Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Excerpts Relating to Baptism in the Demonstrations of Aphrahat (Aphraates)

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)