When did the baptism by immersion start?

The custom of immersion began with Christ Himself when He went into the Jordan River and came up from it as scripture says: “When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water” (Matt. 3:16). Historically, both Eastern and Western Churches performed baptism by immersion. But the Eastern Churches preserved tradition while the West kept it only until the time of Thomas Aquinas. When something is dyed, it is completely renewed. Likewise, baptism is a renewal as the person completely takes off the old man with his deeds and that is why baptism is done by immersion so that the person may be stripped to put on the new man. In baptism, we become naked like Adam in Paradise: “here is nakedness, and there was nakedness; there, however, one that had sinned was made naked, because he sinned, but here, one is made naked, that he may be set free. Then, man put off the glory which he had; now, he puts off the old man; and before going up (to the contest), puts him off as easily, as it were his garments.”¹³⁶⁹ By immersion, the person is surrounded with water on all sides; likewise, the Spirit surrounds the soul from all sides.

Immersion is also necessary because baptism is a burial with Christ (Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:12). Ancient baptisteries, in the east and the west, still witness to baptism by immersion. They were huge and some of them had stairs towards the east and the west, one side was used by the candidate for baptism, while the priest or bishop used the other so that he could place his

1367 Darwell Stone, Holy Baptism (Longmans, Green, 1899): p. 169.

1368 The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 2.3.7 (396C), in Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works , trans., C. Luibheid (Paulist Press): p. 203.

1369 St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Colossians 6 (NPNF I/13:287).

hands on the candidate’s head during the immersion. The three immersions declare that baptism is in the name of the Holy Trinity. It also resembles the burial with Christ for three days so that the baptized may bear the power of the resurrection with Christ (Col. 2:12). St. Jerome says, “we are immersed three times that the mystery of the Trinity might be seen to be one, and we are not baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, but in one name because God is understood … although we are baptized three times because of the mystery of the Trinity, nevertheless, it is reckoned one baptism.”¹³⁷⁰