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Sahidic |
Arabic |
Ethiopic |
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If a catechumen (κατηχουμενος)
is arrested for the name of the Lord, he is not to be double-minded
concerning the testimony. For (γαρ) if it happens and they act violently
against him and kill him during the forgiveness of sins, he will be
justified, for (γαρ) he received baptism (βαπτισμα) in his own blood. |
If they arrest a catechumen for
the sake of the Lord, let him not be double-minded concerning martyrdom. If
he is wronged and killed before gaining forgiveness of his sins, he will be
vindicated because he will have been baptized in his own blood. |
If they arrest a catechumen on
account of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, he is not to be double-hearted
about the testimony. For if they overpower him and harm him and kill him
before he receives baptism for the forgiveness of his sin, he is justified
because he was baptized by his own blood. |
. . .
References to baptism by martyrdom or blood do occur
in some third-century documents. Tertullian (De bapt. 16) refers to a
"baptism by blood," but it is by no means clear whether martyrdom is
intended there. More obviously parallel is the description of the death of
Saturus in the famous Passion of St. Perpetua (21.2; see also 18.3),
sometimes ascribed to Tertullian himself: "And immediately at the
conclusion of the exhibition he was thrown to the leopard; and with one bite of
his he was bathed with such a quantity of blood, that the people shouted out to
him as he was returning, the testimony of his second baptism, 'Saved and
washed, saved and washed."' Other references come from the mid-third century
in the context of the Decian persecution. Cyprian writes that catechumens who
suffer martyrdom before they have received baptism with water "are not deprived
of the sacrament of baptism. Rather, they are baptized with the most glorious
and greatest baptism of blood, concerning which the Lord said that he
had another baptism with which he himself was to be baptized. " In a
similar way Origen writes in his Exhortation to Martyrdom 30: "Let
us also remember the sins that we have committed, and that it is impossible to
receive forgiveness of sins apart from baptism, that it is impossible according
to the laws of the Gospel to be baptized again with water and the Spirit for
the forgiveness of sins, and that the baptism of martyrdom has been
given to us." (Paul F. Bradshaw, Maxwell E.
Johnson, and L. Edward Phillips, The Apostolic Tradition: A Commentary
[Hermeneia—A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible; Minneapolis:
Fortress Press, 2002], 102, 103)