Baptism and the Early Church: The “How” and the “Who”
A paper presented to the Springfield Pastors’ Circuit of the Missouri District, Jan 12, 2010
By Pr. Rich Futrell
This paper takes a brief look into the early Christian church practices on baptism. The historical era looked into will be after the period covered in St. Luke’s Acts of the Apostles but before the official recognition of the New Testament Canon in 397AD.
No doubt, theology influences the baptisms a church body practices. Yet as much as possible, I will try to avoid any theological presuppositions and simply aim to detect what the early Christian church practiced on baptism.
Of course, this leads to the question, “Do early Christian church practices even have any importance for the churches of today?” I say, “Yes,” for early Church practice can illumine the “how” and “who” of baptism if a universal practice can be determined that predates the plethora of current-day practices.
Today, the two most contested areas of baptismal practice in the contemporary Christian church center on how baptism is performed (immersion, pouring, and sprinkling) and whether infants are to be baptized. Most contemporary Christian denominations are not against adult baptisms, and barring a few exceptions such as the Salvation Army and Quakers (Friends), almost all Christian denominations practice baptism.
This paper also looks into the current practices of churches that can trace their lineage back to apostolic times to help us learn what the early Christian churches may have practiced on baptism. These same Christian churches that recognized and affirmed the Canon of the New Testament, through their councils, will also show what those same churches believed the New Testament doctrines were on the “how” and “who” of baptism.
THE HUNT FOR THE EXISTING APOSTOLIC CHURCHES
The church bodies today that claim lineage back to the days of the Apostles are few. Although in the United States most know of the Roman Catholic Church, and some know of the Greek Orthodox churches, several other churches with apostolic lineage exist.
The Syrian Orthodox Church is a church body that still exists and traces its lineage back to the See of Antioch.
According to ecclesiastical tradition, the Church of Antioch is the second church in Christendom after Jerusalem, and the prominence of its Apostolic See is well documented. In his Chronicon (I, 2), the church historian Eusebius of Caesarea tells us that St. Peter the Apostle established a bishopric in Antioch and became its first bishop.[1]
The Independent Armenian Church (or the Armenian Orthodox Church) is first believed to have begun in 43AD, when Apostle Thaddeus traveled to Armenia. He was later martyred in Artaz in southeastern Armenia. However, around 67AD, the Apostle Bartholomew came to Armenia; he also was martyred in Albac, in southeastern Armenia.[2] Some even believe that Armenians were among those present at Pentecost.[3]
Another relatively unknown church in North America that hails back to the days of the Apostles is the Egyptian Coptic Church. The Coptic Church believes it is “based on the teachings of Saint Mark who brought Christianity to Egypt during the reign of the Roman emperor Nero in the first century, a dozen of years after the Lord’s ascension.” [4]
The Greek Orthodox Church began “with the first Pentecost in Jerusalem and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Christ’s small circle of disciples. It is then that the Orthodox Church was born.”[5]
Last of the churches considered in this paper is the Roman Catholic Church. “The Roman Catholic church regards itself as the only legitimate inheritor, by an unbroken episcopal succession descending from Saint Peter to the present time, of the commission and powers conferred by Jesus Christ on the 12 apostles.”[6]
This paper will not consider the practices of the Ethiopian Coptic Church. Pious tradition says that the Ethiopian eunuch, whom Philip baptized (Acts 8:26-40) started this church on his return home from Jerusalem. However, the earliest record of evangelization puts the beginning of the church in the middle of the 4th Century.[7]
Table 1 is a concise matrix showing the current baptismal practices of the five ‘apostolic’ churches.
Table 1: Baptismal Practices of Five Existing ‘Apostolic’ Churches
| Church | Type of Baptism | Belief in Infant Baptism |
| Syrian Orthodox | By affusion (immersion was its earlier practice) | Yes[8] |
| Independent Armenian | By immersion 3 times (affusion accepted in an emergency) | Yes[9] |
| Egyptian Coptic | By immersion 3 times[10] | Yes[11] |
| Greek Orthodox | By immersion 3 times (affusion accepted in an emergency) | Yes[12] |
| Roman Catholic | Primarily by affusion | Yes[13] |
[1] “The Syriac Orthodox Church – A Brief Overview,” [online] Syriac Orthodox Resources, available from <http://sor.cua.edu/Intro/>.
[2] “Armenian Church Timeline,” [online] Sourp Hagop Sunday School Website, available from <http://www.sourphagop.org/churchtime.html>.
[3] Norman A. Horner, Rediscovering Christianity Where It Began (Beirut, Lebanon: Heidelberg Press, 1974), 18.
[4] “The Christian Coptic Orthodox Church Of Egypt,” [online] Encyclopedia Coptica, 1992-2001, available from <http://www.coptic.net/EncyclopediaCoptica/>.
[5] Aristeides Papadakis, “History of the Orthodox Church,” [online] History of the Orthodox Church, 1990-1996, available from <http://www.greekorthodoxchurch.org/history.html>.
[6] “Roman Catholic Church,” History.com, 1996-2010, available from < http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=220886>.
[7] Norman A. Horner, Rediscovering Christianity Where It Began (Beirut, Lebanon: Heidelberg Press, 1974), 42.
[8] Syrianoc, Re: Syrian Orthodox Church’s Baptismal practices, private email message to author, 11 October 2004.
[9] Malachia Ormanian, The Church of Armenia (London: A.R. Mowbray and Co. Limited, 1955), 102.
[10] O.H.E KHS-Burmester, The Egyptian or Coptic Church (Cairo: Printing Office of the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology, 1967), 122.
[11] Iskander, Lara and Dunn, Jimmy, “An Overview of the Coptic Christians of Egypt,” [online] Tour Egypt, 1999-2003, available from <http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/copticchristians.htm>.
[12] “Baptism–is It a Work of God or a Work of Man?” Good News 1, no. 3 (1995): 18
[13] Ibid, 19.
