Eusebius’ Trinitarian Baptismal Formula

In this post I will be citing from the works of Eusebius of Caesarea to show where this renowned Church historian and apologist quotes the Matthean Trinitarian baptismal formula. All emphasis will be mine.

In that He foretold at the outset to His Disciples, that He would make them Fishers of men; and, that they should eventually, openly, immediately, (and) through His power, make Disciples of all nations. From the Gospel of Matthew²⁰.

8. After his resurrection from the dead, all of them,– being together as they had been commanded,--went to Galilee, as He had said to them. But, when they saw Him, some worshipped Him, but others doubted. But He drew near to them, spoke with them, and said: "All power (both) in heaven and earth, is given to me of my Father. Go ye and make Disciples of all nations, and baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. And teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. And, behold! I am with you always even to the end of the world." Observe now, in these things, the consideration and caution evinced by the Disciples: (viz.) that they did not all worship Him when they saw Him. Some of them indeed did this faithfully and devotedly, but others refrained for the present. It was not easily and suddenly, that they gave in to this miracle; but, it was after much investigation and with every caution they were so at last persuaded, that they went out to all mankind. They became too, the Preachers of His |224 Resurrection; because it had prophetically said in the Scriptures of the Prophets, in His Person, "Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and (for thy) possessions, the uttermost parts of the earth²¹." Just as the testimony of this prophecy has now been fulfilled in fact, He said to His Disciples; "All power is given to me, as in heaven, so in earth." For, He had possessed the sovereignty of the things which are in heaven from eternity²²; but now, He said was given to Him, by His Father, those upon earth, in conformity with this (viz.) "Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thy possession. For, from ancient times,--as Moses attests,– "The most High, when dividing the nations, appointed the boundary of the people, according to the number of the angels²³." |225 So that the Angels of God were, from ancient times, Rulers over all that was on the earth. But, when mankind had been perverted to the error of many Gods, and the Angels, who were the Rulers, were unable to afford any remedy for this; the common Saviour of all Himself taught, by means of His Divine manifestation, and after His victory over Death, that the empire of the nations upon earth, should no more be given by his Father to the Angels, but to Himself. And on this account, He commanded his Disciples,--not from ancient times--but now, that they should make the circuit, and make Disciples, of all nations. And He necessarily added the mystery of cleansing.

For it was necessary to those, who should be converted from among the heathen, that they should be cleansed by His power from every pollution and uncleanness; because they had been defiled by the error of Demons, and had been holden by the worship of Idols, and by uncleanness of every sort, but had now first been changed from that life of abomination, and of lawless practices. These very persons then, did He direct to teach,--after this cleansing, which is by the mystery of His doctrine,--not, that they should observe the precepts of the Jews, nor yet the Law of Moses, but all those which He commanded them to observe. And these |226 are those which the whole of the Disciples,--making severally the circuit of all the nations,--equally delivered to every Church throughout the whole creation. He necessarily therefore, stirred them up, and made them readily to confide,--to undertake the circuit of all nations, and to make Disciples of all races of men, through the promise by which He counselled them, saying: "Behold, I myself am with you." To this word of promise, He also superadded the performance. He was present in the Divine Power with each and every one of them; to the whole of them was He at once present, and with them He acted and wrought. He confirmed too, even to victory, (the promise) constituting them Teachers to all nations, of that fear of God²⁴ which was delivered by Himself. In this promise therefore, they trusted; and forthwith, did they fulfil His words by deeds: nor did they in any thing hesitate; hut they (so) went forth with all readiness to the disciplining of all nations, that they engaged in the work. With their eyes they had seen Him who was a little while before dead, then living: and, Him whom they had denied with cursing²⁵,--on account of what then happened to them,--they had seen openly, present, and in his own person; and, as His custom was, He had conversed with them, and promised them the things of which we have already spoken. Nor could they disbelieve His promises, because of His appearing (to them); which (appearing) they had investigated. Now in this precept, there must have been (much) that was discouraging to them, knowing as they did in themselves the rusticity and illiterate character which they sustained; on account of which, they might indeed have sought to be excused, and have well imagined it impossible that those, whose Language was the Syriac (only), and who knew nothing beyond the art of catching fish, could he Teachers both of the Greeks and Romans, of the Egyptians also, the Persians, and the rest of the barbarous nations: and set about to legislate,--in opposition to all other Legislators and Kings throughout the whole |227 creation,—that which was opposed to the things delivered to them from all ages, respecting the Gods of their Forefathers. But it was not possible for them to think such things, who had heard the voice of God saying to them, "Behold, I myself am with you always." They had too, openly viewed the Godhead of Him who spoke with them. It had been seen to be superior to Death: respecting which however they had entertained fear. On the contrary they (now) hear, that henceforth they shall, with all their soul, undergo afflictions. They had now taken up from their Master, the certainty of life after death; they went out therefore, with confidence to make the circuit of all nations, that they might confirm by fact, the promises of Him their Lord. But He attached to the promises made to them, a more excellent word; and,--what exceeds all wonder,– this He shews forth even to this present time; (viz.) "Behold, I myself am with you always" He added also, "even to the end of the world" And this applies, not only to them, but also to all those who came after them, and from them received His doctrine; and, thenceforward, even to this time, is He present to all those who have become His Disciples. Hence, His Church, which is kept by Himself, is daily increasing and multiplying to myriads; and by His Power shall it be congregated, even to the end of the world! 

On the conversion of all nations to God. From the Gospel of Luke.

9. Again, upon another occasion after His resurrection from the dead, He appeared to the other disciples, and to them,--yet doubting and not believing in Him,--He put forth and said these words: "²⁶These are the words which I said, to you, when I was yet with you; that it is necessary every thing should be fulfilled which is written respecting me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms. Then He opened their understandings that they should understand the Scriptures : and He said, Thus it was right that Christ should suffer, and that He should rise from the dead on the third day; and (that) repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning from |228 Jerusalem. And ye are the witnesses of these things." On one occasion indeed, He said, that "in His name should be preached repentance to all nations." (Now), if the Deed did not follow upon the Word; neither can His resurrection from the dead be credited. But if, even up to this time, the things which His prediction foretold, remain in fact, so that His lively, (energetic) and operative word is visible (in effect) throughout the whole creation to our eyes; then is it unbecoming we should disbelieve Him who spoke this. For He, whose power is living (energetic,) operative, and visible to the eyes, powerfully impels us first of all to confess thereupon, that He is living; and that He brings to effect the living things of God, whose living (actual) deeds are seen fulfilling His words.

These His words then, --being varied and translated into all languages, both of the Greeks and the Barbarians,--has He made intelligible to all²⁷, so that His doctrine is heard by all nations, and has stirred up myriads of congregations of those, who were formerly wickedly led on in the error of many Gods, in the worship of Idols, and in (the course of life) which was unbecoming, to conversion and repentance. He did not command them first to preach remission of sins, and then repentance; but first, repentance, and then remission. For it was to those, who evinced a sincere repentance of former sins, that our Saviour's grace gave the pardon of their deeds;--on whose account indeed He suffered Death, and gave His soul a ransom for the souls of those, who should be saved through Him. Thus therefore, these His disciples,--men rude of speech and altogether illiterate, poor and needy, (as) they were in their character,--trusted in the power of Him who appeared to them after Death, and openly held converse with them. And they began from Jerusalem according to His commands, and went forth into all nations; the things too, which they were commanded, they performed, and preached repentance to all men, and |229 remission of the former sins of the soul. And such was the entire superiority which they evinced, that, even to these our times, the doctrine of these poor and illiterate men, is in active operation throughout the whole creation of man. How His acts should be heard, and preached of, throughout the whole world. From the Gospel of Matthew and of Mark.

20. ⁶ Matt, xxviii. 18, to the end. The differences from the Peschito are slight, and such as to shew, as before, that the Translator having the words of the Peschito in his mind, rather translated afresh than followed it literally.--All these headings following are, in the MS. given as Rubrics.

21. ¹ Ps. ii. 8. Cited also, Demonstr. Evang. Lib. iv. cap. x. p. 162. D.

22. ² I do not see how this could come out of the mouth of an Arian.

23. ³ The place here referred to is Deut. xxxii. 8, as given in the Version of the Septuagint: where we have, [Greek] Out of this seems to have originated the notion of Angels presiding over the several regions of the Earth: and, thence, among the heathen, of Demons doing this: a notion prevailing far and wide in the East at this very day. The Hebrew has here, "Children of Israel;" whence the notion among the Jews, that there were 72 nations on the earth, and as many languages; because this was the number supposed to have gone down with Jacob into Egypt. The whole however, is a gross mistake, which has arisen out of a false interpretation of the Hebrew term [Hebrew], signifying enumeration, as well as number. The sense of the place will then be, according to the enumeration, (account or statement) of the children of Israel: i. e. as found in their Scriptures. This Scripture is also quoted, Demonstr. Evang. Lib. iv. cap. vii; but the reasoning differs. See also ib. cap. x. p. 163. See also Origen contra Cels. Lib. v. p. 250, &c. An extract is given from the Theophania, in the "Scriptorum Veterum Nova Collectio," Tom. viii. p. 91, by Signior Angelo Mai in these words: [Greek] If this extract belongs to any part of this work, it must, I suppose, be to this; as I know of no other place at all like it, From the letter Beta being attached to the extract, one would imagine that the second Book was meant; but certainly, our second Book contains no such matter. All I can see in it, I must confess, is, that the writer of the Codex mentioned by Signior Mai only intended to give a sort of Comment on this place of the Theophania, and one which seems to have come originally from the Jews: it being much of a piece with the traditionary nonsense entertained by that people, but quite foreign to the manner of Eusebius, who never indulges in cabbalistic reasoning of this sort. Nor is the Signior (now Cardinal) correct when he says:--"Theophania, seu publica Christi vita, (Luc. cap. 3 )": neither the term, nor the contents of the work, nor the Scripture cited, justifying such an assertion. Nor does the word a0nefa&nh|, referred to, even hint at the existence of this work. All the passage in the Chronicon intends evidently is, that our Lord appeared (a0nefa&nh|) in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar. The Cardinal tells us moreover, that he has discovered xviii. other fragments of this work, which he has printed in the second edition of his first volume. But this edition I have not yet been able to find in this country; I can say nothing therefore about these extracts.

24. ¹ A very common term, used to designate the true religion: it is also frequently used in the Hebrew Bible in this sense.

25. ² Alluding to the denial of Peter. Matt. xxvi. 74.

26. ³ Luke xxiv. 44. seq.

27. ¹ The phraseology of the Syriac deserves notice here. It runs thus, literally, In the whole hearing (i.e. understanding) therefore of all the nations has He made these His words; being varied and translated, &c. The term [Syriac] is used here, and signifies, as it does also above, Book in. sect. 39, the understanding of languages. (Syriac Theophania, Book IV, chapter 8)

But what in the world was this gospel instead of which there was no other one,¹¹ if not, I suppose, that very gospel that indeed it is recorded that the Savior publicly proclaimed when he was handing it over to his disciples, saying, “Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and (10) of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”?¹² For he alone through the mystical regeneration has given to us this grace of the knowledge of the holy Trinity, since neither Moses nor any prophet provided this to the people of old. For it was fitting for the Son of God alone to proclaim to all human beings the paternal grace, since indeed, “The law was given through Moses,” but only through “Jesus Christ,” as through (11) an “only-begotten Son,” did “grace and truth” come.¹³ For this reason rightly did the one [Moses], in the manner of a tutor, hand over to the people of old in their infancy “elements of the beginning of the ways of God,”¹⁴ on the one hand prohibiting [the] error of polytheism, while on the other, announcing the knowledge of one God. But the saving grace, which provides to us a certain transcendent and angelic knowledge, unveiled for all to see the ancient mystery that had been hidden in silence from the people of old, announcing that the very God who is beyond the universe15 [and] who was known to the men of old is at the same time God and Father of the only-begotten Son, supplying as well the power of the Holy Spirit through the Son to those (12) deemed worthy. Thus the Church of God received and preserves the holy, blessed, and mystical Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as its saving hope through the regeneration in Christ. And this was the gospel that the great Apostle testifies it is not lawful to change “for another gospel [though] there is no other”¹⁶ still up to the present through the letter to them, crying out to [the] Galatians, “Even if we or an angel from heaven proclaims to you a gospel other than you received, let him be anathema,”¹⁷ commanding [them] long ago, as is right, not to heed either bishops or rulers or teachers if one of them should distort the true statement of the faith. (13) But who was this [man]¹⁸ who teaches [us] to know God as Father and hands over [to us] the knowledge of a Son of God and the zeal to participate in a Holy Spirit? Indeed, these things would be the distinguishing features of Christians alone, this being the way in which, I think, the (14) holy Church of God distinguishes itself from the Jewish way [of life]. For as that way [of life] rejected the polytheistic and Greek error by [the] confession of one God, so also the exceptional knowledge concerning the Son that belongs to the Church introduced something greater and more complete, teaching [human beings] to know the same God as Father of an only-begotten Son, a Son who is truly existing and living and subsisting. In saying, “For as the Father has life in himself, so also he has given to the Son to have life in himself,”¹⁹ the only-begotten of God himself taught [this], (15) so that the Father is truly Father (not being called so only in name, nor having acquired the title falsely, but [being] in truth and deed Father of an only-begotten Son) and also the Son is truly Son. But he who supposes that the Son is a mere word and testifies that he is only Word and many times says this very thing, that he is nothing other than Word, remaining within the Father while he is resting but being active in the crafting of the creation, just like our word that rests when we are silent but is active when we are speaking, would clearly agree with a certain Jewish and human conception [of the Word], but deny the true Son of God.

13. Jn 1.17–18.

14. Heb 5.12.

15. Rom 9.5.

16. Gal 1.6–7.

17. Gal 1.8.

18. Klostermann’s emendation <ἢ>is unnecessary.

19. Jn 5.26 (Against Marcellus and On Ecclesiastical Theology (Fathers of the Church Patristic Series), translated by Kelley McCarthy Spoerl & Markus Vinzent [The Catholic University of America Press, 2017], pp. 77-80)

Therefore, “there is one God” and “one mediator of God” for all creatures, the saving mediation beginning not now, but even before his divine appearance among men, as (36) the statement thus showed. Given that these things have been laid out in brief to the same Galatians from the only letter addressed to them, and that the saving faith provides the mystical regeneration “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”⁴³ and that in addition to the divine writings the universal Church of God from one end of the earth to the other confirms the testimonies from the divine Scriptures by its unwritten tradition, now it remains also to examine in detail the statements of Marcellus and to undertake the demonstrations that were promised by us, lest anyone think that the man is unjustly disparaged by us. (37) My present goal being to discuss briefly what has been said, I will not recount all the statements of the man, but I will make use of only those that are most significant; through them I will make my argument, having gone over the most, as it were, egregious ones. But before I lay out what he has said, I think it is necessary in the first place to show to my readers that he did not understand correctly the most obvious statements of the divine Scriptures, so that it might be known to those who were still ignorant of him44 what sort of man was driven to dare [to say] such things.

43. Mt 28.19. (Ibid., p. 85)

Yet the God who is over all is also said to be “spirit,” as the Savior himself taught, when he said, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth,”²⁴⁶ and he will truly be the holy of holies and “dwelling among the holy.”²⁴⁷ But the Son of God is also spirit, because he is both spirit and himself holy of holies, if indeed he is [the] image of the (20) invisible. For this reason it has also been said of him, “Now the Lord is the spirit,”²⁴⁸ (21) and, “the spirit before us, Christ the Lord.”²⁴⁹ But given that the Holy Spirit is another alongside the Father and the Son, the Savior, showing his unique characteristic,²⁵⁰ has called him “Counselor,” distinguishing him from the common run of similarly titled [spirits] through the title “Counselor.” For the angelic powers also are “spirits.” For it has been said: “He who makes his angels spirits.”²⁵¹ But none of these can be equal to the Counseling Spirit. For this reason, (22) only this [Spirit] has been received into the holy and thrice-blessed Trinity; in no other way did the Savior command his apostles to hand over the mystery of his regeneration to those Gentiles who believed in him than by “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”²⁵² Thus the Father has the ultimate authority and bestows grace, while the Son assists in this [effort] (for “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ”),²⁵³ and the Holy Spirit, to be sure, the Counselor, himself distributes according to the varieties of gifts within him, “for to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit,”²⁵⁴ and likewise what has been reckoned among these.

246. Jn 4.24.

247. See Is 57.15.

248. 2 Cor 3.17.

249. See Lam 4.20.

250. τὸ ἰδίωμα.

251. Heb 1.7.

252. Mt 28.19.

253. Jn 1.17.

254. 1 Cor 12.8–9. (Ibid., pp. 312-313)

Further Reading

Matt. 28:19 – Baptism In Whose Name? 

Matthew 28:19: A Text Critical Investigation

Matthew 28:19