5. The final selection and instruction took place on the Thursday before Easter. “Bathing” was done in a public bath-house, with a supplementary “washing” at home; compare John 13. 10.
6. Most religions, as well as Judaism, regarded a menstruous woman as unclean.
7. All believers fasted on Good Friday ([29. 1]); for the catechumens the fast was probably thought to be purifying.
8. The Testament gives a lengthy form for this last pre-baptismal exorcism. Popular belief in the life-giving power of breath (Genesis 2. 7, etc.) was very widespread; compare [36. 11]. Mark 7. 34 may have been specially in mind.[200] The “seal” was the sign of the cross. Compare [chapter 37].
9. No further opportunity was given to contract defilement.
10. This direction, misunderstood in the Arabic and Ethiopic, is explained by [23. 1]-2. Those about to be baptized brought with them as their first Christian “offering” the bread, wine, milk and honey needed for the baptismal eucharist. The Testament reduces this offering to one loaf from each of them. The rule should not be explained from [chapter 32], which is not by Hippolytus.
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THE BAPTISMAL CEREMONY
1. Hippolytus gives no form for the blessing of the water, but the Constitutions (VII, 43) direct an elaborate thanksgiving, concluding with the words “Sanctify this water and give it grace and power”, etc. Clement of Alexandria (Pedagogue I, vi (50, 4)) appears to presuppose a petition for the descent of the Logos into the font.
2. The superior sanctity of “living” water is a common belief, and the Testament and the Canons allow no other for baptism. Compare Didache 7. 1.
3. Every non-Jew in the Graeco-Roman world was so accustomed to the public baths that the baptismal usage would not suggest the slightest impropriety.