Chrzest jako misterium pieczęci w tradycji pierwszych trzech wieków
The baptism as the mystery of the seal in the tradition of the first three centuries

Summary/Abstract: The article shows how the baptism was understood in the Church of the first three centuries as the mystery of the seal. This aspect of the baptism was emphasized by Qumran community. It was also evident in the experience of the baptism of John the Baptist, what was described in the first century by Flavius Josephus. The Fathers of the Church in the 2nd and 3rd century were using the phrase seal of baptism directly. The author of The Shepherd of Hermas, who represented Roman community and Clement of Aleksandria deemed that the baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit set the seal on the existential confession of faith in Jesus as the Son of God. Tertullian from Carthage described more broadly the process of increase in the existential faith during the pre-baptismal initiation and its further development preparing for the baptism of blood, that is for the martyrdom due to the faith in Jesus. Christians understood the baptism of John the Baptist, that is the baptism of conversion as well as the baptism of blood symbolically, as a frame for the only baptism which they received.

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