The Apocryphal Acts
contain accounts of baptisms which, however legendary, may have some bearing on
the content of the rite known to the authors. In the Acts of Paul Thecla
asks for the seal in Christ, to which St Paul replies, ‘Have patience, Thecla,
and you will receive the water’. The natural inference from this is that the
seal and water both refer to the act of baptism, unless this is the writer’s
quaint way of saying that the rite is twofold, consisting in baptism and
sealing. Again it is to be noted that the seal is called the seal in Christ and
not the seal of the Spirit.
Thecla’s own
self-baptism cannot have been accompanied by a hand-laying or anointing. But
apart from the miraculous element the circumstances of this baptism are
extraordinary in that there was no minister present to pronounce the baptismal
formula or put the baptismal interrogations. So it can hardly be used to prove
what was normal. When Thecla next met St Paul she told him that she had taken
the bath, whereupon the apostle led her into the house of Hermias and heard
everything from her. From this Lampe (p. 106) concluded that her initiation was
regarded as complete. Indeed, while St Paul could have laid his hands on her or
around her or given her communion when they were in the house, if that was
customary, there is no suggestion that he did so. But if the author was silent
about these things, he was equally silent about any gibing o the Holy Spirit to
Thecla. (J. D. C. Fisher, Confirmation: Then and Now [Alcuin Club
Collections 60; London: SPCK, 1978], 5-6)
