Dimensions of Baptism Biblical and Theological Studies

FERGUSON Christian and Jewish Baptism 215

is one factor in the passages chosen: ineffective (11.2-3) or unfruitful

(11.7) versus faithful or unfailing (11.5) waters. Moreover, Barnabas

selects passages that include a negative judgment on Israel (11.2-3),

passages with positive promises that can be applied to the Church ('us'

and not'them' [cf.3.1 and3]—11.4-5,9-11), andapassage that reinforces

the distinction between the two peoples ([cf. chs. 13-14] 11.6-8).^32 The

first set of passages includes a reference to rock. Although it is not cited,

the unifying idea seems to be the episodes of water brought forth from the

rock (Exod. 17.1-7; Num. 20.2-13; Ps. 78.15-17),^33 a familiar scene with

baptismal allusions in early Christian art.^34 Another unifying theme is that

of life—from the opening reference to God as the 'fountain of life' (11.2)

to the closing promise 'whoever eats of the trees will live forever', quoted

twice (11.10, 11).

The first quotation is a composite of Jer. 2.13 and Isa. 16.1. Jeremiah

supplied the contrast between a fountain and a cistern, particularly telling

in view of the Jewish preference in purifications for running water over

collected water, LXX manuscripts read 'fountain of the water of life' or

'fountain of living water', the former adopted by the Latin translation of

Barnabas and the latter by the Jerusalem manuscript. Since an explicit

reference to water would have been so fitting to Barnabas's purposes, the

reading 'fountain of life' in Sinaiticus is almost certainly original.^35 The

'barren rock' of Isa. 16.1^36 contrasts with the water of a 'fountain of life'.

The quotation continues with the idea of punishment: the Jews are like lost

birds.^37

32. On this theme in Barnabas, see Hvalvik, Struggle, especially pp. 137-57.


33. Hvalvik, Struggle, p. 190.


34. For the baptismal interpretation of the water from the rock, see Tertullian, De
    bapt. 9; Cyprian, Ep. 63[62].8; other references in Jean Danielou, From Shadows to
    Reality: Studies in the Typology of the Fathers (London: Burns & Oates, 1960), pp.
    193-97. For Christian art, see H. Schlosser,' "Moses" and "Quellwunder"', in Engle-
    bert Kirschbaum (ed.), Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie (Rome: Herder, 1971),
    III, cols. 286-88 (fig. 2 and 5), pp. 487-88.


35. Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 1.9.78.2 and Tertullian, Adv.Iud. 13.13-15quote
    the verse as 'fountain of living water' in an anti-Judaic context. Justin, Dial. 114.5
    quotes 'living fountain' (cf. also 19.2); he, like Barnabas, quotes Jer. 2.13 and Isa. 16.1
    as one continuous passage. This independent attestation in Justin confirms that
    Barnabas did not originate the catena. (Justin, Dial. 14.1 and 19.2 also refer to the
    cisterns of Jer. 2.13 in contrast to the Christian 'water of life' [14.1] and 'baptism of
    life' [19.2].) Even without the word 'water' this anti-Judaic text was suitable for a
    baptismal application—Prigent and Kraft, Epitre de Barnabe, p. 161.


36. Barnabas has substituted 'holy Sinai' (Ps. 67.18, LXX), a desert mountain, for