Tractates on the Gospel of John (continued)
TRACTATE 6 137
Son and of the Holy Spirit, to baptize the ministers? Where were they sent? "Go," he said, "baptize the nations."'' You have heard, brothers, how that inheritance came: "Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession." -^' You have heard how the Law went forth from Sion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.-^ For there the apostles heard, "Go, baptize the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit."'^
(2) We became attentive when we heard, "Go, baptize the nations." In whose name? "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." This is one God, because [it is] not in the names of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit." Where you hear one name, there is one God. As it was said about the seed of Abraham and as the Apostle Paul explains, "In your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed," '"' He did not say in seeds as in many but as in one, "And in your seed, which is Christ." "'" And so, just as, because it does not say there, in seeds, the Apostle wanted to teach you that Christ is one, so also here when it was said, "In the name'' not in the names as there "in the seed,"" not in seeds, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are proved to be one God.
10. But, look, say the disciples to the Lord, we have heard in what name we are to baptize; you have made us ministers, and you have said unto us, "Go, baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Where shall we go? Where? Did you not hear? To my inheritance. You ask. Where shall we go? To that which I bought with my blood. Where then? To the nations, he says. I suppose that he said, "Go, baptize the Africans'^ in the name of the Father and of the
25. Cf. Mt 28.19. 26. Ps 2.8. 27. Cf. Is 2.3. 28. Cf. Mt 28.19. 29. On 22.18. 30. Cf. Gal. 3.16. Observe that Augustine has the ablative, semine tuo, and not the dative of both the Greek and the Vulgate.
31. Cf. Mt. 28.19. 32. The Donatist heresy, although very widespread and strong in Africa, did not find adherents outside of North Africa except for a few small and insignificant congregations, the most important of which was the very small