Mystagogical Lecture II
SECOND LECTURE ON THE MYSTERIES
Baptism: The Rites of the Inner Chamber "Do you not know that all we who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death'? .. since you are not under law but under grace."!
(I) The daily initiatory expositions, with their new teaching telling of new realities, are profitable to you, especially to those of you who have just been renewed from oldness to newness. I shall, therefore, resuming from yesterday, expound the bare essentials of our next topic, explaining the symbolical meaning of what you did in the inner chamber.2
(2) Immediately, then, upon entering, you removed your tunics. This was a figure of the "stripping off of the old man with his deeds."3 Having stripped, you were naked,4 in this also imitating Christ, who was naked on the cross, by His nakedness "throwing off the cosmic powers and authorities like a garment and publicly upon the cross leading them in his triumphal procession."5 For as the forces of the enemy
1 Rom. 6.3·14. No further references are given to this passage.
2 This sentence seems to support Piedagnel's translation against his text in the last sentence of 1.1.
3 Col. 3.9.
4 The tunic (chiton) was the garment worn by both sexes next to the skin. The candidates would already have removed their shoes and outer garments for the Renunciation in Myst. 1. Cf. Thomas Bingham,
Antiquities of the Christian Church 11.11.1: All "persons were baptized naked, either in imitation of Adam in Paradise, or our Saviour upon the cross, or to signify their putting off ... the old man ...• "
5 Col. 2.15. So Cyril, against Blass-Debrunner and Arndt-Gingrich, who take apekdyomai as = "disarm" the principalities and powers. Well
E. H. Gifford (LPNF): "Christ ... , clothed with the likeness of sinful flesh during His life on earth, submitted therein to the assaults
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made their lair in our members, you may no longer wear the old garment. 1 do not, of course, refer to this visible garment, but to "the old man which, deluded by its lusts, is sinking towards death."6 May the soul that has once put off that old self never again put it on, but say with the Bride of Christ in the Canticle of Canticles: "I have put off my garment: how shall 1 put it on?"1 Marvelous! You were naked in the sight of all and were not ashamed! Truly you bore the image of the first-formed Adam, who was naked in the garden and "was not ashamed."8
(3) Then, when stripped, you were anointed with exorcised olive oil from the topmost hairs of your head to the soles of your feet,O and became partakers of the good olive tree, Jesus
Christ. Cuttings from the wild olive tree, you were grafted into the good olive tree and became partakers of the fatness of the true olive tree.10 The exorcised olive oil, therefore, of the powers of evil. but on the Cross threw off from Himself both it and them."
6 Eph.4.22.
7 Cant. 5.3. This chapter shows that at Jerusalem as elsewhere the newly baptized donned white garments (the color of the Resurrection).
8 Gen. 2.25.
9 Scandalized by this total unction. Grodecq. an early commentator. wished. impossibly. to translate "from the top to the bottom of their hair."
The Didascalia Apostolorum (ed. R. H. Connolly. xlix-li) shows that the early N_ Syrian Church required. before the bath. an anointing on the head by the bishop. with imposition of hands. the anointing of the body being completed by deacon or deaconess; and this was the only unction. T. W_ Manson' ("Entry into Membership of the Early Church." Journal of Theological Studies 48 [1947] 2533) argued that this was the (or a) primitive usage; he pointed to Cornelius (Acts 10). St. Paul's initiation (Acts 9.17-19) and 1 John
5.7. ApCo 7.22 makes this first anointing confer the koinonia (participation) of the Holy Ghost; the water signifies death. and the post-baptismal unction is a confirmatory seal of the baptismal covenant
-the earlier N. Syrian use? ApCo 7.22 continues: "But if there be neither oil nor ointment (Chrism). water is sufficient both for the unction and the seal and the confession of Him with Whom we have died." See also Did. (Cop. and ApCo texts only) 10.8.
10 Cf. Rom. 11.17-24 and Irenaeus. Adv_ Haer. 5.10. In the Myst. the second. post-baptismal anointing is clearly regarded as the important one. The first anointing is with previously exorcised olive oil (elaion), the second with chrism (myron). The threat from Chrismation or
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symbolized the partaking of the richness of Christ; its effect is to disperse every concentration of the cosmic forces arrayed against us. For as the breath of the saintsll upon you, with the invocation of the name of God, burns the devils like fierce fire and expels them, so this exorcised olive oil receives, through prayer and the invocation of God, power so great as not only to burn and purge away the traces of sin but also to put to rout all the invisible forces of the Evil One.
(4) After this you were conducted to the sacred pool of divine Baptism, as Christ passed from the cross to the sepConfinnation to the primacy of Baptism in the initiatory rite arose from the feeling that "christening," incorporation into Christ (lit.
"the Anointed One"), was more appropriately symbolized by anointing or chris·mation, which was originally (I take it) a secondary ceremony.
Then the sacramental (so to say) "dualism" of the Gospel account of the baptism of Jesus was re-interpreted. Following Matthew or Luke rather than Mark, one could argue that the descent of the Dove and the heavenly Voice proclaiming the Messiahship of Jesus were not related to the actual baptism simply as its interpretation (the proclamation through Dove and Voice being the mere visibilization of what had actually happened at the baptism), but as a second, subsequent event on the same plane; so that the Christian sacra· ments of Baptism and Confirmation could be regarded as correspond. ing to two successive events in the life of Jesus. The second sacrament, conveying the Spirit, would then be the greater. On the other
(earlier?) view, Mark would provide the exemplar, and the two events would be simultaneous, the descent of the Spirit being but the visibilization of the spiritual reality granted to Our Lord as man in his baptism in Jordan.
The present passage, connecting the anointing with olive oil with Rom. 11.l7ff., suggests, when compared with Myst. 3.5, that the two anointings form a doublet. Since not uncommonly in Syria the anointing preceded Baptism, this anointing with olive oil may be the original. But in our Jerusalem rite this first anointing is no more than a preparatory purification. It first appears in apocryphal literature: Acts of Thomas, Testament of Levi, Acts of Xanthippus.
See PGL, s.v. elaion, C.
In Cat. 3.11·13, it is in the baptismal waters that Death and the Dragon are defeated.
Who are the ministers of this total unction? For the men, no doubt, priests, deacons and the lower clergy. But for the women?
Epiphanius mentions deaconesses in connection with baptism, and ApCo 3.15·16 says that the deaconesses completed the anointing after a deacon had 'begun it on the forehead. It seems likely that this was the general practice.
11 The candidates had themselves been exorcised every morning during Lent (Procat. 9).
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ulchre you see before yoU.12 You were asked, one by one, whether you believed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; you made that saving confession, and then you dipped13 thrice under the water and thrice rose up again, therein mystically signifying Christ's three days' burial. For as our Savior passed three days and three nights in the bowels of the earth, so you by your first rising out of the water represented Christ's first day in the earth, and by your descent the night. For as in the night one no longer sees, while by day one is in the light, so you during your immersion, as in a night, saw nothing, but on coming up found
12 This passage does not point necessarily to Jerusalem and the Church of the Resurrection; see above, p. 150, Suppl. Note.-Even after the early days, when Baptism was in pools or rivers Gustin, 1 Apol. 61;
TertulIian, Bapt. 4; Didache 7, though here it could be from a basin), not all churches had baptisteries. But the Bordeaux Pilgrim, who visited Jerusalem A.D. 333-4, tells us (CSEL 39.23): "There on the orders of Constantine a church was built . . . with a reservoir at the side and at the rear a bath where the infants are washed," i.e., where the candidates receive the laver.
13 Who is the minister of the sacrament? About the minister of Baptism in Hippolytus, Dix (TCB 15-16) asks: "Is it the Presbyter ... who asks the questions? Or . . . the Deacon ... who lays a hand on his head? Or is it conceivably the candidate himself?" Hippolytus (21.12) does mention a minister, the deacon, who probably pushed the candidates under. But the Myst. mention no minister; the candidates seem to duck down or submerge themselves.
There was no need to explain to the newly baptized who the ministers were. Unlike the ApTrad, the Myst. are not a Church Order. But certainly in the Myst. no one baptizes in the later sense of pouring the water and saying "I baptize thee." The candidates themselves seem to be mainly responsible both for the "proximate matter" (descending into and under the water, as at John's baptism) and the "form" (in making the threefold credal confession in response to the Trinitarian interrogation). But Cat. 17.35 provides important evidence here. There
Cyril (ca. 350) speaks of a baptizer and says that he may be bishop, presbyter or deacon since in any case it is the Holy Spirit who seals the soul. The ancient 49th Apostolic Canon speaks of "Bishop or Presbyter." Clearly everything was done under the authority of the Bishop (who may also have previously consecrated the elements: oil, water, chrism), and the clergy presided, organized and directed proceedings, besides performing the anointing.
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yourselves in the day. In the same moment you were dying and being born, and that saving water was at once your grave and your mother. What Solomon said in another context is applicable to you: "A time for giving birth, a time for dying";14 although for you, contrariwise, it is a case of "a time for dying and a time for being born." One time brought both, and your death coincided with your birth.
(5) The strange, the extraordinary, thing is that we did not really die, nor were really buried or really crucified; nor did we really rise again: this was figurative and symbolic; yet our salvation was real. Christ's crucifixion was real, His burial was real, and His resurrection was real; and all these He has freely made ours, that by sharing His sufferings in a symbolic enactment we may really and truly gain salvation. Oh, too generous love! Christ received the nails in His immaculate hands and feet; Christ felt the pain: and on me without pain or labor, through the fellowship of His pain, He freely bestows salvation.
(6), Let no one imagine, then, that Baptism wins only the grace of remission of sins plus adoption, as John's baptism conferred only the remission of sins.15 No; we know full well that Baptism not only washes away our sins and procures for 14 Eccles. 3.2. So the traditional translation. But does not Cyril/John make Eccles. say, "The time of (giving) birth is also the time of dying"?
If so, reinterpret the sequel accordingly.
15 It is rather surprising that so staunch a disciple of Origen as John of Jerusalem should attribute the forgiveness of sins to John's baptism when Origen (Comm. in Ioh. 6.33, PG 14.257B) denied regeneration to it. Pseudo-Hippolytus (Theoph. 3, PG 1O.853D) takes exactly the same view as the text here: remission of sins but not adoption. Cyril also glorifies John the Baptist against Origen; contrast the first sentence of Cat. 3.6 with Origen's statement (Comm. in Rom. 5.8, PG 14.1039B) that John's baptism was not the beginning of the New Dispensation.
But Cyril regarded John as one of the patron saints of Jerusalem; to glorify him was to glorify Jerusalem, d. Cat. 3.7 ini,t. Yet Origen,
In Ioh. 1.13 (Preuschen; PG 14.48AB), closely approximates Cyril, Cat. 3.6.
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us the gift of the Holy Spirit,16 but is also the antitype11 of the Passion of Christ. That is why Paul just now proclaimed:
"Do you not know that all we who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? For through Baptism we were buried along with Him." Perhaps this was directed against those who supposed that Baptism procures
16 What is "the gift (dOrea, d. Acts 2.38) of the Spirit," and when is it conferred: at Baptism or Confirmation? Here we meet the great con· troversy between Stone and Lampe, etc., versus the Dix-Mason line, which glorifies Confirmation ("Spirit-Baptism"), the former saying that the gift of the Spirit, i.e., the Spirit Himself, is given in Baptism, while the latter say "in Confirmation." The Lenten Lectures, on the whole, strongly support the former view (though not in its terms), while the Mystagogical support the latter, though in its terms only, not in its emphasis or its interpretation of the relative importance of the terms.
Three times in this chapter participation in Christ's Passion is contrasted with a pair of other graces of Baptism; twice this pair is forgiveness and the adoptive sonship; once it is forgiveness and the "gift of the Spirit." Therefore "the gift of the Spirit" is, here, adoption.
But it does not immediately follow that in the Myst. the gift of the Spirit is mediated by Baptism, since in 3.3 the Chrism brings an advent or presence (parousia) of the Spirit and here (2.6) adoption is not explicitly correlated with any ceremony. It is arguable, therefore, that, as Touttee suggested, "Baptism" is here used in a broad sense that includes Chrismation. Moreover it is possible to read 3.1
(init.) as meaning that the putting on of Christ at Baptism prepares for the Adoption which follows (in Chrism). Yet it is certain that "the gift of the Spirit" (as = Adoption) is, in the Myst., given in Baptism. For (1) presumably the preacher is keeping to the order of events; to depart from it without warning would be unpardonably confusing in a programmatic work like the Myst. (2) The terminology of 5.1 (formally canonized in the Code of Justinian) exhibits "baptism" as the regular word for water-baptism. Elsewhere the Myst. seem to adhere to this usage; see 2.4; 3.2, 4 (twice); (3.1?). (3) Once
"the gift of the Spirit" is identified as Adoption, it must be given in Baptism; and, further, Adoption is inseparable from "the gift of the Spirit" in the strong sense (defining genitive) (Rom. 8.14-17, Gal.
4.6, 7). The gift, or descent, of the Spirit in Myst. 3.3, therefore, must be some special supplementary grace, "confirming" and topping off what has been done. (4) Otherwise Baptism would not differ from John's baptism. This is decisive.
17 A representation or (sacramental) sign of a spiritual original. Cf.
3.1 (twice); 4.3; 5.20. See note 8 on 3.1.
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only the remission of sins and the adoption of sons and does not, beyond this, really make us imitatively partakers of the sufferings of Christ.
(7) To teach us, then, that all that Christ endured "for us and for our salvation," He suffered in actual fact and not in mere seeming, and that we have fellowship in His Passion,
Paul cries aloud in unequivocal language: "For if we have become one planting with him by the likeness of His death, we shall be one with him by the likeness of His Resurrection also." "One planting" is apt, for since the true Vine was planted here, IS we, by partaking in the Baptism of His death, have become "one planting" with Him. Mark closely the words of the Apostle: he did not say: "for if we have become one planting by His death," but "by the likeness of His death." For in the case of Christ death was real, His soul being really separated from his Body. His burial, too, was real, for His sacred Body was wrapped in clean linen. In His case it all really happened. But in your case there was only a likeness of death and suffering, whereas of salvation there was no likeness, but the reality.19
(8) That should be sufficient instruction on these points. I urge you to keep it in your memory that I too, though unworthy, may be able to say of you: "I love you because at all times you keep me in mind and maintain the tradition I handed on to yoU."20 God, "who has presented you as those who have come alive from the dead," is able to grant to you to "walk in newness of life," because His is the glory and the power, now and forever. Amen.
18 But for the text here see above, p. 150, Suppl. Note.
19 The "reality" here is the same as the res, i.e., the benefit or grace of the sacrament, in later theology. But the reality or original of the "antitype" or sign is a person or event of sacred history, and this ambiguity, perhaps, sometimes led to confusion in later theology.
20 Cf. 1 Cor. 11.2.