Thursday, August 15, 2024

John E. Colwell on Baptism and Re-baptism in the New Testament

  

This link between water baptism and the eschatological outpouring of the Spirit occurs, at least negatively, in the narrative of John’s baptism; it is he who first contrasts a baptism with water for repentance and a baptism of the Holy Spirit effected by the one who comes after him (Matthew 3:11). Notwithstanding this explicit contrast, there has been much debate concerning whether John’s baptism might properly be identified as Christian baptism. In the first place (and most strikingly) Luke employs precisely the same phraseology to describe John’s baptism (Luke 3:3) as he later employs on the lips of Peter (Acts 2:38): both are described as a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (εἰς ἄφεσιν [τῶν] ἁμαρτιῶν). Secondly there is no record of any of the disciples of Jesus being re-baptised. And thirdly there is the enigmatic reference in John’s Gospel to the disciples of Jesus baptising during his earthly ministry, a reference rendered the more extraordinary given the Gospel’s unequivocal denial of the Spirit’s outpouring prior to Christ’s exaltation.10 But, on the other hand, John the Baptist is unequivocally portrayed in the Gospels as the herald of the Christ; one who prepares the way for the Christ; the last of the ‘old’ rather than the first of the ‘new’. Perhaps John’s baptism should be understood as anticipative of Christian baptism inasmuch as, within the context of John’s proclamation, it was a baptism into the coming Christ. This may be the reason underlying Paul’s ‘re-baptism’ of disciples in Ephesus: on the basis of the surrounding narrative it would appear that they had received John’s baptism without hearing John’s message (Acts 19:1ff.). (John E. Colwell, Promise and Presence: An Exploration of Sacramental Theology [Waynesboro, Ga.: Paternoster, 2005], 111–112)

 

 

 

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