From the Dura article
Because of the symbolic association of resurrec-
tion and baptism, some early Christian communi-
ties considered Easter Sunday as an especially
appropriate time for baptism. For example,
Tertullian (about 200 C.E.) wrote, “The Passover
[that is, Easter, before it was separated from the
Passover] provides the day of most solemnity for
baptism, for then was accomplished our Lord's pas-
sion, and into it we are baptized.” 14
The Christian claim of the special nature of the
eighth day, Sunday, was asserted very sharply and
bitterly, for example, in the letter of pseudo-
Barnabas 15:8-9 (written around 100 C.E.): “[T]he
present Sabbaths are not acceptable to me ... I will
make the beginning of the eighth day, that is, the
beginning of another world ... We celebrate ... the
eighth day on which Jesus arose from the dead.”
The claim that Sunday was superior to the
seventh-day Sabbath continued well after the first
century. In the second century C.E., Justin Martyr
claimed that the eighth day “possesses a certain
mysterious import, which the seventh day did not
possess”;15 the eighth day, to Justin, was “a type of
the true circumcision [newborn Jewish boys are cir-
cumcised on the eighth day] by which we are cir-
cumcised from error and wickedness through our
Lord Jesus Christ who rose from the dead on the
first day of the week.” 16
Origen, an influential Christian who was active
at the time the Dura baptistery' was decorated (he
died about 254 C.E.), wrote that “the number eight,
which contains the virtue of the Resurrection, is the
figure of the future world. ’17 To Ambrose, a fourth-
century bishop of Milan who sought the destruc-
tion of synagogues, is attributed an inscription at
the Saint Thekla baptistery in Milan, Italy: “Eight-
niched this church arises destined for holy rites,
eight corners has its font, dignifying its gift. The
sacred eight is fitting for this fair baptismal hall:
here our people are truly reborn.”
Polemic references to the eighth day rather than
the seventh day as the Sabbath (the day of rest) are
also frequent in eastern Christian literature. For
example, the Syriac Acts of Judas Thomas relates a
legend in which the apostle Thomas converts a
king in India. Before he was baptized, “the king
gave orders that the bath should be closed for seven
days ... and ... on the eighth day they ... entered the
bath.”19 The third-century Syriac Didascalia—the
title means “teachings” and refers to the teachings
of the apostles it claims to contain-tells us that “the
Sabbath itself is counted even unto the Sabbath and
it becomes eight days” (Didascalia 26).
........
Many gnostic texts repeat and elaborate on ihe
symbology of the eighth day. For instance, Theodotus,
a second-century C.E. Gnostic, wrote that “the rest of
the spiritual man takes place on the day of die Lord in
the ogcload (that is, the eighth day].”30 And Tatian was
said to have become a Gnostic, though both Gnostics
and non-Gnostics used his Diatessaron. The question
of possible gnostic influences on Dura Christians will
likely be debated by experts on gnosticism.
14 Tertullian, De Baptlsmo 19.
15 Justin, Dialog with Trypho 24,1.
16Justin, Dialog with Trypho 41. 4.
*' Origcn, .Srfcrta in psalmos 118, 164.
18 See Franz J. Ddlger, "Zur Symholik des altchris-
tlichen Taufhauscs, I. Das Oktogon und die Symholik
dcr Achtzahl.” Antikc und Christcntum 4 (Munster:
Aschcndorf, 1934). pp. 133-187; Antonio Quac-
quarelli, L'ogdoade palristica e suoi rijlessf nella liturgia
e nci monumenti, Quademi di Vetera Christianorum 7
(Bari: Adriaiica, 1973).
19 Then, as part of a litany, Thomas, who anointed the
king with oil and baptized him, said, "come, mother of
seven houses, whose rest was in the eighth house."
Translation from section 2 of the Syriac version by
William Wright, Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles
(London: Williams and Norgate. 1871), p. 166.
w The potential for confusion appears in a statement
from Clement of Alexandria's Stromata 6.16: "For one
may venture to say that the eighth is properly the
seventh, and the seventh actually the sixth; that is the
eighth is properly a sabbath, and the seventh a day of
work.” Sec Everett Ferguson, “Was Barnabas a Chiliast?
An lixamplc of Hellenistic Number Symbolism in
Barnabas and Clement of Alexandria, in Greeks,
Romans, and Christians, Abraham I Malherbe
Festschrift, (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990), pp. 157-167,
here p. 166.
30 Excerpta ex Theodoto 63, as recorded by Clement
of Alexandria. Several gnostic texts found at Nag
Hammadi also emphasize the ogdoad (as the eighth
day or eighth heaven); see, for example. Gospel of the
Egyptians 41, 58: Paraphrase of Shem 46; Testimony
of Truth 55; Zostrianos 6; Origin of the World 102-
104; Apocalypse of Paul 23-24. These texts arc trans-
lated in James Robinson, cd„ The Nog Hammadi
Library in linglish (New York: Harper & Row. 1977,
and later editions).
