Sunday, October 1, 2023

Aphrahat on John’s Baptism

  

Understand, then, friend, that the baptism of John had no value for the remission of sins, but only for repentance. (Aphrahat, Demonstrations 12.10, in Thomas M. Finn, Early Christian Baptism and the Catechumenate: West and East Syria [Message of the Fathers of the Church 5; Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press, 1992], 149)