Based on John 3:3-5:
A
Jewish elder, eminent in rank,
approached Christ in dark night and softly spoke:
“There is no doubt that God’s abundant will
has granted it to you, o blessed one,
to rise up as a light for all mankind.
No one would grant such miracles unless
the present strength of God bade him to shine.”
Christ said, “If you seek out the just path’s peak,
know that no one will rise to the high realm
unless he has been born a second time
and wins new life from a gift that is divine.”
Stunned at such lofty words, the main replied,
“This is not something I can understand.
Who will again call back the start of life?
Or will an old man crawl into the womb
once more to come anew into the world?”
Christ said, “If someone takes a tender form,
reborn from the clear spring and Holy Spirit,
he will rise up, now free, to heaven’s halls.
Earthly bodies are born from earthly bodies,
just so, the Spirit generates like breath. (Gaius Vettius Aquilinus Juvencus,
Evangeliorum Libri Quattuor, 2.177-197, in Juvencus’ Four Books of the
Gospels: Evangeliorum Libri Quattuor [trans. Scott McGill; London:
Routledge, 2016], 58-59)
Based on Matt 28:19:
The
brilliant Jesus spoke to his disciples:
“My Father placed all heaven and all earth
neath me; he deigned to send me as your light.
Just so, I send you all the nations now;
it is your task to join them all to me.
Go forth and baptize men in cleansing drafts
in the holy name of Father and of Son,
with the life-giving Spirit by their side. (ELQ 4.790-797 in ibid., 112)
The translator, McBride, offers the following note concerning the formula for baptism making reference to "life giving Spirit":
“Life-giving”
is vivificus. Cf. 2 Cor 3:6 (Spiritus autem vivificat) and 1 Pt
3:18 (vivificatus autem spiritu). Spiritus Sanctus vivifacans also
appears in the revised text of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381. With
partier (by their side), Juvencus shows concern with presenting the Holy
Spirit as a member of the Trinity, even as he does not say that the disciples
should baptize in the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, which distinguishes
hm from Mt. 28:19. (Ibid., 271 n. 797)
