Q: The apostles of Jesus Christ baptized new converts in the “name of the Lord Jesus.” There is just one occurence of a teaching that differs from this the great Commission which says that we should baptize new disciples in the name of the “Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” When we have many references in the Acts of the Apostles regarding apostolic practice, why don't we follow it instead of the baptismal formula in Matthew 28:18-20?

A: It is true that the Bible has only one mention about Jesus' command to baptize new disicples in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. That however does not necessarily diminish the importance of that command. We do not decide the importance of a command on the basis of the number of times it is repeated in the Scriptures. It is unfortunate that Christians offer lame excuses such as “Oh! It is mentioned only once in the Bible” in order to justify their disobedience.

It is also true that there appears to be a contradiction between the command recorded in the gospel of Matthew and the practice of baptising in the “name of the Lord” as recorded in Acts 2:38, 8:16; 10:48, and 19:5. There are Christians who choose to baptize new converts in the “name of Jesus Christ” on the basis of these verses in Acts. Some even go to the extent of getting themselves baptized a second time in the “name of the Jesus Christ” after having been baptized in the “name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

Those who condemn the use of the Matthean triadic baptismal formula in favour of what is found in Acts offer several explanations to justify their practice. One such explanation is that Matthew 28:19 is not an accurate rendering of what Jesus commanded. They say that in the original form of that verse Matthew did not have any mention of the Father and of the Holy Spirit. We do not know how they can be so sure about this! Where then is the “original” manuscript to prove such an alteration?

Let us now examine what Luke has written about the apostolic practice. In the references cited above, indeed Luke says that new converts were baptized in the “name of the Lord Jesus” or in the “name of Jesus Christ.” Let us now assume for a moment that the apostles indeed avoided the mention of the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Now check how Luke has described the apostolic practice regarding the other ordinancethe Lord's Table. In Acts 2:42 and 46, Luke says that the apostles and the new converts devoted themselves, among other things, to the “breaking of bread.” (See Acts 20:7 and 11). No where in Acts do we find a mention of the cup or wine in the observance of the Lord's table! Will those who baptize in the “name of the Lord Jesus” also take note of this and avoid using wine while observing the Lord's Table?

In fact, they need not do so. They can use both bread and wine. And the reason? Luke, in these verses, uses a literary device known as Synechdoche. Synechdoche has many forms. However, in these verses, we see that Luke mentions a part to refer to the whole. When he says that the apostles “broke bread,” he means they “broke bread and drank wine.” Those who do not understand the usage of literary devices might end up misinterpreting Scripture in a big way.

Consider more examples of such synechdoche in the Scriptures.

Proverbs 1:16 says that the “feet” of the wicked “run to evil.” Does that mean that the feet of the wicked get detached from the rest of the body and roam around the town seeking evil? No! The “feet” here represents the whole person.

Similarly, in the Hebrew version of Judges 5:30, the word “womb” is used to represent the whole woman. Translated literally, the verse would read, “Are they not finding, are they not dividing the spoil? A womb two wombs for every warrior;” The Bible doesn't reduce a woman to one of her reproductive organs. However, it quotes the words of people who saw women as “wombs” that walk around.

1 John 1:7 is a familiar verse - “...and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” Here we have the combination of two figures of speech combined metalyptically. The first one is the synechdoche, “blood of Jesus” and the second one is a metaphor, “cleanses.” When John says “blood” he is not just referring to blood but to the entire atoning work of Jesus Christ that the latter accomplished on the cross. Without realising that, some Christians pray: “We sprinkle the blood of Jesus by faith” as if Jesus' blood is actually available in wash bottles that may be carried around for sprinkling on homes, cars, children, and on other belongings! The expression “victory by the blood of Jesus” means “victory by all that Jesus accomplished on the cross.” Let us not reduce the “blood” of Jesus to a magical charm that can protect us!

There are several examples of synechdoche in the Bible. Luke uses synechdoche to compress the baptismal formula Acts 2:38, 8:16; 10:48, and 19:5. That is, instead of saying that the apostles baptized in the name “of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit,” he uses a shorter form to refer to the whole.

Those who do not realise this end up questioning the validity of Matthew 28:19. The Didache, the oldest extant piece of Christian literature that contains instructions for new converts, testifies that Matthew's version of the baptismal formual reflects the apostolic practice from the earliest times of Christianity. Didache 7 says that new converts were to be baptized in “the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Even Paul's conversation with a group of disciples in Ephesus (Acts 19) reveal this fact. When those disciples said that they had not even heard about the Holy Spirit, he asked, “Into what then were you baptized?” This question reveals one thing clearly. Paul believed that a Christian who has taken baptism would have heard of the Holy Spirit at least once at the time of his baptism, in the baptismal formula.

Let us therefore not stumble on a literary device used by Luke. There are dozen of literary devices used in the Scriptures and their study can be quite extensive.

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This page is updated on March 15, 2009