In First Apology 15, Justin Martyr wrote about there being
many,
both men and women, who have been Christ’s disciples from childhood, have
preserved their purity at the age of sixty or seventy years; and I am proud
that I could produce such from every race of men and women. (St. Justin
Martyr: The First and Second Apologies [trans. Leslie William Barnard; New
York: Paulist Press, 1997], 32)
In a note to the above, Leslie
Barnard wrote the following concerning those who think this passage is evidence
for infant baptism:
Justin’s statement is evidence for people’s
having belonged to the Church for a long period of time; cf. Polycarp’s
eighty-six years’ service of Christ (Mart.
Polyc. 9.3; Eus. H. E. 4.15.20),
Polycrates’s sixty-five years in the Lord (Eus. H. E. 5.24.7) and Papylus’ statement in the Acts of the Martyrs that he has served the Lord “from youth up” (H.
Musurillo, The Acts of the Christian
Martyrs, 26–27). None of these texts, however, state explicitly that these
Christians were baptized as children and Justin’s statement could mean no more
than that these men and women had been instructed in the Christian faith from
childhood and had grown up as members of a Christian family. J. Jeremias, Infant Baptism in the First Four Centuries
(London, 1960), 72, 83, however, holds that the men and women mentioned by
Justin were baptized “as children” between 80 and 95 c.e. Against this interpretation see K. Aland, Did the Early Church Baptize Infants?
(London, 1963), 71, 73. “Preserved their purity” (aphthoroi diamenousi) could mean “remained virgins.” This is
possible, as Justin has quoted the eunuch saying, Mt 19:11, 12, immediately
after the saying on divorce, Mt 5:32. For the practice of lifelong virginity
among Christians there is the second-century pagan account of Galen; cf. R.
Walzer, Galen on Jews and Christians
(Oxford, 1949), 15, and Athen. Leg.
33.
