Baptism, Matthew and Trinitarian 'formula'

[arapahoepark]

Found this in Carson's commentary.

There is no evidencd we have Jesus' ipissima verba here and still less that the church regarded Jesus' command as a baptismal formula, a liturgical form ignoring of which was a breach of canon law. The problem has too often been cast in anachronistic terms...As late as the didache, baptism in the name of Jesus and baptism in the name of the Trinjty coexist side by side: the church was not bound by precise "formulas" and felt no embarrassment at a multiplicity of them, precisely because Jesus' instruction, which may not have been in these precise words, was not regarded as a binding formula.

What say you if this and other notions that the 'authors' of the Gospels embellished or made things up accorsing to 'evangelical' NT scholars?

 

[Jack K]

A reporter is not embellishing or making things up or being inaccurate if he faithfully summarizes a source's statement rather than quoting it word-for-word. I'm not saying Matthew is necessarily doing that here, but I doubt Carson would assert that Matthew's account is an embellishment.

 

[CharlieJ]

A bit off point, but we have evidence that baptism in Jesus' name persisted into the 3rd century. See for example Pseudo-Cyprian, De rebaptismate.

 

[arapahoepark]

What then are the implications that the early church did not do it? If Matthew recorded this arent we to do it otherwise oneness pentecostals have a valid baptism?

 

[MW]

What say you if this and other notions that the 'authors' of the Gospels embellished or made things up accorsing to 'evangelical' NT scholars?

This question comes down to the legitimacy of redaction criticism, which most evangelical scholars have accepted. The ipsissima verba/vox distinction is without question, but editorial license, even under divine inspiration, can be taken too far. There may be a stricter or a looser use of redaction criticism, but it has opened the door to all kinds of non-literal interpretations which are governed by the reader's thematic interests.

On the baptismal formula, Trinitarianism was established as fundamental to catholic orthodoxy, and hence a case is made for the Trinitarian formula in order to differentiate it from heretical baptism.