Christian baptism

We will also explain how we dedicated ourselves to God after being made new through Christ, so that by leaving this out we may not seem to be concealing something improper in our explanation.

Those who are persuaded and believe that the things taught and said by us are true, and who promise that they are able to live accordingly, are taught to pray and, while fasting, to ask God for forgiveness of the sins they previously committed; and we pray and fast together with them.

Then we bring them to a place where there is water, and they are reborn in the same manner of rebirth by which we ourselves were reborn. For at that time they receive the washing in water in the name of God, the Father and Lord of all, and of our Savior Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit. For Christ said, “Unless you are born again, you shall certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” It is obvious to everyone that those who have once been born cannot enter again into the wombs of those who bore them.

And through the prophet Isaiah, as we wrote above, it was said how those who have sinned and repent will escape their sins: “Wash yourselves; become clean. Remove wickedness from your souls. Learn to do good; give judgment for the orphan and uphold the widow. Come, and let us reason together, says the Lord. Even if your sins are like scarlet, I will make them white like wool; and even if they are crimson, I will make them white like snow. But if you do not listen to me, a sword shall devour you, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.”

We have also learned from the apostles this explanation concerning it. Since at our first birth we were born without knowledge of it, by necessity, from moist seed through the union of our parents with one another, and were raised in evil customs and wicked ways of life, we are reborn so that we may not remain children of necessity and ignorance, but become children of choice and knowledge, and so that we may obtain forgiveness in the water for the sins we previously committed. Over the person who has chosen to be reborn and has repented of his sins, the name of God, the Father and Lord of all, is invoked in the water. The one who leads the person who is to be washed to the washing speaks only this designation. For no one can give a name to the ineffable God; if anyone dares to say that such a name exists, he is mad with hopeless madness.

This washing is called “illumination,” because those who learn these things are illuminated in their understanding. And the person who is illuminated is also washed in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and in the name of the Holy Spirit, who through the prophets proclaimed beforehand everything concerning Jesus.