Operation and indwelling of the
Spirit as distinguished from the gift of the Spirit.—In the early Christian
writers, as in the New Testament, the negative and positive effects of baptism
are ascribed to the operation of God, and in particular, of the Holy Spirit.
This is expressed by the causal dative πνευματι in Clement of Alexandria, who calls the baptismal forgiveness of
sins the work of the Spirit: οι βαπτιζομενοι, τας . . . . αμαρτιας τω θειω πνευματι . . . . αποτριψαμενοι Paed. 1.28.1, or, with reference
to Jn. 3.5, the preposition εξ
is changed to δια in the heretical interpretation
of Theodotus: το βαπτισμα ουν διπλουν . . . . το μεν αισθητον δι’ υδατος . . . . το δε νοητον δια πνευματος Exc. 81.2, by Clement: το βαπτισμα γινεται δι’ υδατος και πνευματος Ecl. 8.1, and by Origen: sordes
peccati, quae per aquam et spiritum ablui deberent In Rom 5.9. Christians
are convinced that water by itself cannot sanctify; this only becomes possible
by divine operation. Thus Ignatius perhaps intends to say that by His baptism (παθος) Jesus purified the water:
εβαπτισθη, ινα τω παθει το υδωρ καθαριση Eph. 18.2, and Cyprian clearly
states: peccata enim purgare et hominem sanctificare aqua sola non potest
nisi habeat spirtium sanctum Ep. 74.4. (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], 70)
