200 Dimensions of Baptism
occasion.^41 Nothing new is added by John Chrysostom's homily on Mt.
19.13-15. Jesus' acceptance of the children was designed to correct his
disciples' improper sense of dignity in turning them away. The soul of the
young children is pure from all passions. By choice we should practise that
freedom which infants possess by nature.^42 This exposition by Chrysostom
looms large in the catenae on the Synoptic Gospels from the Greek Fathers
published by Cramer.^43 In none of the three Gospels is any reference to
baptism discernible.
At this point we may note the collection of Latin homilies on Matthew
wrongly attributed to Chrysostom which goes under the name of the Opus
Imperfectum. Its provenance, authorship and date remain uncertain, al-
though the writer has been viewed as a sixth-century bishop of Arian
sympathies.^44 This homilist, like Ambrose earlier, made the connexion
with the immediately preceding teaching in Mil9 on chastity. Hearing
Jesus, people brought to him 'children of the purest chastity'. This sets
the tone for the rest of the treatment of our text. 'Of such is the kingdom
of heaven, that is, of those chaste by virtue, as children are by age.' So
this author retains both a literal and a figurative meaning. The passage 'in-
structs all parents to offer their sons (filios) regularly (indesinenter—
unceasingly) to the bishops, because in offering them to the bishops, they
offer them to Christ. For it is Christ, not the bishop, who lays on hands.'
Newborn babies are set in maligno, and hence 'must be presented so that
prayer may be assiduously made over them'.^45 What the preacher has in
mind is not baptism, nor any other one-off rite, but probably the regular
presentation of unbaptized children to bishop or priest for sealing with the
sign of the cross and other ceremonies.^46
Cyril of Alexandria's commentary on Luke was delivered in homilies
around 430 CE. Before devoting most of his attention to being 'babes in
wickedness' (1 Cor. 14.20) but mature in mind, Cyril relates the passage to
church practice:
- Gregory of Nyssa, Opera IX: Sermones I (ed. G. Heil et al; Leiden: E J. Brill,
1967), p. 465. - John Chrysostom, 'Homilies on Matthew 62.4', ad loc. (PG, lvii, cols. 600-
601). - J.A. Cramer, Catenae Graecorum Patrum in Novum Testamentum (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1844), I, pp. 154, 374-76, II, p. 134. - See J. van Banning's extensive Praefatio in preparation for a new edition
(CCSL, 88 B; Turnhout: Brepols, 1988). - Ambrose, Homily 32 (PG, lvi, cols. 804-805).
- Cf. Wright, 'Infant Dedication in the Early Church', pp. 353-62.