184 Dimensions of Baptism
In his commentary on Romans, John Chrysostom mentions the connec-
tion between Jesus' own death as a baptism and the believer's baptism:
'What does it mean that we have been baptised into His death? Just as He
was baptised into His death, so too have we, for baptism is a cross. Bap-
tism is to us what the cross and burial were to Christ, although not with
regard to the same things. '^80 After citing Jesus' answer to James and John
in Mk 10.38 in one of his baptismal instructions, Chrysostom continues:You see that He called the cross a baptism. How is this clear? Can you drink,
He says, of the cup of which lam about to drink? He calls His passion a cup
and on this account He says: Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away
from me. Did you see how He called the cross a baptism and the passion a
cup?^81Again in an instruction delivered to neophytes in one of the many martyria
in Antioch, probably on Easter Friday,^82 he makes the connection between
baptism and martyrdom explicit, comparing the neophyte and martyr who
both die to the world and whose lives are hidden with Christ in God.^83 For
Chrysostom the baptism of martyrdom is also seen as conferring the
forgiveness of sins.^84
These examples show that the use of the baptismal metaphor for martyr-
dom and the accompanying theology was already well-developed in the
ante-Nicene period. Nearly a century and a half later, Augustine quotes
approvingly from Cyprian's letter To Jubaianus on the baptism of blood.^85- John Chrysostom, In Romans 10, in P.W. Harkins (ed.), St John Chrysostom:
Baptismal Instructions (ACW, 31; Westminster, MN: Newman Press; London:
Longmans, Green, 1963), p. 306 (alsoPG LX, col. 480a). On Chrysostom's baptismal
preparation, see Harkins, St John Chrysostom; and R.F.G. Burnish, 'Baptismal
Preparation under the Ministry of St John Chrysostom in Fourth-Century Antioch', in
Porter and Cross (eds.), Baptism, pp. 379-401, and his earlier The Meaning of Baptism:
A Comparison of the Teaching and Practice of the Fourth Century with the Present
Day (ACC, 67; London: SPCK, 1985), pp. 23-48 and 78-98. - John Chrysostom, The Tenth Instruction 9 (Papadopoulos-Kerameus 2), in
Harkins (ed.), StJohn Chrysostom, p. 151, italics original. - Harkins, St John Chrysostom, p. 268 n. 1, notes that from the fourth century
this day was dedicated to the memory of Christian martyrs who died under Sapor on
Good Friday 341 CE. - John Chrysostom, The Seventh Instruction 22 (Stavronikita 7), in Harkins (ed.),
St John Chrysostom, pp. 112-13. - John Chrysostom, In S Lucianum Martyr em 2 (PG, L, col. 522, cited by Jeanes,
'Baptism', p. 160). - Cyprian, Epistle 72, To Jubaianus 21-22, in ANF 5, pp. 384-85, cited by
Augustine, On Baptism, Against the Donatists, 4.17 and 4.22, in P. Schaff (ed.), The