Tertullian is often referred to as the founder of Latin Christianity. “The traditional account of Tertullian's life has relied heavily on Jerome (Vir. ill.53) and Eusebius of Caesarea (H.E.2.2)”¹ In his book Tertullian, Timothy David Barnes disputes much of what has been traditionally accepted about the life of Tertullian since serious errors can be found in the works of Jerome, Eusebius, and other early Christians who wrote concerning Tertullian. Jerome and Eusebius seemed to have accepted earlier written and oral accounts about the life of Tertullian without checking the validity of those accounts.

“What we can know for sure about Tertullian must come from his own writings. We cannot determine his exact date of birth or death but we are able to date confidently some of his writings between 196/7 and 212 A.D. The traditional date of birth given by Jerome is 160. A.D.”²

Tertullian was a prolific writer. He wrote in Latin and Greek and belonged to the second-century Sophist movement. If we just look at his writings to make a judgment, it is obvious Tertullian had a better than average education.

“ From the two treatises named to His Wife, it is natural to infer that he was married. Since he used the first person plural in several passages when speaking of paganism, one can also deduce that he himself was a convert to Christianity.”³

During the later years of Tertullian's life he was converted to Montanism, but the exact date of the conversion cannot be determined. Toward the end of his life he departed from the Montanists over a dispute about the bodily constitution of the soul.⁴

He then founded a group known as the “Tertullianist.” This particular sect remained in North Africa until the end of the fourth century and at that time their buildings and property were turned over to the Catholic Church.

Tertullian was the leading Christian apologist of the second century. The goals for much of his writings were to defend Christianity against paganism. On the Shows, On Baptism, and On Veiling of the Virgins were efforts to separate Christianity and Christian doctrine from ideas and teachings espoused by pagans and heretics. Also, as Dr. Ferguson reminds us, Tertullian and his views were challenged in the church and much of his writings were to promote his views in the church. A great amount of Tertullian's works were devoted to the role of women in church and society. Very often these treatises were a defense against heretical doctrines.

Gnosticism permeated the intellectual climate of the second century. Gnosticism had no single coherent body of doctrine; however, all believed that redemption or salvation came through gnosis or knowledge.⁵ Women were often dominant in Montanism as some of the Gnostic movements.

There are some scholars who think that Tertullian wrote to the middle and upper class of his society and not necessarily to the lower class, as is often presupposed.⁶ There is evidence that women on the second century experienced a general change in role, at least in the leisured classes of Roman society. They were everywhere, involved in business, social life, sports events, concerts, parties and traveling. All of this was with or without their husbands. They took part in athletics and even bore arms and went to battle.⁷ In secret meetings women devoted themselves to the goddesses Isis and Cybele.⁸

It was no accident that in Montanism women were the preferred prophets. Prophecy was their Terra Sacra or sacred territory. Gnosticism found women a preferred group since it often offered them a route around traditional teachings from the scriptures and apostolic authority. Avoiding these was an aid to their personal empowerment.

Some historians consider the change of women's roles in ancient society as one precipitating factor in the social deterioration that eventually climaxed with the fall of the Roman Empire. Broken bonds of friendship, the deterioration of the family, and other social relationships had a devastating effect.⁹

It was in the above atmosphere that Tertullian wrote some of his most famous works. He wrote against “immodest women who dare to teach and dispute, perform exorcism, promise cures ,and perhaps even baptize converts.¹⁰ Tertullian was no friend of feminism with the exception of some of his late works.

Tertullian was fond of the process of antithesis. The contrasts he makes between good and evil, God and the devil are consequences of his philosophical orientation. He practiced this same format with his use of scripture, but often displayed very poor exegetical skills. De Baptismo takes the form of a logical argument. It is written with a comfirmation-reprehensio sequence.¹¹ Throughout this homily, Tertullian states the problem or allegation that the heretics are making and immediately refutes the claims.

De Baptismo can be broken down into three parts. Chapters 1-9 are directed against the teachings of heretical groups with a defense of water as matter and why baptism is necessary. Chapters 10-16 address a number of different themes, most of which seem to be topics that were under discussion. Chapters 17-20 state the rules and regulations for the administration of baptism. While a breakdown of the document into chapter divisions is important for a proper understanding, it must not be forgotten that some larger issues are at stake.

In the opening comments of De Baptismo, Tertullian stakes out the goals of his up coming arguments. In 1:1 he states this is a discussion of the sacred significance of water. It is the water that washes away the sin of our original blindness¹² and gives us eternal life. The document is written to those under instruction (catechumens) and others who have not examined the “reasons for what has been conferred on them.”¹³ This is an interesting statement since the Latin text reads, “ non exploratis rationibus traditionum.” Literally, you have not explored the rationale of the traditions.¹⁴ By Tertullian's use of the word “traditions” he surely is making a reference to apostolic succession. Apostolic succession was aimed at Montanism and Gnosticism. In Montanism, the participants claimed they received their message direct from God (by means of the Holy Spirit), while the Gnostics experienced a special revelation. The result of both doctrines was the abrogation of written revelation and apostolic authority,¹⁵ since the source for authority was personal and individualized. There was less need to read or study the scriptural text and certainly no need to obey the dogma of the church when the Holy Spirit spoke directly to people. If Montanism and Gnosticism had triumphed, Christianity would have been lain at the mercy of the new prophets of each generation. Rejecting the idea that the Holy Spirit spoke directly to individuals implied that the Holy Spirit once acted in a manner that no longer is available. “This rejection gradually led to the formation of the canon of scripture".¹⁶

The history of the early church was profoundly influenced between the second and third centuries by the struggle against Gnosticism. Irenaeus for example is impelled precisely by this confrontation to work out and establish fundamental theological and doctrinal issues including public Apostolic Succession.¹⁷

Thus, the doctrine of apostolic succession, which later became a cornerstone of Roman Catholicism, had its initial origin as a means to defend the church and gospel against Gnostic invasions. We are give a hint of this conflict in De Baptismo. Tertullian emphatically claims that , “Opposition to the episcopate is the mother of schisms.”¹⁸

De Baptismo was directed against a particular woman preacher. Tertullian refers to her as a “female viper from the Cainite sect, who recently spent some time here [and] carried off a good number with her exceptionally pestilential doctrine.”¹⁹ It is hard to identify this particular sect and woman. It may be that calling her a female viper in connection with the reference to a Cainite sect is intended as a pun,²⁰ but the exact historical context cannot be determined. She probably belonged to a small Cainite Gnostic sect.²¹

Tertullian makes an immediate reference to scripture²² to remind his audience that a woman had no right to teach even if teaching correctly.²³ The same subject is reiterated at the close of De Baptismo, when he again responds to this woman, calling it “impudence that this woman has assumed the right to teach.”²⁴ How could we believe that Paul should give a female power to teach and to baptize, when he did not allow a woman even to learn by her own right?”²⁵

“Let them keep silence, he says, and ask their husbands at home.”²⁶ He immediately tells his listeners that his woman knows how to kill little fishes out of water.²⁷ For Tertullian, baptism is not a trivial matter since he considers the teachings of this woman to result in the death of her followers. “She was teaching, apparently with some success, that baptism was neither necessary or effective, because it is enmeshed in water—particularly such trivial matter as water.”²⁸ The Gnosticism he is rebutting is evident almost immediately. “There is indeed nothing which hardens men's minds as the simplest of God's works as they are observed in 'action,' compared to the magnificence of their promised effect.²⁹

Gnostic dualism held that the world was created by mistake. The Demiurge meant to create a perfect immortal world but fell short of the goal, thus the Gnostic lived in a universe of flawed matter. The development of Gnostic ideas has a mixed history but may have roots in the cosmological universe of Zarathustra with his clash of good and evil combined with the philosophy of Plato and his teachings on the soul. With the dawn of the second century there was a growing awareness as to the self-worth of the individual. People wanted to believe that they were special and possessed gifts that exalted them above the average individual. In 'interiore homine habitat veritas (truth lives in the inner person), Plato set the stage for the second-century ethos many centuries before. Overlaid with a vast sea of Hellenism, this idea had the effect of stressing the spiritual while at the same time making the physical worth less. The truth was

not something that he outer world can observe. Each person carried within himself or herself a self-revealed version of the truth.

Since classical Greek thought perceived a god that was far removed from humanity, this turning inward to find truth and a god made possible a spiritual and religious awakening that rippled through society. These ideas, combined with other philosophical influences, eventually culminated in the notion that matter is evil and only the spiritual is good.³⁰ Many Gnostics lived in a dualistic world where it was possible to reconcile the imperfect physical world wit the perfect spiritual cosmology envisioned. For a Gnostic, the rejection of baptism came naturally since a reconciliation between a physical act or physical matter, and a spiritual belief or psychic cognition, was almost Impossible. There were a few Christian Gnostics however, that did accept baptism by they were in the minority. To be sure, this is one of the problems Tertullian addresses when he speaks of an “act” and its promised “effect.”³¹

Beginning in chapter 3 Tertullian develops his defense of water. In his opeing statement, he uses the term praesciptionsis.³² The term implies the atmosphere of a Roman trial. He immediately begins his defense of water as matter. “I suppose we need to ask, what is the significance of the liquid element.³³ A series of arguments now proceed to justify the importance of water as matter. Water is important because of creation.³⁴ Water served as a carriage for the Spirit of God to move on.³⁵ God divided the waters and brought about the suspension of the

firmament of heaven in the midst, and gathering the waters aside, he accomplished the separating of dry land.³⁶ It was water that brought forth the first living things.³⁷ Matter was taken up from the earth but was only workable with moisture provided by water. “ God has brought into service his very own sacraments, that same material which he has had at his disposal in all his acts and works, and whether this which is the guide of earthly life makes provision of heavenly things besides.³⁸

In chapter 4, Tertullian claims that these “few facts” mentioned above are a rationale for water and baptism.³⁹ He once again stress the point that the Spirit of God since the beginning was borne upon the waters.⁴⁰ This indicates that:

The nature of the water received its holiness from that which was carried upon it. Any matter placed beneath another is bound to take to itself the quality of that which is suspended over it: and especially must corporal matter take up a spiritual quality, which because of the subtlety of the substance it belongs to finds it easy to penetrate and inhere.⁴¹

With what seems to be a bit of extreme rationalization, Tertullian in essence has just made water holy. Some scholars think that Tertullian tries to back off this position later when he states, “Not that the Holy Spirit is given to us in water, but that in water we are made clean by the action of the angel,⁴²and made ready for the Holy Spirit.”⁴³ Nevertheless, Tertullian believes that water sanctifies since, “ the Spirit comes down from heaven and stays on the waters, sanctifying them [the waters] from within himself.”⁴⁴

As the defense of water and baptism continues in chapter 5, Tertullian speaks about baptismal rituals of the pagans. As far as Tertullian is concerned in this particular context, sprinkling instead of immersion in water is a ritual associated with paganism.

In certain sacred rites, they are initiated by means of a bath so as to belong to Isis or Mithras.⁴⁵ Also, they carry their gods in procession for washing. Moreover, they ritually purify their country and town houses, their temples and whole cities, by carrying about water and sprinkling it (circumlatae aquae expiant)⁴⁶

Here, Tertullian refers to sprinkling as a pagan ritual. Later when referring to Christian baptism he speaks about “ when we come up from the washing,” and in the latter part of the chapter he specifically says, “we are immersed in water,” (quod in aqua mergimur).⁴⁷ Thus, there is a distinct difference between the sprinkling that he associates with paganism and the immersion of Christian baptism

“At the Apollinarian and Pelusian games they baptize wholesale. Even among the ancients, one who had infected himself with homicide, purified himself with water.⁴⁸ Tertullian is making the argument that water has always been used for purification, even among the pagans water has its religious usage. There is some evidence throughout his writings that Tertullian himself was influenced by pagan philosophies of the era. He is also aware of Israel using water for purification rituals, since he mentions this later in his homily.⁴⁹

Tertullian offers some proofs from scripture as further evidence of the necessity of water. There seems to be a strong emphasis on the Holy Spirit and the work of the Spirit in all of his proof texts. He mentions that after a person is immersed, next comes the “imposition of the hands in the benediction.⁵⁰ It is by this imposition of hands that the Holy Spirit is invited and welcomed. Evidence for this can be found in the Old Testament, when Jacob blessed his grandsons.⁵¹ It appears that the caveat concerning the imposition of hands is out of place in his document, or he mentions it because he intends to put emphasis on the subject. He does not expound on the imposition of hands but immediately returns to the necessity of water for baptism as his subject matter. However, the reception of the Holy Spirit is a major theme for him.

Tertullian finds further proofs of the need for water in baptism. Nature and scripture both witness this. For example, Israel passed through the water and attained salvation by escaping from Egypt;⁵² the water that flowed forth to the people of Israel while in the desert was a type salvation and a type of baptism;⁵³ the water that flowed from the side of Christ at his execution was a witness to baptism.⁵⁴

Baptism was also by divine commission, but the baptism of John had no heavenly function. It was for repentance, and repentance is a human act. Thus, John discharged no heavenly function and the proof of this can be found in the book of Acts, where those who were baptized by John did not receive the Holy Spirit and needed to be baptized again. For Tertullian, baptism with water was necessary to perform a heavenly function. The remission of sins by God was that heavenly function.

There can be no doubt that Tertullian saw baptism as the means of salvation. This is apparent by his statement, “Now there is a standing rule that without baptism no man can obtain salvation.”⁵⁵ Baptism is when a person enters a new life. Tertullian claims that there are rules that one must follow in giving and receiving baptism. To be sure, this document was written to reinforce the dogma of the existing church congregations. Tertullian gives the supreme right of baptism to the “high priest, which is the bishop (episcopi), after him the presbyters (presbyteri), and deacons (diaconi).⁵⁶ He offers no reason for having a bishop, presbyter, and a deacon. It is just accepted as the correct organization of the church. For this reason and others, scholars refer to De Baptismo as Tertullian's Catholic document.⁵⁷

The reason baptism must be commissioned by the bishop seems to be to preserve the dignity of the church. This acts is so important for him, that it demands the attention of the highest minister available.⁵⁸ Perhaps these statements suggest that De Baptismo was written before Tertullian was converted to Montanism, but there is the argument that in the church at Carthage the Montanists worshiped along with other church members in the regular services. If that is true, believing in Montanism did not automatically exclude allegiance to the established church, at least in some cases. This may not speak about Tertullian's journey from Catholicism to Montanism, but the astute reader will notice Tertullian's continued emphasis on the Holy Spirit.

Tertullian addresses the question as to who should or should not be baptized. He believes that the novice should not be baptized, but is is not clear what he means when he states; Do not lay on hands easily, nor become sharers in others'

sins. This is a quotation of I Tim. 5:22 from an obscure Latin translation. It can be interpreted to mean do not be in a hurry. Several studies have been conducted on Tertullian's use of this passage. There is agreement that Tertullian is inconsistent across his documents with his exegesis. It seems he uses this passage when it is convenient.⁵⁹ Tertullian did believe that baptism could be administered by all⁶⁰ but warned that it was not a job for the layman.

Infant baptism was discouraged by Tertullian. The evidence is that in some cases it was being practiced but at this point in history it was not the normal practice. Tertullian attempts to approach the subject when he says, “Regard should be had {sic} to age and disposition. Children should wait until they learn, and the young should wait until they marry.”⁶¹ In De Anima 39, Tertullian says that “every soul posses by natural birth the five primary attributes of immortality, rationality, sensation, intelligence, freedom and will. The evil spirit lies in wait for every man because birth and childhood are compassed with idolatrous practices. It is in this way that the genius ( a evil spirit) enters into persons, as a demonic spirit settled upon Socrates as a boy.”⁶² Thus, the first birth of a child was attended to by an evil spirit, and at baptism the Holy Spirit is received in the same manner the evil spirit was received at childbirth. “The doctrine of original sin for Tertullian is not a consequence of natural descent from Adam, but by pagan influences before and after birth.”⁶³ Thus:

the deferment of baptism is more profitable in accordance with each person's character and attitude, and even age: and especially so as regards to children. So let them come when they are growing up, when they are learning, when they are being taught what they are coming to: let them be made Christians when they have become competent to know Christ. Why should innocent infancy come with haste to the remission of sins.⁶⁴

For Tertullian, infant baptism ought not take place. The person should be old enough to know and understand how to ask for salvation. Those who are not married should also wait on baptism. Tertullian uses the same logic for this assumption as he uses for infant baptism. He argument against infant baptism is a logical argument. That is, infants are not old enough too own or manage property. Likewise, a man should wait on baptism until he is married, presupposing maturity at the time of marriage. When men do this, they will be able to manage their property (their wife) is a just manner. It is a difficult concept for people in this age to think in terms of a wife as property, but in fact that is the implications of Tertullian's remarks.

The Passover provides the best day for baptism.⁶⁵ Tertullian reasons that he passion of the Lord was accomplished on that day, and it is to those ends Christians are baptized. In addition, when the Lord was about to keep the passover,”he sent his disciples to make ready, with the remark,”You shall meet a man carrying water.” ⁶⁶ For Tertullian, the combination of water and the Passover is enough to indicate that baptism was to take place on the passover.

It is in the context of Tertullian's discussion concerning the importance of the Passover, that a glimpse of his eschatological views are most obvious. Tertullian writes that when Jeremiah says, and I will gather them together from the ends of the earth on the festal day of Passover, he indicates that the day of Pentecost, which is in a special sense a festal day.⁶⁷

Tertullian was a Pre-millennialsit. He later became an adherent of Montanism is spite of the fact the events had disproved the “New Prophecy.”⁶⁸ He reverted however to the traditional connection of the millennial Jerusalem with Palestine, saw a fulfillment of the Montanists prediction in a natural phenomenon, and developed a theory of successive educational dispensations.

In the teaching of Tertullian and Montanus both a kind of Trinitarian division appears. Tertullian fully expected the second advent of Christ to happen of the day of Pentecost. Evans attributes this to a careless reading of Jer. 31:8⁶⁹ The latter part of this verse that Tertullian quotes is very easy to misread of one is not accomplished in Hebrew. Tertullian translates the phrase into Latin to read somewhat different than the Hebrew test actually reads. The Hebrew text actually says “and will gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame.” A careless reader might interpret the last three words to read, “at the feast of the Passover.”⁷⁰

Tertullian was a believer in learning. He emphasized “let them come and learn in chapter 18. After a learning period there was fasting, prayer, a vigil, and and confession of those sins that could be made in private.⁷¹ At the ceremony of Baptism, renunciation of the devil and his pomp took place outside the church. ⁷²

There was a washing either outside or inside of the church (as was custom), and then prayer was made.⁷³ Baptism was by triple immersion accompanied by a slightly expanded version of the trinitarian formula.⁷⁴ Sponsors were present and witnesses and sureties.⁷⁵ It is here that the angel who is the mediator prepares the way for the Holy Spirit. After baptism, a complicated ceremony founded on church traditions and customs usually took place. There was the anointing with the blessed oil.⁷⁶ This anointing may have included the signing or scaling with the cross. This was followed by the imposition of the hands of the bishop.⁷⁷ After baptism, the newly baptized are to join the church i prayer and the Eucharist.

Tertullian lived and wrote in a transitory period in history. His writings and theology leave much to be desired when compared to modern scholarship. The reality is, humans are always a product of their times to some extent. While we may agree with certain aspects of his writings (i.e. baptism is for the remission of sins, immersion instead of sprinkling, and other basic tenets), there are those of us who do not agree with apostolic succession and many traditions that Tertullian accepted prmia facia.

There are those who have accused Tertullian of being a pompous, self righteous individual. These accusations do not stand in light of De Baptismo. In his final statement, the sincerity of a man who is trying to please his God is evident. Tertullian closes out his discussion on baptism with the phrase, “This only I pray, that as you ask you also have in mind. Tertullian, a sinner.⁷⁸

Everett Ferguson, ed. Encyclopedia of Early Christianity (New York and London: Garland Reference library of the humanities, 1990), s.v “Tertullian,” by R.D. Sider

Thomas Halton, ed., Message of the Fathers of the Church ( Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1992), vol. 6, Early Christian Baptism and the Catehhumenate: Italy, North Africa and Egypt, by Thomas M. Finn, 116.

D.E. Geoh; “Upper-Class Christians in Tertullian's Africa,” in Studia Patrristica: Origin, Gnosticism, Cappadocian Fathers (Akademie-Verlay) Berlin 1976, ed. Elizabeth A. Livingstone, 41-43.

Giovanni, Filoramo, A History of Gnosticism. Translated by Anthony Alock (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Basil Black Inc., 1990), 35.

Will Durant The Story of Civilization, vol.1, Our Oriental Heritage (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1935), 185, 200-201. The Temple of Isis was reared by architects and slaves of Rameses II at Philae (ca. 240 B.C.). Isis was the Great Mother of Egypt, the wife of Osiris. Early groups aligned with Christianity, sometimes worshiped before the statues of Isis suckling the infant Horus, seeing in them another form of the ancient and noble myth by which woman (i.e., the female principle), creating all things, becomes at last the Mother of god. Cybele was a comparatively late form of ancient goddess of the earth, whose fertility constituted the bounty of the fields. She was primarily concerned with vegetation.

Tertullian, Tertullian's Homily on Baptism, Trans, by Ernest Evans (London: University Printing House, 1964), 45. Some claim this may be a reference to the Doctrine of Original Sin. According to Cicero, Pro Murena 29 60-31, 66, the Stoics taught that omina peccata sunt paria, and refused to acknowledge any distinction between facinus peccatum, delictum, scelus, nefas, saying omne delictum sceus esse nefarium: against which Cicero opposes the more humane doctrines of Aristotle and Plato. Pristinae caecitatis; or original blindness has philosophical roots and is a comparison of one's condition before baptism; after baptism one is to have participated in photishentas, or having been enlightened.

Tertullian, 46. In notes by Evans on Tradition, and tradition and sacramenti indicates the totality of the doctrine of the church. Tradition apostolorum of course is the traditions of the apostles. Fr. F.F. Refoule, brings together all these words and submits that Tertullian is making a reference to all of the instructions received by the authority of the Church from every source.

The canon of scripture was not complete at this time. However, it is apparent that most early writings, Tertullian and other writers had ample access to much of what later became canonized.

William C. Placher, A History of Christian Theology: A Introduction ( Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1983), 51.

De Baptismo 1:1 Some today teach that women held positions of leadership in the early church. A casual reading of the early writers does not reinforce the idea.

Tertullian , 53. Praescriptio is a legal term and Tertullian is probably employing the term here not as a defender of a broken law, but one who is doing the accusing. However, Evans says that Tertullian is using the word in a non-technical sense meaning that it is a “standing rule” that we must look to divine wisdom in methods which human wisdom declares to be foolish.

Tertullian used the example prior to this of the angel at the Pool of Bethsaida, who cured people of the physical illness. He claims this is a type, and now the angel cures all baptized people of their spiritual illness.

Will Durant, The Story of Civilzation. vol. 3, Caesar and Christ (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1944). 524. Mithras was the son of Ahura-Mazda, the Zoroastrian god. On the Roman frontier, Mithras was the god of light.

Tertullian, 71. IN spite of additional ceremonies which might have diverted attention from the main thing, Tertullian remembers that it is immersion in water that matters, along with the spiritual effect, that delivers one from sins.

Jerome, D. Quinn, “ Tertullian and I Timothy 5:22 on Imposing Hands: Paul Galtier Revisited,” in Studia Patristica: proceedigns of the Internation Conference of Patristic Studies (Akademie- Verlag), Berlin, 1957, 269.

Barnes, 130. During the winter of 165/6 a Roman Army sacked Selecucia on the Tigris. This brought victory in the East to the Roman Empire. But victory in East did not bring security. In the wake of the legions, there was plague and pestilence in the temple of Appolo at Seleucia. The Roman army was threatened from the North. Priest were being summoned to Rome to perform rituals for the sake of Rome and carts and wagons transported the dead out of the city. The Christians were being persecuted and severe earthquakes were occurring in Asia. In the wake of the above events, Montanus began to prophecy concerning a millennial dawning. Tertullian soon became a believer in the prophesy of Montanus or the New Prophecy. Montanus claimed he received his message direct from God.