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Q&A Home > A > Apostles What is your opinion of this:
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"Yes, truly, the apostles were baptized, as Clement the Stromatist relates in the fifth book of the Hypotyposes. For, in explaining the apostolic statement, I thank God that I baptized none of you, he says, Christ is said to have baptized Peter alone, and Peter Andrew, and Andrew John, and they James and the rest."
(From Fragments (Clement of Alexandria), Moschus: Spiritual Meadow, Book V. Chap. 176. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0211.htm)
Do you think this is historically accurate? Do you think this really happened? If so, when, before the Resurrection of Jesus, after it, before Pentecost, after it? What we know for certain in this regard is stated in John 4:1. There is no mention anywhere that implies that Christ, Himself, baptized but rather His disciples. If He did, it would have taken place during His ministry. Before Christ's death and resurrection, His focus was on Salvation, His promise in fulfilling His redemption was prophesied by the prophets of the Old Testament, by faith and how to live out this faith. After Christ's holy resurrection, He taught His disciples about the rules that ought to govern the church, the precise elements of His expectations of the church, the need for evangelism, the need to seek the lost, the need to teach the true faith, and how to establish churches throughout the world to be built on a firm foundation of sound doctrine.
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