GREEN 'She and her household were baptized' 73
It is tempting once again to return to centerstage the issue of the baptism
of small children. This is because of an observation like that of Thomas
Wiedemann, that to baptize small children would have been to signal
within Christian communities that the lives of the young were just as
significant as those of adults.^5 Within the horizons of the Roman world—
in which children were the weakest, most vulnerable of the populace, and
possessed little implicit value as human beings^6 —this would have marked
a stunning innovation. This novelty would also be fully coherent with the
larger Lukan narrative in which conventional concerns with status are
often subverted.^7 Nevertheless, the Aland-Jeremias debate itself is enough
to demonstrate the ambiguity of the evidence of Acts; indeed, we can
scarcely conclude anything but that, if Luke were interested in scoring
theological points with regard to the baptism of young children, he might
have done it in a more conclusive and transparent way. If accounts of
household baptism are not particularly concerned to demonstrate the ritual
inclusion of infants within the community of God's people, however, the
question remains: How do household baptisms function within the narra-
tive of Acts?
In this essay, I want to argue that episodes of 'household baptism' in the
Church (SNTW; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1997), pp. 127-45. Interestingly, Geoffrey
Wainwright surveys the message of Acts on baptism (pp. 113-16) without taking up
the question of infant baptism, turning to the latter issue under a separate heading, 'The
Baptism of Young Children' (pp. 123-24) ('Baptism, Baptismal Rites', inDLNTD, pp.
112-25). Similarly, in his examination of Die Taufe infruhchristlicher Zeit (BthSt, 4;
Neukirchener-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1981), Gerhard Barth deals with the evi-
dence of Acts primarily under the headings, 'Der Ursprung der christlichen Taufe' (pp.
1-43) and 'Taufe und Geist' (pp. 60-72), and only later takes up 'Die Frage nach der
Taufe von Kindern in neutestamentlicher Zeit' (pp. 137-45). My own earlier contribu-
tion to this topic ('From "John's Baptism" to "Baptism in the Name of the Lord Jesus":
The Significance of Baptism in Luke-Acts', in Stanley E. Porter and Anthony R. Cross
[eds.], Baptism, the New Testament and the Church: Historical and Contemporary
Studies in Honour ofR.E. O. White [JSNTSup, 171; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press,
1999], pp. 157-72) did not broach the significance of household baptisms per se—
hence, this follow-up essay.
- Thomas Wiedemann, Adults and Children in the Roman Empire (New Haven,
CT: Yale University Press, 1989), pp. 6-7. - See, e.g., Beryl Rawson (ed.), The Family in Ancient Rome: New Perspectives
(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1986); idem (ed.), Marriage, Divorce, and Chil-
dren in Ancient Rome (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991). - With regard to the status of children in particular, cf, e.g., Lk. 9.46-48; 18.15-17.