2016.12.17 - This morning, I found some info on [[Naked]] [[Baptism]]. The list below shows the links that were put in the [[NAU_Study|NAU Bible Study]]. - Naked baptism in the early church - Catechetical Lecture 20 - [[Church_Fathers_ Catechetical Lecture 20 (Cyril of Jerusalem).pdf]] - Naked baptism in the early church - The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyri - [[Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. VII_ The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril._ On the Mysteries. II_ Of Baptism. _ St-Takla.org.pdf]] - Naked baptism in the early church - Christianity Stack Exchange - [[church history - Is it true that early Christians were baptised naked_ - Christianity Stack Exchange.pdf]] - Christianity: Sacraments--Baptism - Historical Boy's Clothing - [[Christianity -- sacrements baptism.pdf]] - Naked baptism - INSTRUCTIONS FOR JOINING THE ORTHODOX CHURCH - [[INSTRUCTIONS_ON_JOINING_THE_ORTHODOX_CHURCH.pdf]] - Criticism of naked baptism - City-Data.com - [[Baptism by Immersion - Questions (church, believe, sin, Jesus Christ) - Christianity - - City-Data Forum.pdf]] - First of all, I had no idea that city-data had a forum to discuss virtually any topic. - One of the replies to a question about naked baptism on city-data went off on the poor [[Pastor]] saying that there is no evidence in the Bible that people took off their [[Clothing_Textile_People|clothes]] when getting baptized. Specifically, Jesus or the eunuch in Acts. - First of all, that is a correct statement. - Digging a little deeper … - There are many examples of Jesus and the disciples (to include Paul) eating. However, there is no mention of them going to the bathroom. Are we to assume that supernaturally, they never went to the toilet. For that matter, there is no mention of them bathing. Again, are we to assume that they NEVER took a bath? - I think most people would agree that the toilet and bathing examples are silly. Of course they relieved themselves regularly and bathed (at least occasionally). Then why doesn’t scripture discuss it. - Going back to the eating, to the best of my knowledge, every time eating is mentioned, it is in the context of some sort of teaching about food rules or some other unrelated topic. The writers felt it necessary to include the meal in their discussion to make a point. - On the other hand, they didn’t feel it necessary to include discussion on culturally normal events. - Based on extra-Biblical history, the “normal” way for the Jews to baptize during that time period and for many hundreds of years prior was to do so naked. Since that was the normal way to do things, the writers didn’t feel it necessary to describe the normal process. If on the other hand, Jesus had mandated the wearing of clothing during baptism, I am sure the writers would have described that process in detail since it would have been a change of custom. - Examples of the changing customs include: - the washing of hands prior to eating - picking grains of wheat on the [[Sabbath]], - healing on the Sabbath - Jesus hanging out with “sinners”, etc. - One could argue that based on our customs today, there is no way they did baptisms naked in the past. - Cyril of Jerusalem statement in the 4th century would seem to put one stake in the ground for the early church. I’d like to get a good source for the pre-Jesus Jews doing naked baptism. - I’ll leave that for another day.