In Homily on Luke 14.5 (on Luke 2:21-24) Origen wrote the following:
Thus,
it was fitting that those offerings that, according to the law, customarily
cleanse stain, should be made. They were made for our Lord and Savior, who had
been "clothed with stained garments" and had taken on an earthly
body. Christian brethren often ask a question. The passage from Scripture read
today encourages me to treat it again. Little children are baptized "for
the remission of sins." Whose sins are they? When did they sin? Or how can
this explanation of the baptismal washing be maintained in the case of small
children, except according to the interpretation we spoke of a little earlier?
"No man is clean of stain, not even if his life upon the earth had lasted
but a single day." Through the mystery of Baptism, the stains of birth are
put aside. For this reason, even small children are baptized. For, "unless
a man be born again of water and spirit, he will not be able to enter into the
kingdom of heaven(Origen, Homilies on Luke [The Fathers of the Church
94; trans. Joseph T. Lienhard; Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of
America Press, 2009], 58-59)
Stander and Louw offered the
following commentary on Origen’s understanding of John 3:5 in the above text:
Origen
wrote in the context of the idea of original sin being removed by baptism and
he therefore understood the phrase ‘born of water’ as referring to baptism,
instead of to ‘natural birth’ in contrast to ‘spiritual birth’, which is the
issue in John 3:5 as is clearly stated in John 3:6. (Hendrick F. Stander and
Johannes P. Louw, Baptism in the Early Church [rev ed.; Leeds:
Reformation Today Trust, 2004], 94 n. 1)
While it is true that Origen did
teach infant baptism, what informed this belief was clearly belief in baptismal
regeneration.
