Baptism in the Early Church

Barnabas describes baptism as descending into the water and coming back up out of the water. In one of the earliest known writings of the Christian church, we see clear evidence that the practice of baptism was understood to be by immersion as the normative practice of the Church. It goes against basic exegetical practices when church traditions (such as Presbyterians) who practice sprinkling as the normative mode of baptism eisegete the Scriptures by saying that when Jesus was said to have gone down into the water that it just means he walked out a bit and was then sprinkled and then “came up out of the water”.

The Didache relates that a person should be immersed in living (moving) water or standing water. If that isn't possible, then pouring water thrice on the head is an acceptable alternative. For the early church, pouring was not the normative.

Tertullian listed several options for where a baptism could occur. All of them show that the expectation is there is enough water for one to be immersed.

In the earliest mention of infant baptism in all of Church history, caution is given that little children should not be baptized and the church should wait until after they have asked for salvation.