The Baptism of Jesus hij John (Matt, iii, 13; Mark i, 0 ; Luke iii, 21 ; comp. John i, 19), as the first act of Christ's public career, is one of the most important events recorded in the evangelical historv. We might
BAPTISM
C45
BAPTISM
he apt to infer from Luke and Matthew that there had been an acquaintance between Christ and John prior to i he baptism, and that hence John declines (Matt. iii, 14) t> baptize Jesus, arguing that he needed to be baptized by him. This, however, has been thought to be at variance with John i, 31, 33. Lucke (Comment. i, 416 sq., 3d edit.) takes the words " I knew him not" in their strict and exclusive sense. John, he says, could not have spoken in this manner if he had at all known Jesus; and had he known him, he could not, as a prophet, have failed to discover, even at an earlier period, the but too evident " glory" of the Messiah. On the other hand, the narrative of the first three Gos- pels presupposes John's personal acquaintance with him, since, although the herald of the Messiah, he could not otherwise have given that refusal (Matt, iii, 14 ) to the Messiah alone ; for his own language neces- sarily implies that Jesus was not a stranger to him. See Messiah.
With regard to the object of Christ in undergoing baptism, we find, in the first instance, that he ranked this action among those of his Messianic calling. This object is still more defined by John the Baptist (John i, 31), which passage Liicke interprets in the following words : ' ' Only by entering into that community which was to be introductory to the Messianic, by attaching himself to the Baptist like any other man, was it pos- sible for Christ to reveal himself to the Baptist, and , through him to others." Christ himself never for a moment could doubt his own mission, or the right pe- j riod when his character was to be made manifest by j God ; but John needed to receive that assurance, in order to be the herald of the Messiah who was actually come. For all others whom John baptized, either be- j fore or after Christ, this act was a mere preparatory , consecration to the kingdom of the Messiah ; while for Jesus it was a direct and immediate consecration, by means of which he manifested the commencement of his career as the founder of the new theocracy, which began at the very moment of his baptism, the initia- tory character of which constituted its general princi- ple and tendency. See Jesus.
Baptism of the Disciples of Christ. — Whether our | Lord ever baptized has been doubted. (See Schenk, De lotione a Christo administrate), Marb. 1745.) The only passage which may distinctly bear on the ques- tion is John iv, 1, 2, where it is said "that Jesus made , and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples." We neces- , sarily infer from it that, as soon as our Lord began his ' ministry, and gathered to him a company of disciples, lie, like John the Baptist, admitted into that company by the administration of baptism. Normally, howev- er, to say the least of it, the administration of baptism was by the hands of his disciples. Some suppose that the first-called disciples had all received baptism at the hands of John the Baptist, as must have pretty j certainly been the case with Andrew (see John i, 35, ' 37, 40), and that they were not again baptized with water after they joined the company of Christ. Oth- ers believe that Christ himself baptized some few of his earlier disciples, who were afterward authorized to ' baptize the rest. But in any case the words above cited seem to show that making disciples and baptiz- ing them went together; and that baptism was, even ! during our Lords earthly ministry, the formal mode of accepting his service and becoming attached to his company.
Alter the resurrection, when the church was to be spread and the Gospel preached, our Lord's own com- mission conjoins the making of disciples with their | baptism. The command, "Make disciples of all na- ; tions by baptizing them" (Matt, xxviii, 19), is merely I the extension of his own practice, "Jesus made disci- ples and baptized them" (John iv, 1). The conduct of the apostles is the plainest comment on both ; for so soon as ever men, convinced by their preaching, asked
for guidance and direction, their first exhortation was to repentance and baptism, that thus the convert should be at once publicly received into the fold of Christ (see Acts ii, 38 ; viii, 12, 36 ; ix, 18 ; x, 47 ; xvi, 15, 33, etc.). (See Zimmcrmann, De Baptsmi or'gine et usu, Gott. 1816.) See Disciple.
3. Christian Baptism is a sacrament instituted by Christ himself. When he could no longer personally and immediately choose and receive members of his kingdom, when at the same time all had been accom- plished which the founder thought necessary for its completion, he gave power to the spiritual community to receive, in his name, members by baptism. The au- thority and obligation of baptism as a universal ordi- nance of the Christian Church is derived from tiie commission of Christ, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in (to, tic) the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matt, xxviii, 19). See II below.