For our God, Jesus the Christ, was
carried in the womb of Mary according to God’s plan—of the seed of David and of
the Holy Spirit—who was born and baptized that by his suffering he might purify
the water. (Ignatius, To the Ephesians 18.2)
The connection between Christ’s
baptism and passion also seems to be traditional. It is apparently reflected in
Luke 12:50 and Mark 10:38–39; and it may shine through small details in the
Synoptic account of Christ’s baptism. Barnabas finds it relevant to inquire
into the prophecies particularly “concerning the water and concerning the
cross” (11.1). Justin has a collection of biblical testimonies in which the
“wood” (the cross) and “water” (baptism) are connected in such a way that the
former is thought of as energizing the latter (Dial. 86; cf. 138). In the Sibylline
Oracles (8.244–47) the cross is said to “illuminate” the elect with water
(cf. 8.310–17). The connection could only have been strengthened by the
mythology of the primeval dragon since conflict with the powers of darkness
plays an especially important role with reference to the cross. Thus John
Chrysostom (Hom. in 1 Cor. 24.4) will
link Christ’s resurrection with victory over the dragon of the deep. The
connection between Christ’s baptism and passion was also known in Gnostic
circles. The Gospel of Philip ([NHC
2] 77, 7–15) asserts not only that Jesus “made perfect the water of baptism”
but also that he thereby “emptied death.” It is, however, a matter of
eliminating death, not of undergoing it. Consequently the theme seems out of
place, and Gaffron is surely right in suggesting that it is not “genuinely
Gnostic” but stems from an older tradition. The underlying problem for a
Gnostic is illuminated by Irenaeus’ (Adv.
haer. 1.21.2) observation on the Marcosians that they take Luke 12:50 and
Mark 10:38 to refer not to the passion but to another baptism (the so-called
redemption which has to do with “Christ” and “perfection”) distinct from the
first (which is connected with “the phenomenal Jesus” and “forgiveness of
sins”). Ignatius has no such problem, and his overriding concern for the
reality of the cross makes the link between the baptism and passion of Christ
logical. (William R. Schoedel, Ignatius of Antioch: A Commentary
on the Letters of Ignatius of Antioch [Hermeneia—a Critical and Historical
Commentary on the Bible; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985], 85-86)
