Dimensions of Baptism Biblical and Theological Studies

298 Dimensions of Baptism

will not complete baptism, but they will complete initiation. In the case of

believer's baptism, the apprehending of the person by God's grace before

baptism, prior faith and first communion are all part of the process.

Baptism in the triune Name is a sort of 'snapshot' or 'freeze-frame' of a

flowing movement, a moment symbolizing the whole but not containing

the whole. Advocates of believer's baptism may regret that the picture is

taken so early with the baptism of infants; they will prefer that the particu-

lar interplay of grace and faith in the life of the young child be expressed

in the rite of infant blessing. However, there is a good case for saying that

the symbol will be undermined if the picture is taken more than once.

(b) An Interplay of Spirit and Water

There has been a long dispute in the history of the Church about the rela-

tion of the Spirit to water-baptism. Especially relevant to our concerns is

the Pauline concept of the 'seal of the Spirit' which has been a storm-

centre of different interpretations. The majority of New Testament schol-

ars locate the 'seal' in water-baptism, as the primary endowment of the

Spirit, enabling and accompanying the participation of the believer in the

death and resurrection of Jesus, and giving the believer a foretaste of the

reality of the new creation.^43 It is thus a parallel concept to 'baptism in the

Spirit' and coincides with baptism in water. Others detach the 'seal' from

water-baptism, placing it either before or afterwards. James Dunn argues,

like Karl Barth, that the action of being 'stamped' (sealed) with the Spirit

or 'immersed' (baptized) in the Spirit is the gift of God which begins the

process of salvation, and is separate in New Testament thinking from

water-baptism. He is concerned that the Church has given water-baptism

the prominence that is really due to the Spirit.^44 By contrast, Orthodox

exegesis has followed the practice of the third-century Church and located

the 'seal' in an immediate post-baptismal rite of anointing, first recorded

in the account of baptism by Hippolytus.^45 In this 'sacrament of the Holy

43. See Lampe, Seal of the Spirit, pp. 53-63; Beasley-Murray, Baptism in the New
    Testament, pp. 174-77, understands it to be a sealing with the name of Jesus in bap-
    tism, and so a mark of ownership. Pauline texts are 2 Cor. 1.22; Eph. 1.13; 4.30; cf.
    1 Cor. 6.11; 12.13.


44. Dunn, 'Baptism and the Unity of the Church in the New Testament', pp. 85,
    97-98; cf. James D.G. Dunn, Baptism in the Holy Spirit: A Re-examination of the New
    Testament Teaching on the Gift of the Spirit in relation to Pentecostalism Today
    (London: SCM Press, 1970), pp. 131-34.


45. See 'The Apostolic Tradition' of Hippolytus, XXII (reconstructed by Gregory