the confession (bfj.o\oylav) of our hope.' — In 1 P 3*' baptism is the ' antitype ' of the bringing of Noah safe through the water ; the antitype is here the ' nobler member of the pair of relatives ' (Bigg, ICC, in loc), the fulfilment of the type ; but in He 9^ it is used conversely, as it often is in Christian antiquity when the Eucharistic bread and wine are called the antitype of our Lord's body and blood, e.g. Verona Didascalia (ed. Hauler, p. 112) ' panem quidem in exemplar quod dicit Graecus antitypum corporis Christi'; so Cyr. Jer., Cat. xxiii. 20; Tertullian similarly uses ' figura ' (ac?w. Marc. iv. 10), and Serapion bp.olwixa (Liturgy, § 1). For other instances, see Cooper-Maclean, Test, of our Lord, Edinburgh, 1902, p. 172 f., and Apost. Const, v. 14, vi. 30, vii. 25. In Ps.-Clem. 2 Cor. 14 the flesh is the ' antitype ' of the Spirit.
In the Gospels, Christian baptism is three times referred to : Mt 28'», ' Mk ' 16'«, Jn S^- ». In the last passage the words i^ liSaros, read in all MSS and VSS, have been judged by K. Lake (Inaug. Lecture at Leyden, 17th Jan. 1904, p. 14) to be an interpolation, as they are not quoted by Justin. This deduction is very precarious (for an examina- tion of it, see Chase, JThSt vi. [1905] 504, note, who deems the theory unscientific) ; but in any case the ' birth of the Spirit ' could not but con- vey to the Christian readers of the Fourth Gospel a reference to baptism. Westcott truly remarks (Com. in loc.) that to Nicodemus the words would suggest a reference to John's baptism. An attempt to explain ' water ' here without reference to baptism is examined by Hooker (Eccl. Pol. v. 59), who lays down the oft-quoted canon that 'while a literal construction will stand, the farthest from the letter is commonly the worst' (see below, 8).
In these passages water is not always mentioned ; but the word /SaTrrifw, which to us is a mere technical expression, and its Aramaic equivalent (rt. "^na) would to the first disciples at once convey the idea of water. The element is mentioned or alluded to in Ac S^s, 1 Co 6" 12i3 ('drink of one Spirit '), Eph fr^. Tit 3^, He lO-^, 1 _P f^, and is necessitated by the metaphor of burial in baptism in Ro 6^ Col 2'^. Justin (Dial. 14) emphasizes the element used, by calling baptism the ' water of life' : so in Hermas (Vis. iii. 3) the Church (the tower) is built on the waters, ' because your life is saved and shall be saved by water.'
More indirect allusions to Christian baptism are found in the NT. The Israelites, by a metaphor from it, are said to have been baptized into (eis) Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Co 10'-). Whatever view is taken of baptism for the dead (1 Co 15^^^), it alludes to the Cliristian rite. It has been interpreted (a) of vicarious baptism on be- half of those who had died unbaptized (cf. 2 Mac j9-i3ff.^ ofiering made for the dead) ; this was the practice of some heretics (so Tert., de Res. Cam. 48, adv. Marc. v. 10, and Goudge, Alford). But there is no evidence that it existed in the 1st cent., and the practice may have originated from this verse ; could St. Paul have even tacitly approved of such a thing? — (b) The words virkp Tihv veKpQv are rendered by many Greek Fathers ' in expecta- tion of the resurrection of the dead ' ; but this forces the grammar, and gives no good sense to inrkp avTwv, which is the best attested reading at the end of tlie verse ; also ' they which are bap- tized ' means not all Christians, but some of tliem. — (c) Others interpret the verse of people being drawn to the faitii and to baptism out of atl'ection for some dead friend ; Robertson-Plummer (ICC, in loc.) incline to this. — (d) Estius and Calvin render 'as now about to die,' Jamjam morituri ; but see (b). — (e) Luther renders 'over the graves of the dead'; here again see (b). Many other
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suggestions have been made. It is probable that the problem is insoluble with our present know- ledge, and that the reference is to some ceremony in the then baptismal rite at Corinth of which we hear no more, but not to vicarious baptism (see Plummer in HDB i. 245).
Other allusions to baptism (the complete rite, see below, 6) may probably be found in the meta- phors of anointing and sealing. For anointing, see 2 Co P^ (xp'cas, aorist), 1 Jn 2-'"- ^ (the anoint- ing abides in us and is not only a historical act). Though anointing may have accompanied the rite in the NT, and Chase (Confirmation, 53 ff.) decides that it was so used, yet it is also not improbable that its institution at a very early age of the Church may have been due to these very passages — that the practice came from the metaphor. We notice that in the Didachc, § 7, anointing is not mentioned, but that in Apost. Const, vii. 22 (4th cent. ), which incorporates and enlarges the Didache, it is introduced. It was certainly used very early. Irenaeus says that some of the Gnostic sects anointed after baptism (c. Haer. I. xxi. 3f.) ; and as the Gnostic rites were a parody of those of the Church, this carries the evidence back to c. A.D. 150. It is mentioned by Tert., de Bapt. 7, de Res. Cam. 8; by Cyr. Jer., Cat. xxii. 1. From the anointing came the custom of calling the baptized 'christs,' xP^°"''o^ (Cyr. Jer., loc. cit. ; Methodius, Banquet of the Ten Virgins, viii. 8, where Ps 105'* LXX is quoted). In the NT, xP'"" is used meta- phorically of our Lord ; cf. Lk 4^^, Ac 4^ 10*^, He P.