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What can you learn about a lost book when its chief witness wants readers to reject it?
Preaching of Paul survives not as a complete manuscript, but through reports and quotations preserved by a critic. Its author is unknown. This account explores what remains of a writing associated with Paul, probably composed in Greek in the second century, and asks how much those traces can tell us.
The anonymous treatise On Rebaptism reports that the lost book describes Paul and Peter meeting in Rome. It quotes the work during a dispute over baptism outside the church. Here, the apostles’ reported encounter meets a larger question: how do historians read evidence preserved by someone who opposes the text?
What you’ll discover
- A critic as witness Explore how On Rebaptism preserves traces of a book its writer wants readers to distrust.
- Paul and Peter together Examine the reported meeting in Rome while keeping the limits of the surviving evidence in view.
- The dispute over baptism See why a quarrel involving Cyprian of Carthage helps keep this lost writing in view.
- Clues rather than certainty Follow how historians weigh quotations, reports, and an estimated date without claiming a complete picture.
- Other writings around apostles Place this lost text alongside related works, including Acts of Paul and Preaching of Peter.
Who will love it
For readers who enjoy early church debates, close arguments from Scripture, and the practical questions of how ancient Christians understood baptism, the Holy Spirit, martyrdom and belonging.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A quarrel over those who return
- John the Baptist points beyond water
- Water and the Spirit can come apart
- The name of Jesus begins something to be completed
- Even the disciples had imperfect faith
- Martyrdom, confession and the test of love
- Three baptisms and a rival book
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Preaching of Paul
by Attributed to the Apostle Paul
A bishop's hands or a second dip in water? An early Christian debate asks what the Holy Spirit needs.
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In short
What should a church do with a person who was baptized in the name of Jesus by a group outside the Church, and who now comes back, sorry and sincere? Must the baptism be repeated?
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A quarrel over those who return
The writer opens with a question being asked among the brethren. Some people were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, but by a group outside the Church. Now they repent and ask for help. Should the bishop only lay hands on them to give the Holy Spirit, or should they be baptized again?
The author notes that both sides have written against one another with great eagerness. In his view the dispute need never have started if everyone had respected the old custom of all the churches. He warns that novelty brings discord, strife and schism, and that the Church should not be shamed by quarrels among its own bishops.
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What is this text about?
It is an early Christian treatise on a practical question: whether someone baptized in the name of Jesus outside the Church must be baptized again on returning. The author argues that the bishop's laying on of hands is enough.
Who wrote it and when?
The author is unknown. Scholars place the treatise in the third century and in the Latin-speaking church, during a dispute over rebaptism. It has often been printed alongside Cyprian's writings, though it is not generally thought to be by him.
What are the three baptisms it describes?
The author describes baptism in water, in one's own blood as a martyr, and in the Holy Spirit.
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