XXIX.  But, one says, Christ was thirty years old when He was baptized,90    Luke iii. 23. and that although He was God; and do you bid us hurry our Baptism?—You have solved the difficulty when you say He was God.  For He was absolute cleansing; He had no need of cleansing; but it was for you that He was purified, just as it was for you that, though He had not flesh, yet He is clothed with flesh.  Nor was there any danger to Him from putting off Baptism, for He had the ordering of His own Passion as of His own Birth.  But in your case the danger is to no small interests, if you were to depart after a birth to corruption alone, and without being clothed with incorruption.  And there is this further point for me to consider, that that particular time of baptism was a necessity for Him, but your case is not the same.  He manifested Himself in the thirtieth year after His birth and not before; first, in order that He might not appear ostentatious, which is a condition belonging to vulgar minds; and next, because that age tests virtue thoroughly, and is the right time to teach.  And since it was needful for Him to undergo the passion which saves the world, it was needful also that all things which belong to the passion should fit into the passion; the Manifestation, the Baptism, the Witness from Heaven, the Proclamation, the concourse of the multitude, the Miracles; and that they should be as it were one body, not torn asunder, nor broken apart by intervals.  For out of the Baptism and Proclamation arose that earthquake of people coming together,91    “All the City was moved.”  A.V., lit. “shaken as by earthquake.” for so Scripture calls that time;92    Matt. xxi. 10. and out of the multitude arose the shewing of the signs and the miracles that lead up to the Gospel.  And out of these came the jealousy, and from this the hatred, and out of the hatred the circumstance of the plot against Him, and the betrayal; and out of these the Cross, and the other events by which our Salvation has been effected.  Such are the reasons in the case of Christ93    i.e., the reasons why He was not baptized till He was thirty. so far as we can attain to them.  And perhaps another more secret reason might be found.

ΚΘʹ. Ἀλλὰ Χριστὸς, φησὶ, τριακονταέτης βαπτίζεται, καὶ ταῦτα Θεὸς ὤν: καὶ σὺ κελεύεις ἐπισπεύδειν τὸ βάπτισμα; Θεὸν εἰπὼν, λέλυκας τὸ ζητούμενον. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ αὐτοκάθαρσις ἦν, καὶ οὐκ ἐδεῖτο καθάρσεως: ἀλλὰ σοὶ καθαίρεται, ὥσπερ καὶ σάρκα φορεῖ σοὶ, ἄσαρκος ὤν. Οὐδέ τις κίνδυνος ἦν αὐτῷ τὸ βάπτισμα παρατείνοντι: αὐτὸς γὰρ καὶ τοῦ παθεῖν ἦν ἑαυτῷ ταμίας, ὥσπερ καὶ τῆς γεννήσεως. Σοὶ δὲ, οὐδὲ περὶ μικρῶν ὁ κίνδυνος, εἰ ἀπέλθοις τῇ φθορᾷ γεννηθεὶς μόνῃ, καὶ μὴ τὴν ἀφθαρσίαν ἀμφιεσάμενος. Σκοπῶ δὲ κἀκεῖνο, ὅτι τῷ μὲν ἀναγκαῖος ἦν οὗτος ὁ καιρὸς τοῦ βαπτίσματος: σοὶ δὲ οὐχ ὁ αὐτὸς λόγος. Ἀνεδείχθη μὲν γὰρ τριακοστὸν γεγονὼς ἔτος, οὐ πρότερον, τοῦ τε μὴ δοκεῖν ἐπιδεικτικὸς εἶναί τις (τῶν γὰρ ἀπειροκάλων τὸ πάθος), καὶ ὡς τελείαν βάσανον ἀρετῆς, καὶ τοῦ διδάσκειν καιρὸν ταύτης ἐχούσης τῆς ἡλικίας. Ἐπεὶ δὲ παθεῖν ἔδει τὸ τοῦ κόσμου σωτήριον πάθος, πάντα συνδραμεῖν ἔδει πρὸς τὸ πάθος ὅσα τοῦ πάθους, τὴν ἀνάδειξιν, τὸ βάπτισμα, τὴν ἄνωθεν μαρτυρίαν, τὸ κήρυγμα, τὴν συνδρομὴν τοῦ πλήθους, τὰ θαύματα, καὶ ὥσπερ ἓν σῶμα γενέσθαι, μὴ διεσπασμένον, μηδὲ ἀπεῤῥηγμένον τοῖς διαστήμασιν. Ἐκ μὲν γὰρ τοῦ βαπτίσματος καὶ τοῦ κηρύγματος, ὁ τῶν συντρεχόντων σεισμὸς (οὕτω γὰρ ἡ Γραφὴ καλεῖ τὸν καιρὸν ἐκεῖνον), ἐκ δὲ τοῦ πλήθους, ἡ τῶν σημείων ἐπίδειξις, καὶ τὰ θαύματα τῷ Εὐαγγελίῳ προσάγοντα. Ἐκ δὲ τούτων, ὁ φθόνος: ἐκ δὲ τούτου, τὸ μῖσος: ἐκ δὲ τοῦ μίσους, τὸ τῆς ἐπιβουλῆς, καὶ τῆς προδοσίας: ἐκ τούτου δὲ, ὁ σταυρὸς, καὶ ὅσοις σεσώσμεθα. Τὰ μὲν δὴ τοῦ Χριστοῦ τοιαῦτα, καὶ οὕτως ἔχοντα, ὅσον ἡμῖν ἐφικτόν: τάχα δ' ἄν τις καὶ ἄλλος εὑρεθείη λόγος τούτων ἀποῤῥητότερος.