Baptized in Water

The Shepherd of Hermes (80-150 AD) in the Apostolic Fathers collection uses baptism as a metaphor of how God builds his church. Referring to the church as a “tower being built upon the waters out of shining square stones,” he says that each stone was “dragged from the deep” and “placed in the building just as they were” (Hermes Vision 3.2). Picking up the same metaphor, he later asks, “Why did the stones come up from the deep, and why were they put into the building?” The answer is, “It was nec­essary for them to come up through water in order to be made alive, for oth­erwise they could not enter the kingdom of God. . . So even those who had fallen asleep received the seal of the Son of God. . . The seal, therefore, is the water; so they go down into the water dead and they come up alive. . . they went down into the water, and came up again. . . this is why they came up with them and were fitted together with them [the Apostles] into the structure of the tower” (Parable 9.16). It is pretty obvious that the Shepherd viewed baptism as an immersion.

Tags: shepherd of hermes