Baptism, Acts, and Arator

This chapter argues that in writing the Historia Apostolica Arator was particularly concerned to emphasize and explain the role of baptism in the Acts of the Apostles. First, the chapter examines the baptismal content of both the Historia Apostolica and Acts. For all that Acts is the single fullest account of the missionary work of the church in its earliest days, its explicit descriptions of and direct references to baptism are few. To show how Arator highlighted the baptismal perspective to an extent which transcends any notion of mere paraphrase, baptismal references and sequences in both works are listed side by side in tabular form. From such an analysis it is clear that Arator's poem includes more baptismal references than the biblical text on which it is based. Baptismal passages in Historia Apostolica and Acts are discussed.