Dimensions of Baptism Biblical and Theological Studies

180 Dimensions of Baptism

cup of suffering in Mart. Pol 14.2 ('I bless thee, that I may share, among

the number of the martyrs, in the cup of thy Christ, for the Resurrection to

everlasting life'^66 ) contains a clear allusion to the baptism of death, for, as

Beasley-Murray reminds us, 'in Mk 10.38 the two clauses are parallel in

meaning: a cup is to be drunk, a baptism is to be endured'.^67 But it was not

long before martyrdom was described explicitly in baptismal terms. The

third-century Martyrdom of Marian and James 11.10 refers to the martyr-

dom in 259 CE of Marian and James and the rest of the clergy who were

with them as their crowning and it took place probably on the banks of the

river Rommel (modern name) on which Cirta was situated: 'The river

itself in the hollow would drink their blessed blood. Both forms of the

sacrament would be present, since they would be baptized in their blood

and washed in the stream.'^68

Martyrdom as a second baptism becomes explicit in the writings of

TertuUian: '[God] therefore appointed as second supplies of comfort, and

the last means of succour, the fight of martyrdom and the baptism... of

blood.'^69 Writing around the turn of the second-third century, TertuUian

explicitly quotes part of Lk. 12.50:

We have indeed.. .a second font...of blood.. .concerning which the Lord

said, 'I have to be baptized with a baptism', when He had been baptized

already. For He had come 'by means of water and blood', just as John has

written; that He might be baptized by the water, glorified by the blood; to

make us, in like manner, called by water, chosen by blood... This is the

baptism which both stands in lieu of the fontal bathing when that has not

been received, and restores it when lost.^70

Some years later he linked the ability of the two baptisms to confer the

forgiveness of sins: 'martyrdom will be another baptism. For "I have

withal", saith he, "another baptism". Whence, too, it was that there flowed

out of the wound in the Lord's side water and blood, the materials of either

baptism [Jn 19.33-34]. I ought, then, by the first baptism too to (have the

66. Lake, Apsotolic Fathers, II, p. 331.


67. Beasley-Murray, Baptism, p. 73.


68. The Martyrdom of Saints Marian and James 11.9-10, in Musurillo (ed.), Acts of
    Christian Martyrs, p. 210.


69. TertuUian, Scorpiace 6, in A.C. Coxe (ed.), The Ante-Nicene Fathers, 3 (repr.
    Grand Rapids: Eerdmans; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1997), p. 639. Cf. TertuUian, On
    Patience 13, ANF3, p. 716.


70. TertuUian, On Baptism 16, ANF 3, p. 677, italics original. For notes and com-
    mentary on this passage, see E. Evans, TertuUian's Homily on Baptism (London:
    SPCK, 1964), pp. 94-96.