Who said anything about infants?

And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay." And she prevailed upon us. Acts 16:15

Today we continue with the question of who should be baptized. (If you haven’t yet, please read the previous two posts for context.)

Acts 8:36-37 is also often cited as proof that a person must believe before being baptized. As much as I agree with the conclusion, I am unconvinced that this passage is biblical proof of the position. First because that passage is also a narrative (read the previous post) so though it is accurately recorded, it is not a didactic (teaching) passage. Second, there is credible scholarship that says that v.38 was not in the original manuscript, but was added later. So be careful citing this passage in Acts 8 as a prooftext.

But what about the original question regarding baptizing infants because Lydia’s “household” was baptized? The passage says nothing about the makeup of Lydia’s household. So the argument that everyone in her household was of an age to believe the gospel is no less credible than the argument in favor of baptizing infants based in this passage.

One last post on this matter tomorrow…