Hx Liturgy Initiation Quiz

Front 1

What are the Jewish Roots of Initiation in 1C Palestine?

Back 1

• Use of ritual bath – used to deal with ritual impurity – impurity that didn’t put you outside the covenant, but did put you outside community life
o Handle a corpse, etc.
o Answer – ritual bath and passage of time
• Proselytes were given a ritual bath – probably b/c they were considered ritually impure b/c they engaged in impure things like eating shellfish, cloth of 2 fibers, etc. (ca. 70-400 AD)
o Sopme of earliest surviving liturgies describe proselyte baths – do follow van Gennap/Turner paradigm
• Essenes/Qumran community had ritual baths
o These were not initiatory like proselyte baths, they were purifactory.
• Is this Jewish bath the starting point for Christian baptism?
o Probably not. Initiatory for proselytes, but everyone is doing it to deal with ritual impurity. Bath was not conceived of as initiatory in and of itself. Therefore does not line up with Christian baptism which is not about dealing with ritual impurity.

Front 2

What was the substance of Jesus' baptism by John (and what John was doing)

Back 2

• What is John doing, exactly? Reasonable question
o Based on proselyte baptism? Perhaps. Chosing symbolic action b/c connects with proselyte baptism people would have known about – but with a spin on it. He talks about moral behavior – MORAL IMPURITY, not ritual impurity.
o Is he making a subversive point on proselyte baptism? Provocative question.
• John, as described in Gospels, distinguishes between his baptism and the one that is to come. Gospel authors draw a distinction between what John is doing and what is to follow.
• Maybe it is just what John does to Jesus that is our root to Christian baptism.
o Heavenly voice, appearance of dove – but when Jesus subsequently speaks of his baptism, he isn’t concerned about the events. He often speaks of it as connected to his death.
o It is not clear from the Gospels that what happened to Jesus is the starting point to our baptismal practice.
• If you compare Luke/Acts to John, they talk about water and Spirit in different ways.
o Luke/Acts – John starts water – Jesus adds Spirit
o John – different.
o Different across accounts as to who hears what

Front 3

Is there a Dominical Warrant for Baptism?

Back 3

• No evidence that Jesus baptized
• NT books don’t even agree that he commanded his followers to baptize.
• Maxwell Johnson and Norman Parran pointed out that Jesus used meals to initiate himself into his community rather than baptism.
o Although every time Jesus eats, he is eating with Jews – so they are inside the covenant already. So, are they really being initiated?

Front 4

What evidence is there for Baptism in Paul?

Back 4

• Paul is assuming baptism is going on – he talks about the theology of it.
• Baptism is assumed in the Christian community without a really clear archetype/exemplar at the very beginning.
• These are the oldest NT writings, but they assume a ritual tradition.
• Paul does not give the recipe book for the rites. Theologizes about baptism.
• Baptism as incorporation into Body of Christ – 1 Corinthians 12
• Barriers between persons are gone after Baptism.
o Gal 3 – barriers destroyed – all God’s children’s lives linked
• Romans 6 – Baptism links individual to Christ’s death and resurrection.
o You put on a new life/ new person which is taken to imply there is a new moral code that is assumed.
• The KEY issue for Paul: death and resurrection – the cross. New experience of unity that comes with this.
• The life of the spirit is something you do.

Front 5

What evidence is there for Baptism in deutero-Paul?

Back 5

• Colossians: Baptism = circumcision (Col 2:11)
o Col 3 – Christian already raised with Jesus – happens in Baptism
• Ephesians: Language of sealing (Eph 1)
o Linked to ressurection and ascension of Jesus (Eph 2)
o Eph 5 – reference to Bride’s prenuptial bath and tied to baptism metaphorically
• Titus: Language of regeneration
o Reborn in Baptism (Titus 3)

Front 6

What evidence is there for Baptism in Luke/Acts?

Back 6

• Distinguishes between baptism of John and Christian baptism
• Luke 3 – unclear on who agent was in baptism at river
• Water and spirit link individual to Jesus
• Baptism forgives sins
• We are baptized in the name of jesus
• Some evidence of 2 part initiation – Acts 8 – Phillip deacon baptizes people – nobody knows why they don’t get the spirit until the Apostles lay on hands.
• Barest outline of some kind of initiatory process in hearing/believing/confessing/being baptized – Acts 8 – Ethiopian Eunich – emphasis on HUMAN response as opposed to Paul, who focuses on God’s action.

Front 7

What evidence is there for Baptism in Matthew and John?

Back 7

• Matthew – great commission – commanded to baptize in the name of (in relation to/ by authority of) in name of Trinity.
o That’s it in Matthew
• John – no narrative story of Jesus’ baptism or any baptism at all – or even of Eucharist: this always happens off-stage.

Front 8

What evidence is there for Confirmation in the NT?

Back 8

• Lack of clear evidence – really only that bit in Acts with Phillip the deacon
• If anything, across new testament, it would appear that bath and meal are the two parts of initiation – but this takes questions that are much later chronologically and applying them to very early material.

Front 9

What is the Baptismal rite in the Didache (one of first Baptismal rites in outline)?

Back 9

Evidence of pre-baptismal catechesis – taught with the didache – itself a summary of church teaching
• 1-2 day fast – aesthetical preparation
There is not much meat, but a skeleton of a ritual outline
• with a summary of Church teaching, one to two day fast, both candidate and minister
• and then immersion (submersion) in running water, if available, (if not ordinary water) cold if possible, pouring if you have to – note: flexibility Submersion, complete dunking
o can do 3 fold pouring if you can’t dunk.
o Idea of liturgical norm: aim for ideal – may not be what happens everywhere (not easy to get running cold water in Syria in summer)
• already accounting for the various circumstances that might be encountered
• afterward it is assumed that there would be participation in the Eucharist
• all about water bath and then meal (table fellowship)
• It stipulates that it is with the Trinitarian formula (in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit) – note: set formula
• It is preceded by fasting on the part of the candidate and the minister.

Front 10

What is NOT included in the Didache Baptismal outline?

Back 10

The Didache does not include any other ceremonies—no anointing, no handlaying – a couple of elements found later on are not there

Front 11

What was the Baptismal outline from the Didascalia (Syria pre-NIcea)?

Back 11

• Prebaptismal anointing of hand and imposition of bishop’s hands
• Repetition of Psalm 2:7
• Full body anointing
• Baptism
• All preceded by some form of ctecesis
SO: just bath and Eucharist or prebath handlings, anointings and then eucharist

Front 12

What was NOT in the Didascalia?

Back 12

no anointing or handlaying
no post-baptismal events but Eucharist

Front 13

What does Tertullian teach us about Baptism in pre-Nicene North Africa?

Back 13

• Describes Baptismal procedure
• Catechumenate – no specified length
• Prayer over h2o in rite
• Renunciation of the Devil
• 3-fold interrogatory style profession of faith: do you believe in God the father? Yes. DUNK. Do you believe in God the son? Yes. DUNK. Profession/immersion
• post-baptismal anointing
• signing with cross
• hand laying
• sharing with Eucharist
• Baptism happening in Easter season
• He detests infant baptism – this suggests that it is going on.
• When he talks about what happens in Baptism, he sets up a division that is important in later developments – provides rationale for what happens for other reasons.
o This unified rite: water bath, anointing, handlaying
o T says Spirit operates in 2 different ways in this SINGLE rite.
• Cleanses you in water bath/purifies you
• Gifts of Holy Spirit are given in hand laying
o One rite – 2 ceremonial actions – and he explains each action differently.