Christian Initiation and Baptism in the Holy Spirit: Evidence from the First Eight Centuries
Kilian McDonnell and George T. Montague
Number of quotes: 41
Book ID: 53 Page: 49
Section: 2A1
(Rom. 6:1-5). The imagery here is graphic and powerful, easily lending itself to a catechesis on the symbolism of immersion as death and emergence from the water as resurrection. Because there is no mention of the Spirit here, it is also easy to see that such catechesis, if limited to this text, could easily lose sight of the Holy Spirit as the essential effect of baptism-as actually happened in the later centuries of the church.
Quote ID: 1159
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 53 Page: 86
Section: 2A1
1. The texts do not permit us to reconstruct with certainty a consistent rite of initiation in the church in New Testament times. The essential elements of the integral rite of initiation, however, always included water-baptism in the name of Jesus (or the later trinitarian formula) and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Quote ID: 1160
Time Periods: 12
Book ID: 53 Page: 87
Section: 1A
Barrett adds: “No more certain statement can be made about the Christians of the first generation than this: they believed themselves to be living under the immediate government of the Spirit.”
Quote ID: 1161
Time Periods: 1
Book ID: 53 Page: 115
Section: 2D3B
Charisms were facts of church life in the first centuries; therefore expectations that they would be granted within the rites of initiation do not seem unusual.If the baptism in the Spirit as understood today usually involves laying on of hands, a prayer for the descent of the Spirit, and some expectation that the charisms will be imparted, then the baptism in the Holy Spirit is integral to the whole rite of Christian initiation as Tertullian understood it, even though he did not name it so. If this is so, why are there not more witnesses among the early authors to the charisms within the liturgy of initiation? How could such a striking element be lost? To this question we now turn.
Quote ID: 1163
Time Periods: 1237
Book ID: 53 Page: 117
Section: 2D3A
Judged by the Catholic norms of the last decade of the second century, it was not inherently heretical, nor was it necessarily always heretical, even though later it was consistently treated as such.
Quote ID: 1165
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 53 Page: 118/119
Section: 2D3A
The first councils or synods in the history of the church (be it noted, including laity) were held in Asia Minor to deal with the strong reaction to the new movement.{8} The problems the New Prophecy, as it was called, raised in Asia must have been considerable. Neither the threat of gnosticism, nor Marcionism had ever pressed the church into calling councils. Montanism was threat enough to institute the first council since Jerusalem (Acts 15);COPIED
….
Nonetheless Tertullian wrote of a bishop of Rome, most likely Pope Victor, Eleutherius’ successor, who had decided in favor of the New Prophecy. According to Tertullian this pope, though he knew of the prophecies of Montanus, Prisca, and Maximilla, had “bestowed his peace (inferentem pacem) on the churches of Asia and Phrygia,” and this by writing “letters of peace” (litteras pacis).{9} The pope could not have given his peace unless the prophecies of the three prophets, as he knew them, were within the bounds of orthodoxy.
….
However, Praxeas, a traveler from Asia and a heretic in his own right (he introduced Patripassian Monarchianism into Rome), succeeded in turning the pope against the Montanists. The pope reluctantly recalled the letters he had already sent, put them on hold, and withdrew his intention of recognizing the charisms.{13}
….
If Montanism reached Rome in 177, and the condemnation by the hesitant Zepherinus came about twenty-three years later, then Rome did not panic into condemnation. In part the hesitancy must have been due to the recognition that prophecy belonged to the apostolic witness. If the church is built upon “the foundation of the apostles and prophets” (Eph. 2:20), the charismatic-prophetic element belongs to the church in some constitutive sense.{14}
Quote ID: 1166
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 53 Page: 120
Section: 2D3B
Justin Martyr (c. 100-c. 165), who may have perceived that the charismatic prophetic dimension of the Old Testament belonged constitutively to Jahwism,{16} boasted to the Jewish Trypho “that the prophetic gifts remain with us,” having been transferred from the Jews.{17} Irenaeus witnessed to the presence in the church of his time of “prophetic charisms” and “tongues.”{18}
Quote ID: 1167
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 53 Page: 121
Section: 2D3A
{21} The condemnation of a movement in which the charisms played a large role made it difficult to support prayer for charisms within the rite of initiation. This was true even though it was recognized that the charismatic element belonged to the nature of the church.
Quote ID: 1168
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 53 Page: 126
Section: 2D3A
Tertullian was not just another ecclesiastical scribbler. By any standards he was, Augustine excepted, “the most important and original ecclesiastical author in Latin.”{56}COPIED
Quote ID: 1170
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 53 Page: 130
Section: 2D3B
Jerome’s memory of the Roman church was that of a “whore decked in purple,” “the senate of the pharisees.”{91}
Quote ID: 1171
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 53 Page: 130
Section: 3D
The ancients had a much more relaxed attitude about borrowing without attribution, but Jerome is less than honest if we remember what he had said about Ambrose’s heavy borrowing from Didymus the Blind’s treatise On the Holy Spirit. Ambrose was, in Jerome’s words, “a crow garmented in the feathers of a peacock,”{93} a bon mot which Rufinus maliciously repeated for posterity.{94} According to Jerome, Ambrose’s crime was even greater: he turned Didymus’ good Greek into Ambrose’s bad Latin.{95}….
Pastor John notes: John’s note: Oh my!
Quote ID: 1172
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 53 Page: 131
Section: 2A2
Tertullian the Montanist turned against the Catholic communion all the literary skills, all the passion, all the exegetical knowledge he had formerly used in its defense. His peers in subsequent centuries may want in magnanimity, but their response is not without solid foundation, nor untypical of how those were regarded, who were thought to have departed from the faith of the church. To call in question the central doctrinal tradition was to put salvation, one’s own and others’, at peril.
Quote ID: 1173
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 53 Page: 132
Section: 2D3A
Why would the mention of the charisms within the rite of initiation disappear? The reaction to Montanism and to Tertullian, the Montanist, was stronger than to either gnosticism or Marcionism, as is seen in the calling of the first council since that recorded in Acts 15.….
Because the charisms were identified with Montanism, the charisms themselves, by contagion, probably became suspect. Would one promote at the heart of the rites of initiation the very charisms, especially the prophetic, which the Montanists championed, which had proved so problematic?
Quote ID: 1174
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 53 Page: 133/134
Section: 3C1
Purporting to be citing the western view, George Scholarius, the fifteenth-century Byzantine scholar, wrote: “Where Origen was good, no one was better; where he was bad, no one is worse.” {3}Pastor John notes: John’s note: ha!
….
At least Jerome, that sometime friend, was convinced that Origen had spawned the heresy of Arius,{4}
….
4 Letter 84, To Pachomius and Oceanus 4; CSEL 55:125, 126.
Quote ID: 1175
Time Periods: 345
Book ID: 53 Page: 145
Section: 2A1
Those who scoured his writings, eager to find offense during the first and second Origenist controversies, never cited his teaching that baptism is the principle and source of the charisms. Neither friend nor foe took exception. The reason? Origen was expressing the common faith of the church.
Quote ID: 1176
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 53 Page: 146
Section: 2A1
We know from his general teaching, for instance, that he proposed the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan as the model of Christian baptism. This would have been part of his catechetical instruction for prospective candidates for baptism. The Jordan which cleanses Naaman the Syrian is “of sovereign virtue and very good to drink. Just as no man is good save God the Father, so no river is good except the Jordan.”{6} As Naaman was cleansed in the Jordan, so we can receive baptism only in the Jordan, where Jesus was baptized, only from it can we draw those great benefits in the measure of our need.{7} Those who deposit their uncleanness in the Jordan will be purer than the foulest leper, “capable of receiving twice-over the graces (or charisms-charismaton) of the Spirit and ready to welcome the Spirit. The dove of the Spirit does not fly over any other river.”{8}
Quote ID: 1177
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 53 Page: 146/147
Section: 2D3B
Christ himself is our true Jordan;{9} more than that, Christ is both the minister and the river in which the baptized are plunged.{10} Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan is his baptism in the Spirit, and it is this same baptism in the Spirit, explicitly so called by Origen, that he extends to us.{11} Before Origen, Justin Martyr had called Christian initiation “baptism in the Holy Spirit.”{12}
Quote ID: 1178
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 53 Page: 159
Section: 2D3A
Very likely Hilary knew Tertullian’s Against Praxeas in which Tertullian recounted Rome’s original favorable reception of the charismatic outbreak in Phrygia, which later became known as Montanism.{21}
Quote ID: 1180
Time Periods: 234
Book ID: 53 Page: 163
Section: 3C2
The distinction between Origen and Eusebius is a little blurred because Eusebius was an ardent follower of the Alexandrian scholar. Eusebius stands in a direct line of descent. Eusebius was a pupil of Pamphilus (c. 240-309), author of the Apology on Origen, a work now lost except for the first book. More than that Eusebius assisted Pamphilus in writing that defense. After Pamphilus’ martyrdom, Eusebius succeeded him as curator of Origin’s library and archives. A considerable section of the sixth book of the Ecclesiastical History is devoted to the life of Origen.{51}
Quote ID: 1181
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 53 Page: 164
Section: 3C2
Eusebius says that the church, as the house of God, still lives in the realm of the flesh; nonetheless, it already enjoys the goods which adorn God’s house: “divine conversation, sacred instruction, the charisms of the Holy Spirit.”{59} Among them are the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, healings, and tongues.{60} The River of God is the Holy Spirit, which inundates and makes the land “drunk . . . with the charism of the Holy Spirit.”{61} The force of God’s torrents makes glad the city of God.
Quote ID: 1182
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 53 Page: 166
Section: 3C1
Jerome, too, in his translation of Eusebius’ Chronology named Phrygia as the place of banishment and added that while there Hilary wrote.{70} Exile had become the favorite tool against adherents of the Nicaean definition that the Son was “of the same substance” (homousios) as the Father. Hilary, who had been chosen bishop about 354, may have written the first three books of On the Trinity while still in Gaul, finishing it during his exile in Asia.{71}
Quote ID: 1183
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 53 Page: 167/168
Section: 2D3A
The first occurs in Book II to Constantius, written in 359, quite possibly in Constantinople just before Hilary returned to Gaul. Hilary asked the Emperor permission to return home in order to debate Saturninus of Arles who had been responsible for Hilary’s unjust condemnation. The reference here is hardly flattering: “Montanus defended another Paraclete through his insane women.”{82}
Quote ID: 1184
Time Periods: 24
Book ID: 53 Page: 168
Section: 2D3A
In a passing allusion in a somewhat corrupted text Hilary reproached Constantius for exiling the holy Paulinus of Trier to Phrygia because he would not sign the condemnation of Athanasius; in Phrygia Paulinus’ situation was aggravated because he “could obtain food neither from the Emperor’s granary, nor from the supplies belonging to Montanus and Maximilla.”{83}For one who had some acquaintance with Phrygia, and possibly with Montanism, Hilary showed almost no interest in the threat which the movement was believed to pose.
Pastor John’s note: the threat over?
PJ note: Hilary of Portiers (c. 310 – c. 367)
COPIED
Quote ID: 1185
Time Periods: 234
Book ID: 53 Page: 169
Section: 2D3A
This enthusiastic charismatic movement, sometimes called “the New Prophecy,” was often treated as a heresy. Hippolytus says that “the Montanists are thought to be orthodox about the beginning, and the fashioning of all (the doctrine of creation), and they do not accept unorthodox teachings with regard to Christ.”{92} Even the relentless heresy hunter, Epiphanius (c. 315-403), witnessed that the Montanists were in agreement with the great church in matters of dogma.{93} Epiphanius, born about the same time as Hilary and Cyril, and a compatriot of Cyril of Jerusalem (he came from Gaza), recognized that Montanism taught the correct trinitarian doctrine, but included Montanism in his Panarion, a massive index of heresies, because it was still a threat.{94}COPIED
Quote ID: 1186
Time Periods: 234
Book ID: 53 Page: 170
Section: 2D3A
Far from being a dead heresy in the fourth century, it was, on the contrary, “still very strong . . . indeed flourishing” in parts of the empire.{97} Eusebius devoted four chapters of the fifth book of his Ecclesiastical History to Montanism and made other scattered references.{98} Didymus the Blind (c.313-98), after saying that many heresies would not be referred to because they were then academic relics, went out of his way to treat of Montanism in several chapters, because the dangers were real and the faithful needed to be warned.{99} Jerome (c.342-420) saw Montanist communities in Ancyra (the modern Ankara) when he was traveling through Galatia in 373.{100} Though flourishing, the Montanists were not numerous in the great cities because of the presence of the monarchical bishops.COPIED
Quote ID: 1187
Time Periods: 24
Book ID: 53 Page: 173
Section: 2A4
But in On Matthew, Hilary writes of “the gift of the Spirit being bestowed on pagans through the imposition of the hands and prayer.”{7} It is not clear here whether Hilary is referring to a rite,
Quote ID: 1188
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 53 Page: 174/175
Section: 2D3B
15 The Didascalia Apostolorum from North Syria in the earlier half of the third century uses Psalm 2:7 in the same way. Speaking of the role of the bishop: “through whom the Lord gave you the Holy Spirit, and through whom you have learned the word and have known God, and through whom you have been known of God, and through whom you were sealed, and through whom you became sons of light, and through whom the Lord in baptism, by the imposition of hand of the bishop, bore witness to each one of you and uttered his holy voice saying: ‘You are my son. I this day have begotten you.’” Didascalia Apostolorum{9}; Didascalia Apostolorum, ed. R. H. Connolly (Oxford: Clarendon, 1969) {93}.
Quote ID: 1189
Time Periods: 3
Book ID: 53 Page: 175
Section: 2D3B,2A1
The baptism of Jesus is the prototype. To know his baptism is to learn our own birth event: “This was done so that we in our time might learn what has been fully realized in Christ. After the water-bath, the Holy Spirit rushes upon us from the gate of heaven, that we might bathe in the anointing of the heavenly glory, and that we might become sons of God through adoption spoken by the voice of the Father.”{18} Our baptism is an icon of Jesus’. Here, as at Pentecost, the Spirit envelops.18 - Hilary of Poitiers, writing around 356 A.D..... (On Matthew, 2:6; 15:10)
Quote ID: 1190
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 53 Page: 175
Section: 2A1
The anointing by the Spirit and the voice of the Father declares Jesus to be the eternal Son. Because this was fully realized in Christ when he came up from the waters, it is realized in us, that is, after the water-bath, the Spirit rushes down upon us, and we are anointed “with the unction of heavenly glory,”{18} and by the adopting voice of the Father we are declared adopted children. The baptism of Jesus at the Jordan constitutes the mystery of Christian baptism. Jesus is baptized in the Spirit; we are baptized in the Spirit.
Quote ID: 1191
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 53 Page: 179
Section: 2D3A,2D3B
Protesting that charisms are not just adornments, Hilary [PJ: of Portiers? c. 310 – c. 367] insists they are “profitable gifts” (per quas dationum utilitates).{43} Then he details how the charisms are profitable: when the words of life are spoken; or when there is understanding of divine knowledge (which divides us from animals); when by faith we stand inside the gospel; when healings and miracles are performed; when by prophecy we are taught of God;{44} when spirits, holy or evil, are discerned; when sermons in foreign languages are signs that the Holy Spirit is active; when interpretation makes intelligible the sermons in foreign languages.{45} In all of these gifts the presence of the Spirit is manifested in concrete effects.{46} In short, the gifts make a difference; they are profitable.
Quote ID: 1192
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 53 Page: 180/181
Section: 2D3A,2D3B
No evidence can be found in the text to support the supposition that Hilary was proposing something new and unheard of. The impression is given that Hilary was handing on something important and traditional. No enthusiastic group at enmity with their bishops is going to drive out the charisms given at Christian baptism, an icon of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan.
Quote ID: 1193
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 53 Page: 183
Section: 2D3A,2D3B
Hilary further specifies the nature of this river. “The Holy Spirit is called a river. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we are made drunk. Because out of us, as a source, various streams of grace flow, the prophet prays that the Lord will inebriate us. The prophet wants the same persons to be made drunk, and filled to all fullness with the divine gifts, so that their generations may be multiplied.
Quote ID: 1194
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 53 Page: 301
Section: 4A
Aphrahat seems to have been isolated enough as to be unaware of both Arianism and the Council of Nicaea (325), though he was still writing in 345. Ephrem probably knew little or no Greek. While he did not completely reject Greek culture, he did say “Happy the man who has not tasted of the Greek poison.”{13} More specifically, the poison was pagan Greek influence on theology.
Quote ID: 1195
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 53 Page: 302
Section: 1B,4A
Brock divides the process of the hellenization of Syriac culture into three periods.{17} Aphrahat and Ephrem, both fourth-century writers, belong to the first period. Both represent a Christian culture which is still Semitic in its vision and style, Ephrem alone showing the beginnings of some borrowings.
Quote ID: 1196
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 53 Page: 324
Section: 2A1
Philoxenus [PJ NOTE: Philoxenos of Mabbug. died 535] believes that in the apostolic era the prophetic charisms manifested themselves in all the believers at their initiation. This constitutes the apostolic model. He notes the discrepancy between the apostolic church and the church he knows. The difference is a matter of regret, but he is not going to bring God to court for swindling.“Now again, the Holy Spirit is given by baptism to those who are baptized and they really receive it (the Spirit), like the first believers. However in none of them, does it (the Spirit) manifest its (the Spirit’s) work visibly. Even though it (the Spirit) is in them, it (the Spirit) remains hidden there. Unless one leaves the world to enter into the way of the rules of the spiritual life, observing all the commandments Jesus has given, walking with wisdom and perseverance in the narrow way of the Gospel, the work of the Spirit received in baptism does not reveal itself.”{6}
Quote ID: 1197
Time Periods: 156
Book ID: 53 Page: 325
Section: 2A1
“The difference between what happened among the first believers, and that which happens now in us, is total. … “{7}….
A vast difference exists between the Christians of the apostolic age and Philoxenus’ time. In the apostolic age the charisms were given to all; in his age they are given only to ascetics.
Quote ID: 1198
Time Periods: 5
Book ID: 53 Page: 348
Section: 2A1,2D3B
The baptism in the Spirit is the whole rite of initiation.
Quote ID: 1199
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 53 Page: 348/349
Section: 2A1
In more specific terms what does “integral” mean in this context? Some technical, philosophical terms are in order. If a baby girl is born without a right arm, her essential humanity is intact. That is, what constitutes human nature is all there. No one would refuse to call this baby a human being. But there is something missing, her right arm, not a minor appendage. In technical terms we say that the right arm is a property of her humanity. A property does not belong to the essence but flows from that essence. The right arm does not belong to the essence of humanity (otherwise the baby would cease to be a human being), but it flows from that essence and belongs to the wholeness of being human.Baptism in the Spirit, as the awakening of the full life of the Spirit with the charisms (including the prophetic), does not belong to the essence of Christian initiation. Otherwise there would have been few authentic (valid) baptisms since the early centuries. The essence of Christian initiation has remained intact. Every authentic initiation confers the Holy Spirit. But Christian initiation has been missing a property, which flows from its essence, namely, what today is call the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the full flowering of the sacramental grace. Like the missing right arm, the baptism in the Holy Spirit is not a minor appendage. It belongs to the wholeness of Christian initiation.
Quote ID: 1200
Time Periods: 127
Book ID: 53 Page: 351
Section: 2A1
It is the gift of the Spirit which is the diagnostic mark of being a Christian, for one cannot belong to Christ without the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9; Acts 19:1-7). And this Spirit is normally received at the moment of baptism (1Cor. 12:13), which John describes as a new birth of water and Spirit (John 3:5). In Paul, too, baptism involves essentially the gift of the Spirit (1Cor. 12:13), but the sacrament is also modeled on the death and resurrection of Jesus (Rom. 6:25), a model that in the later church became the dominant one.
Quote ID: 1201
Time Periods: 127
Book ID: 53 Page: 351
Section: 2A1
How the church historically ritualized the imparting of the Spirit in the celebration of Christian initiation varied even when the primary paradigm is unmistakably the paschal mystery. In Hilary and Cyril it is in the post-baptismal anointing; in Chrysostom it is the water-bath with the laying on of the hand of the bishop.{1} These are ritual variables, the imparting of the Spirit is the constant.
Quote ID: 1202
Time Periods: 24
Book ID: 53 Page: 382
Section: 2A1
By accepting the baptism in the Holy Spirit, one does not thereby join a movement. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is captive to no camp, whether liberal or conservative. Nor is it identified with any one movement or with one style of prayer, worship, or community. On the contrary, we believe that baptism in the Holy Spirit belongs to the Christian inheritance of all those sacramentally initiated into the Church.
Quote ID: 1204
Time Periods: 24
End of quotes