Does the Didache Teach Infant Baptism?
Frage
❓QuestionIn a lecture on the topic of baptism (from 14.08.2019) brother and pastor Olaf Latzel* also speaks about the topic of infant baptism. To refute the thesis that infant baptism was only introduced under Constantine, he cites the Didache as an early Christian document that allegedly already teaches this clearly [from min. 44:33]. Is this correct?
“Nothing is said about infant baptism.”1
“The instruction for baptism in the Didache presupposes responsible participants as its subjects. There is no provision for young children, but they are not expressly excluded either.”2
The relevant passage is this:
Erklärung
7.1 Concerning baptism, baptize in this manner: Having said all these things beforehand, baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit in running water.
7.2 But if you have no running water, baptize in other water. And if you cannot in cold, then in warm water.
7.3 But if you have neither, pour water on the head three times in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
7.4 But before the baptism, let the one baptizing and the one to be baptized fast, and any others who can. And you shall command the one to be baptized to fast one or two days before.
Again Schaff on this:
“The reference to instruction and the command to fast show that the author has exclusively in view the baptism of catechumens or believing adults.”3
Since the brother in his lecture speaks of it being taught “clearly,” I also want to point once more to Wright’s answer to the question whether there are explicit passages on infant baptism in the Apostolic Fathers:
“The first is probably easiest to answer, since – as far as I know – no scholar known to me affirms it today.”4
Erklärung
Are there hints of infant baptism in the Didache?
Erklärung
Conclusion
Footnotes
Philip Schaff, The Oldest Church Manual, Called The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, p. 31. Online: Google Books. ↩︎David F. Wright in Trajectories through the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers, ed. by Andrew Gregory & Christopher Tuckett, p. 126. Online: Google Books. ↩︎Schaff, Didache, p. 31. ↩︎David F. Wright in Trajectories through the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers, p. 124. ↩︎Everett Ferguson, Church History, Volume 1: From Christ to the Pre-Reformation (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 41.↩︎David F. Wright in Trajectories through the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers, p. 126 (in the footnote). ↩︎Ibid., p. 126. ↩︎Ibid., p. 128. ↩︎*This post is not intended to attack this brother or his ministry in any way, but only to correct this particular point.
Philip Schaff, The Oldest Church Manual, Called The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, p. 31. Online: Google Books. ↩︎
David F. Wright in Trajectories through the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers, ed. by Andrew Gregory & Christopher Tuckett, p. 126. Online: Google Books. ↩︎
Schaff, Didache, p. 31. ↩︎
David F. Wright in Trajectories through the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers, p. 124. ↩︎
Everett Ferguson, Church History, Volume 1: From Christ to the Pre-Reformation (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 41.↩︎
David F. Wright in Trajectories through the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers, p. 126 (in the footnote). ↩︎
Ibid., p. 126. ↩︎
Ibid., p. 128. ↩︎