5. (Joseph Ysebaert, Greek Baptismal Terminology: Its Origins and Early Development [trans. M. F. Foran Hedlund; Nijmegen, The Netherlands: Dekker and Van De Vegt N.V., 1962], 77-78)