Nude Baptism?
Believe it or not, I received several emails from someone concerning a comment in my article on baptism when I stated:
Another bizarre practice that some claim used to be involved with compromised “Christianity” was nude baptism. Notice the following:
In at least some churches…the candidate was baptized naked, the children first, then the men, and finally the women. No one was to take into the water anything except his body (Latourette KS. A History of Christianity, Volume 1: to A.D. 1500. HarperCollins, San Francisco, 1975, p. 194).
As the Bible in no way endorses (nor records) nude baptism, the above demonstrates that pagan practices were used for people who professed, but apparently did not understand, Christ.
Because here is the question I was challenged with:
You claimed that early church baptism was performed clothed. Yet this is contrary to the uniform testimony of the early church fathers who wrote of their practices.
If false Christians are considered to be “early church fathers” then the answer is yes, but if we are talking about real Christian leaders, there simply is no historical evidence of this.
The records of true second century Church leaders are scarce, and many (like most of the writings of Melito and Theophilus) were apparently destroyed (or somehow “lost’) by Greco-Romans. Partially because of this, in the 21st century, we simply do not have writings of every pagan practice that they condemned.
The earliest non-biblical writings (second century) that may have been Christian that mention baptism state:
6:2… Let your baptism abide with you as you shield (Ignatius’s Letter to Polycarp. J.B. Lightfoot translation).
1:2…truly born of a virgin and baptized by John that all righteousness might be fulfilled by Him…8:2 It is not lawful apart from the bishop either to baptize or to hold a love-feast (Ignatius’s Letter to the Smyrnaeans. J.B. Lightfoot translation).
18:2 For our God, Jesus the Christ, was conceived in the womb by Mary according to a dispensation, of the seed of David but also of the Holy Ghost; and He was born and was baptized that by His passion He might cleanse water (Ignatius’s Letter to the Ephesians. J.B. Lightfoot translation).
6:9 But if even such righteous men as these cannot by their righteous deeds deliver their children, with what confidence will we, if we keep not our baptism pure and undefiled, enter into the kingdom of God? Or who will be our advocate, unless we be found having holy and righteous works? (Ancient “Christian” Sermon, sometimes improperly titled 2 Clement)
Publicly nudity would seem to be inconsistent with the idea of baptism being a shield, pure, and undefiled.
Perhaps I should add that Melito of Sardis mentions Christ’s baptism (On the Nature of Christ) and the heretic Irenaeus in his writings does as well, but they are consistent with the previously listed passages. Again, there is nothing in what appears to be Christian writings that endorse nude baptism in the second century.
Though some Greco-Roman leaders wrote about nude baptism in the third and fourth centuries, no one that we in the Living Church of God consider may have actually been a Christian endorse naked baptism.
Public Modesty is Endorsed in the New Testament
Public modesty is the clear teaching of 1 Timothy 2:9 and1 Peter 3:3. Also notice:
23 And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, 24 but our presentable parts have no need (1 Corinthians 12:22-24).
Notice that there are parts of the body that are not publicly presentable. Hence, I contend that those who decided to adopt nude baptism were doing so in violation of scripture.
Furthermore, nearly all the comments about nakedness in the Old and New Testament are in a negative light (e.g..Genesis 9:22-23; 2 Corinthians 5:3; Revelation 3:18; 16:15). Additionally, there is a passage in the New Testament that would have likely been written differently if nude baptism was acceptable:
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (Romans 8:35)
If God wanted people baptized naked, He would not have the Apostle Paul suggest that being naked would be in the category of things that could separate believers from the love of Christ. To the contrary, He would have had Paul leave the word naked out.
If God wanted Christians to be baptized nude, He would have left some instruction in the Bible. But it is not there. The Bible and early Christian writings do not support that any associated with the true Church practiced nude baptism.
Two articles of related interest may include:
Baptism and the Early Church Was it by immersion? Did it include infants?
Did Real Christians Practice Nude Baptism? This is not a joke. Find out what was taught in the second and later centuries.
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