The view has been taken that this use of the name of Christ for the working of miracles was nothing more than the emjiloyment of a theurgic formula, which finds its analogue in the invoca- tions and incantations of ancient magic (so esp. Conybeare, JQR viii, ix). We may be sure that in so far as such a use of His name was commanded or approved by our Lord Himself, this view is quite impossible (cf. Mt 7^-). And as for the Apostolic Church, while it is clear that the name of Jesus was invoked by both Peter and Paul before the performance of a miracle, Peter's prayer, after the miracle at the Temple gate, that God would accompany the use of the name by stretch- ing forth His hand to heal (Ac 4"-'''- 3"), points to the conclusion that the name of Jesus was invoked by the Apostles in these cases simply because every appeal to God was made through the Person of the Mediator. The influence of Greek and Oriental superstition soon brought into the Church a magical and theurgic element, which gathered speci- ally round the use of Christ's name in formulas of exorcism. But within the Apostolic sjihere, at all eveniis, it was not a formula, however sacred, that was believed to cast out demons or work cures. St. James, after enjoining the use of the Lord's name at a sick-bed, adds that ' the prayer of faith shall heal the sick ' ( Ja 5^^). And in the case of the impotent man, St. Peter, when the people came crowding into Solomon's Porch, greatly wondering (Ac 3"), said, ' By faith in his name hath his name made this man strong . . . yea, the faith which is through him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all' (v.^^).
(3)_ Baptizing in (or into) the name. — Christian baptism, as we meet with it in the Apostolic Church, is performed in (or into) the name of Clirist (Ac -I^ 8i« 10« 195, Ro &, Gal S^^). On the other hand, in our Lord's parting instructions to
the Eleven, as given at the end of Mt., He directs them to baptize ' into (or in ; but ets is the preposi- tion used) the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ' (281") — a formula that is found nowhere else in the NT. This is not the place to discuss the genuineness of the logion (in support of it see Kesch, TU x. 2, summarized by Marshall in ExpT vi. [1895] p. 395 fl'. ; Bruce, King- dom of God, p. 258 tt'. ; against it, Holtzmann, NT fhcol. i. 378 ff.; Harnack, Hist, of Dog. i. 79; Moffatt, Hist. NT, p. 647 fi'. See, further, art. Baptism, § 5). But if we accept the triple formula as coming from the lijjs of Jesus, the fact that we have no direct evidence of its use in the Apostolic Church certainly creates a difficulty. The sugges- tion that the shorter form is simply a designation of the fact that baptism was administered on con- fession of Jesus as Christ and Lord, and that the Trinitarian formula would invariably be employed in the actual administration of the sacrament, does not meet the case, for we know that in the 3rd cent, a baptism in the name of Christ Avas still common, and that in the time of Cyprian the con- troversy about re-baptism gathered round this very point.
The solution of the problem may lie in the fact that at first the efficacy of baptism Avas not attached to any set form of words. The Trini- tarian formula itself occurs in dift'erent versions. Justin gives it after a paraphrastic fashion (Apol. i. 61) ; TertuUian associates the name of the Church with the names of the Three Persons of the Trinity {de Bapt. vi.), and a like usage is found in the Syrian Church (see Scholten, Taujformcl, p. 39). Corresponding to this lack of fixity in the longer form is the absence of anything like uniformity in the shorter one. The name used is ' Jesus Christ,' or 'the Lord Jesus,' or perhaps even simply 'Christ' (1 Co P^ suggests the last); while the relation to the name is variously expressed by eZj, iv, iwi (iwl [or €v'\ Tip ovdfxaTi, 'IrjaoO XpiuToi}, Ac 2^* ; els rb bvo/xa roD Kvpiov 'Irjaov, Ac S^^ Id^ ; iv no ovd/mart. rod Kvpiov, Ac 10''*' ; ets XpLCTTov 'Lrjcrovv, Ro 6'* ; els Xpiarou, Gal 3^^). It is hardly legitimate to simplify this diver- sity by assuming, with Dean Armitage Robinson, that els and iv are really synonymous in every case, and that ' in the name,' not ' into the name,' is always the proper English rendering (EBi i. 473). No doubt it is true, as he says, that ' the inter- changeability of the two prepositions in late Greek may be plentifully illustrated from the NT' (cf. J. H. Moulton, Gram, of NT Gr. i. 62, 66, 234 f.). But this is far from deciding the question whether in the case of baptism they are used indiflferently, and passages like Ro 6^, 1 Co 121^, Gal 3^ strongly suggest that they are not.
All this diversity of usage seems to show that slight importance was attached at first to the ques- tion of a formula, provided that it was clearly understood what Christian baptism meant, and what it implied. Relation to Christ Avas the essen- tial matter. And as Christian baptism in the NT is invariably conditional upon confession of Christ, so it Avas administered Avith an appeal to Christ's authority (iv rw 6v6fj.aTi) ; it depended for its reality upon a faith that rested on His name {iwl ry ovofiaTi) ; and it Avas the outAvard symbol of an actual union Avith His Person (els rb Svo^aa).