Seite 41 [41]
CyYPRIAN’s AD DONATUM AS A MYSTAGOGIC PROTREPTICUS
quod in salutem mihi diuina indulgentia pollicebatur, ut quis renasci denuo
posset utque in nouam uitam lauacro aquae salutaris animatus, quod prius fuerat,
exponeret et corporis licet manente conpage hominem animo ac mente mutaret.
Qui possibilis, aiebam, tanta conuersio, ut repente ac perniciter exuatur, quod uel
genuinum situ materiae naturalis obduruit uel usurpatum diu senio uetustatis
inoleuit? (Donat. 3)
Of course, to be “born again,” to be “quickened unto a new life by the laver
of the saving water,” to “put off what he had been before,” and to “change
himself in soul and mind” all mean to be baptized and, at the same time,
illustrate metaphorically what it means to be baptized. These expressions
are quite common in Christian Latin literature,” but they are not terribly
explicit. That means a pagan ancient reader would clearly have understood
that Cyprian is speaking about something like the initiation into Christian
mysteries and that possibly water somehow interferes here, but nothing more.
One reason could be a certain disciplina arcani,* but primarily, I suppose,
our author is just not interested in the outward and visible sign, but in
the inward and spiritual grace of baptism, particularly in what it changes in
the individual. The crucial question is, “How is such a conversion possible?”
(Qui possibilis tanta conuersio?). The word conuersio, by the way, occurs only
here in Cyprian’s writings outside of a biblical quotation.” Our author affirms
that the possibility of such a conversion once appeared to be an unsolvable
riddle to him, too. But then everything changed:
But afterwards, when the stain of my past life had been washed away by the aid
of the water of regeneration, a light from above poured itself upon my chastened
and pure heart; afterwards when I had drunk of the Spirit from heaven a second
birth restored me into a new man; immediately in a marvellous manner doubtful
matters clarified themselves, the closed opened, the shadowy shone with light,
what seemed impossible was able to be accomplished, so that it was possible to
acknowledge that what formerly was born of the flesh and lived submissive to sins
was earthly, and what the Holy Spirit was already animating began to be of God.
For “to be born again” (renasci) compare John 3:3, quoted e.g. Tert. bapt. 13,3; Cypr. epist.
73,22,1; for animare “to quicken” in a spiritual sense see Thesaurus linguae Latinae II
87,11-13; for “the laver of the saving water” (lauacro aquae salutaris) see Cypr. eleem.
2: lauacro aquae salutaris gehennae ignis extinguitur; epist. 69,12,3; for ‘to put off’ (exuere)
in a Christian sense see Thesaurus linguae Latinae V,2 2115,58-60; for the change taking
place in baptism compare Cypr. epist. 74,5,2. On the whole baptismal imagery of dying and
rising see Robin M. Jensen, Baptismal Imagery in Early Christianity. Ritual, Visual, and
Theological Dimensions, Grand Rapids, Baker Academic, 2012, 137-176.
18 See Othmar Perler, Arkandisziplin, Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum 1 (1950) 667¬
676, esp. 671-674.
1% Gen. 3:16 quoted in Cypr. testim. 3,2 and hab. virg. 22.
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