Scriptural Mormonism: Ignace de le Potterie, "'To Be Born Again of Water and the Spirit'

Tuesday, December 31, 2024

Ignace de le Potterie, "'To Be Born Again of Water and the Spirit'–The Baptismal Text of John 3,5"

Nevertheless, there does exist an exegetical tradition which, contrary to the preceding explanations, tends to dissociate the water and the Spirit. This tradition maintains firmly that the water designates Christian baptism; but it refers the expression "to be born of the Spirit" to faith or to the practice of the virtues. This tradition is a very old, going back to the middle of the second century. Its first witness is the Shepherd of Hermas. What it tells us about the conditions necessary for entrance into the kingdom is stated with a precision that is quite surprising, for such a distant period. The entire section of Sim. IX, 12-16, may be taken as a commentary on Jn 3, 5. Here we find cited at least eight times the words of this verse, eiselthein eis tēn basileian tou theou, in a context that is clearly baptismal. But it is, on the other hand, unusual that the first part of the verse ("Unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit") is not found anywhere: the author has replaced it with different imaginative expressions, which describe in another way what is required for entrance into the kingdom. For Hermas, these conditions are baptism and a life according to the Spirit, that is, the practice of the Christian virtues. But these conditions seem to correspond, in his writing, to the two terms of the Johannine verse, water and the Spirit, and to provide us with an explanation: it is not enough to receive baptism, one must also "be born of the Spirit," live and act according to the Spirit.

Justin is another important witness, for Jn 3:5 is about the only Johannine text to be found in his writings.14 In I Apol. 61, he describes in detail Christian initiation in its two essential movements: the catechumens must first believe in the truth of Christian teaching, promise to live according to this doctrine, and pray for the remission of their sins; then they are baptized (61, 2-3), "for Christ has said: 'Unless you are born again, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven'" (61, 4, citing Jn 3, 5). Baptism is called phōtismos, "because those who learn (manthanontōn) these things are enlightened" (61, 12) by faith. Thus, we understand clearly two passages from the Dialogue with Tryphon; in the first, he calls the race of Christians "that which has been regenerated [anagennēthentos] by him [Christ], by means of water, faith and wood (di' hydatos kai pisteōs kai xylou) which contained the mystery of the cross" (138, 2). Somewhat before this, he had called this same Christian race "that which is born of faith and the Spirit" (ton de ek pisteos kai pneumatos gegennēmenon) (135, 6). These two texts lead us to say that, for Justin, faith and baptism are both necessary for regeneration; but it is above all faith that is linked with the action of the Spirit. (Ignace de le Potterie, "'To Be Born Again of Water and the Spirit'–The Baptismal Text of John 3,5," in The Christian Lives By the Spirit [trans. John Morriss; Staten Island, N.Y.: Society of St. Paul, 1971], 5-7)