Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 45:1 (Spring 1983)
Article: “Circumcised in Baptism—Raised through Faith”: A Note on Col 2:11-12
Author: Paul D. Gardner

WTJ 45:1 (Spr 1983) p. 172

“Circumcised in Baptism—Raised through Faith”:
A Note on Col 2:11-12

Paul D. Gardner

A number of years have passed since the publication of Meredith G. Kline’s book entitled By Oath Consigned.1 At the time of publication, and for a number of years subsequently, it generated considerable discussion in Reformed, and particularly Presbyterian, circles. The attempt to show a continuity between the OT covenant sign of circumcision and the NT covenant sign of baptism was not new: most paedo-baptists have argued the same. What was new was the approach building, as it did, a “biblical theology” centred upon an understanding of covenant “treaties.” Kline leaned heavily on the work of McCarthy,2 Baltzer,3 and Eichrodt,4 all of whom had, in different ways, previously emphasized the centrality of the covenant motif in OT theology. While in recent years these studies have been severely criticized,5 the appeal of this approach to a theology of baptism remains attractive to many.

To my mind, the main inadequacy of Kline’s book lay in its paucity of textual exegesis, and this is an area where much work remains to be done if biblical scholars are truly to be happy in admitting a consistent “technical religious sense” in the NT use of the word “baptism.” It may be presumptuous to suppose that this brief note would encourage more detailed textual work on the subject in both OT and NT, but

WTJ 45:1 (Spr 1983) p. 173

it is with that in mind that I dare to step into the muddied waters of Colossians 2.

To the Reformed paedo-baptist, part of the appeal of Kline’s argument is that it denies to baptism the connotation of “guaranteed promise.”6 The argument that the rite of baptism “does not prejudge the ultimate issue of the individual’s destiny one way or another” is persuasive. I will suggest below that Paul consciously maintains the distinction between the rite of baptism and the destiny of the one baptized. If this is true then, on careful reflection, it may provide a further stone in the exegetical structure of Kline’s argument.

The translation followed by most versions7 and most commentators8 of Col 2:11–12 regards en hō kai sunēgerthēt...