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)
