Texts in conversation

Compare Didache 7:1 and Joseph and Aseneth 14:13

Early Christian · Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions

Summary

In the Didache, an early Christian teaching text, running water is preferred for baptism, though water may be poured over the head if none can be found. In Joseph and Aseneth, an angel similarly tells Aseneth to wash with fresh spring water.

Passages

Didache 7:1

Early Christian

1 Regarding baptism, perform it like this: After explaining all these things, baptize in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, using running water. 2 If you don't have running water, use any other water, and if you can't use cold water, then use warm. 3 If you don't have either, pour water three times over the head in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 4 Before the baptism, both the person conducting the baptism and the one being baptized should fast, along with anyone else who can. Also, instruct the person being baptized to fast for one or two days beforehand.

90–120 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Didache

Joseph and Aseneth 14:13

Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions

12 Then Asenath stood up and stood on her feet, and the angel said to her: "Go without hesitation into your second room and take off the black tunic you are wearing, and remove the sackcloth from your waist, and shake out the ashes from your head, 13 and wash your face and your hands with spring water and put on a white robe that has never been worn and fasten around your waist the bright double belt of your virginity, 14 and come back to me, and I will tell you the message sent to you from the Lord." 15 Then Asenath hurried and went into her second room, where the chests of her jewelry were, and opened her chest and took a fine white robe that had never been worn and put it on, after first taking off the black robe, 16 and also untied the rope and the sackcloth from her waist and fastened on a bright double belt of her virginity, one belt around her waist and another around her breast. 17 And she also shook the ashes out from her head and washed her hands and face with spring water, and she took a very beautiful, fine head covering and covered her head.

100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Joseph and Aseneth

References

“... Nevertheless, since Did. allows such baptism only where no other water is available, it seems likely that its origin lies in emergency provision for ritual lustration during drought years. The sense of [...] also argues against any interpretation in terms of "sprinkling". [...] It is interesting to observe that the newly converted Asenath in Joseph and Asenath is instructed to wash only her face in ritually pure running water. This is surprising, since one would have expected immersion. Perhaps this may reflect the orientation of this text towards Essene Judaism where sprinkling with the "sin-offering water" was usual. ...”

Jonathan Alfred Draper, “A Commentary on the Didache in the Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Documents” (PhD diss., University of Cambridge, 1983), 161.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Baptism

Didache16 chapters

Compare Didache 7:1 and Joseph and Aseneth 14:13

Summary

Passages

Didache 7:1

Joseph and Aseneth 14:13

References

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