- Women and Baptism in the Didascalia Apostolorum
A number of early Christian writings contain strong prohibitions against women performing the rite of baptism, which suggests that on the contrary the practice was actually going on. Tertullian, for instance, opposed their right to do so, which some were apparently claiming on the basis of the spurious Acts of Paul, where the virgin Thecla takes it upon herself to do just that.1 The Apostolic Church Order, a work usually regarded as having been written in the early fourth century, but strongly argued by Alistair Stewart-Sykes as having been composed in the early third century from even older source material, opposes any liturgical activities by women.2 The Didascalia Apostolorum, too, discourages women from baptizing, "since it is a transgression of the commandment and a great danger to her who baptizes as to the one baptized. For were it lawful to be baptized by a woman, our Lord and Teacher would himself have been baptized by Mary his mother" (3.9).3
On the other hand, the Didascalia does acknowledge the necessity for women to assist on occasions when women are to be baptized, and there are three very interesting aspects to this section of the document. First, the reference to women deacons performing this ministry occurs here rather abruptly and parenthetically. (It should, by the way, be noted that although some translations refer to these as "deaconesses," the word used is simply the feminine form of that for a deacon and not a special term for deaconess as in later Greek usage from Canon 19 of the Council of Nicaea onwards.) Women deacons are not mentioned anywhere else in the work, except in one other place where, in order to create a parallel to deacons being described as standing in the place of Christ, they are said to be honored in the place of the Holy Spirit (2.26). Because Alistair Stewart-Sykes has convincingly argued that the Didascalia, like the other church orders, is not the work of a single compiler but was subject to successive emendations by different hands, this encourages the possibility that both that isolated reference and [End Page 641] also their inclusion in the baptismal instructions were later insertions in an older version. On the other hand, all reference to the ministry of women at baptism cannot be an addition to the earlier text, for then one would have expected only the women deacons to be mentioned and not other women too. This suggests that it was built upon an earlier form that spoke simply of women in general fulfilling this task, and this supposition is strengthened by the fact that, when one removes the specific references to women deacons, as indicated here by the use of brackets, a perfectly intelligible narrative remains. The bishop is instructed:
You are to choose and appoint deacons from all the people who are pleasing to you, a man for the administration of the many things which are necessary, a woman however for the ministry of women, [since there are houses where you cannot send a deacon to the women because of the pagans but you can send a female deacon, and in many other matters there is need for an office of a female deacon]. In the first instance it is required that when women go down into the waters that they should be anointed with the oil of anointing [by female deacons] as they enter the waters. When there is no woman present, [and particularly no female deacon,] it is necessary that he who baptizes should himself anoint her who is being baptized. But if a woman is present [and particularly a female deacon], it is not right that a woman should be seen by a man. But anoint the head alone, with a laying on of a hand. As in ancient times the priests and kings of Israel were anointed, so you should do the same, anointing the head, with a laying on of a hand, of those who come to baptism, both men and women, and subsequently, whether you yourself baptize or command deacons to baptize or presbyters,4 a woman...