Did The Early Church Baptize Infants

Though Joachim Jeremias' 'Infant Baptism in the First Four Centuries' was originally published in 1938, an English translation did not appear until 1960 (based on the revised German edition of 1958). In 1961, Kurt Aland published his response to Jeremias' assertions. This English translation of 'Die Sauglingstaufe im Neuen Testament und in der alten Kirche' originally appeared in 1963. In this point by point refutation of Jeremias' main contentions, Aland insists that there is no direct evidence of infant baptism prior to the third century.

This treatise was written about 400 A.D. Concerning it Aug. in Retract. Book II. c. xviii., says: I have written seven books on Baptism against the Donatists, who strive to defend themselves by the authority of the most blessed bishop and martyr Cyprian; in which I show that nothing is so effectual for the refutation of the Donatists, and for shutting their mouths directly from upholding their schism against the Catholic Church, as the letters and act of Cyprian. Aeterna Press

A comprehensive survey of the doctrine and practice of baptism in the first five centuries of Christian history, arranged geographically within chronological periods.

Joachim Jeremias here makes his greatest contribution in a study of the early tradition of infant baptism. He offers exegesis of pertinent New Testament passages, and readers will be impressed with the extra-Biblical evidence he produces to support that there was virtually universal observance of the rite in the post-Apostolic generations. He states his purpose thus: to lay before the reader the historical material relating to the history of infant baptism in the first four centuries in as concrete and sober a manner as possible.

These important and incisive essays, spanning more than two decades of research and engagement, probe facets and episodes of infant baptism's fortunes over twenty centuries. The story of pedobaptism is traced from its shadowy beginnings as a variant of faith-baptism, through inflated Reformation defenses as infant-baptism monopolized baptismal thought and practice, to biblical and ecumenical reevaluations and hopeful contemporary rapprochements across divisive waters.