186 Dimensions of Baptism
- Conclusion
While the suggestion made here that 'baptisms' in Heb. 6.2 might refer not
only to Christian baptism and ritual cleansings/washings but also to the
'baptism of blood' is not conclusive, the discussion above is at least sug-
gestive of the possibility given the arguments put forward. The evidence
that we have examined shows that martyrdom was understood as a second
baptism not just from the earliest unequivocal reference to the baptism of
blood in the writing of Tertullian at the end of the second century and
beginning of the third, but that a plausible case can be made for tracing
this and related ideas back through the Apostolic Fathers, the book of
Revelation and the writings of Paul to Jesus himself.^89 If this is so, then
there is a possibility that 'baptisms' in Heb. 6.2 could include a reference
to the baptism of blood/martyrdom as part of the elementary teaching
given to converts (cf. Mk 8.34-38), and the relevance of this to the imme-
diate context of the church to whom Hebrews was written is nowhere
clearer than when the writer states, 'You have not yet resisted to the point
of shedding your blood' (12.4).- This conclusion is pace Jeanes, 'Baptism', p. 174, who argues that 'If this paper
is correct in seeing the influence of the martyr tradition on the liturgies, then we have
to acknowledge that the tradition became a liturgical language only after it had, to all
intents and purposes, ceased as a current actual issue. It was only when martyrs were a
thing of the past that the language of martyrdom could be applied to the initiation of
every Christian.' It should be noted that Jeanes's focus is on liturgy in general, whereas
the focus of this study is on the use of the baptismal metaphor for martyrdom in
particular and trying to ascertain how early this tradition can be dated.