Friday, June 21, 2024

J. D. C. Fisher on Thecla's Self-Baptism in the Acts of Paul

  

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)