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ADDENDUM M. CATECHISM FOR CONVERTING PAEDOCOMMUNIONISTS
Q. 1 (Question by Teacher). Who made you and everything else?
A. 1 (Answer by Pupil). The Triune God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Q. 2. What do you mean when you call God a Father?
A. 2. He has always been mature, and has never been without the Son nor the Spirit.
Q. 3. But wouldn’t at least the Son then have been the smaller child of the Father?
A. 3. No, the Son has always been with the Father and is thus equally mature (John 1:1-18).
Q. 4. Did God the Father and Son then create the Holy Spirit?
A. 4. No, for the Father and the Son have always been maturely linked by God the Spirit.
Q. 5. You mean like an eternal Family of three different yet mature Persons?
A. 5. Yes, in covenant, like the mature Noah & his wife & sons & their wives (Genesis 6:18).
Q. 6. Was that of Noah, then, the first ever covenantal human family?
A. 6. No, they descended from the first covenantal people Adam and Eve (Hosea 6:7).
Q. 7. Did the Triune God create Adam and Eve as babies, or as mature persons?
A. 7. He created them as His mature images - as adults (Genesis 2:7-25).
Q. 8. Did He tell them to eat of the fruit of the tree of life in the garden of Eden?
A. 8. He did not forbid it to those adults, yet they never ate of it when in Eden.
Q. 9. Why did they then not eat that fruit at that time?
A. 9. Because they fell into sin before eating of it, and were then expelled from Eden.
Q. 10. So that their children, as children, could not eat of the fruit of that tree in Eden?
A. 10. Yes; God told Adam man would only later leave his parents and cleave to his wife.
Q. 11. Adam’s children were then born outside of Eden, and only after the fall?
A. 11. Yes; it was only "in process of time" that Cain and Abel brought God sacrifices.
Q. 12. Were Cain and Abel perhaps still little boys at that time?
A. 12. No, they were grown up. Cain was marriageable, and Abel owned a flock of sheep.
Q. 13. But didn’t Adam also have other children?
A. 13. Yes, and they too catechized their children unto maturity (Genesis 4:26)
Q. 14. How do you know those descendants themselves catechized their children?
A. 14. Because Adam’s descendant Jared called his son Enoch, which means "catechized."
Q. 15. What was the result of Jared catechizing his son Enoch?
A. 15. Enoch walked with God; and also catechized his own children (Genesis 5:19-24).
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Q. 16. Who were Enoch’s son, grandson, and great-grandson?
A. 16. The Sethites Methuselah, Lamech and Noah.
Q. 17. Were they too catechized, and did they too "walk with God?"
A. 17. Yes; Lamech trusted the Lord, and Noah "walked with God" (Genesis 5:29 & 6:9).
Q. 18. After God destroyed the wicked in the Great Flood, who next "walked with God"?
A. 18. Abram or Abraham walked before the Lord (Genesis 12:3-8 & 15:6 & 17:1-25).
Q. 19. How did Abram show that God had made him into a righteous man?
A. 19. He catechized his servants, before they took holy bread and wine (Genesis 14:14-18).
Q. 20. How else do you know this?
A. 20. Abram circumcised those men, and his son Ishmael when thirteen (Genesis17:23-25).
Q. 21. What else did Abram do?
A. 21. He commanded his whole household to keep the way of the Lord (Genesis18:19).
Q. 22. Did God spare wicked Sodom after the sacrificing Abram prayed for it?
A. 22. No; for there were not even ten godly adult males in Sodom (Genesis 18:1-9, 18:18-20
& 18:32 cf. Exodus 18:12-21; Joshua 22:14; Judges 6:25-27 & 20:10; Ruth 4:2-11).
Q. 23. How old was Isaac, before he assisted his father Abram to sacrifice?
A. 23. He had clearly become a teenager (Genesis 21:8-20 & 22:6-13).
Q. 24. Did anyone before teenage ever bring a sacrifice to God, before the Passover?
A. 24. No, all of those sacrificing back then - were mature males alone.
Q. 25. Mention the names of some of those men who brought sacrifices?
A. 25. Adam, Abel, Noah, Abram, Isaac, and Jacob or Israel (Genesis 25:21 to 35:14).
Q. 26. And did Jacob or Israel teach his mature sons the Israelites to sacrifice?
A. 26. He certainly did so teach those Israelites (Genesis 46:1-4; 46:32-34; 47:3f; 49:11f; 50:8).
Q. 27. What about the later Israelites before their exodus from Egypt?
Q. 27. They too were so taught (Exodus 3:6-18; 5:1-17; 10:9-25; 12:3-50 cf. 18:12-21).
Q. 28. Does Exodus 10:9-25 imply also women and children co-sacrificed with the men?
A. 28. No, it says they would be with the men, while "those who are men" feasted - after Moses
and Aaron and the menfolk brought "sacrifice to the Lord."
Q. 29. Does Exodus 11:2 teach babes & toddlers would recover goods from the neighbours?
A. 29. No, it teaches every man would recover goods from his male neighbour; and that every
woman would recover jewels from her female neighbour (cf. 3:22 & 12:4 & 12:35).
Q. 30. Does Exodus 12:3-4 teach all would share the passover lamb with their neighbours?
A. 30. No, but that a few adult men should share the passover with their male neighbours.
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Q. 31. But doesn’t Exodus 12:1-47 teach all the Congregation of Israel kept the Passover?
A. 31. That "Congregation" consisted only of adult males under the leadership of Elders.
Q. 32. How can you say that such "Congregation" excluded the women and children?
A. 32. God says it was "every man...according to the house of the fathers" (Exodus 12:1-3).
Q. 33. You say the "Congregation" was limited to circumcised and mature adult males?
A. 33. Yes; and they needed to be catechized before eating the Passover (Exodus 12:26-48).
Q. 34. But doesn’t Exodus 12:3 say "a lamb for each household" ( including wives & babes)?
A. 34. No, it says "every man a lamb, according to the house of the fathers" not the mothers.
Q. 35. But it also adds "a lamb for a house."
A. 35. Yes, for "every man a lamb, according to the house of the fathers."
Q. 36. But doesn’t Exodus 12:4 say "every person who has a mouth shall eat"?
A. 36. No, it says: "If the household is too small for the lamb, let him [the male householder]
and his male neighbour take it [the mature ram] according to the number of the souls of
every man [or adult male] according to his eating and make your count for the lamb."
Q. 37. Are you saying only the mature males who would eat of the lamb were counted?
A. 37 . That’s what God says; and He adds even the lamb is to be a mature male (Exodus 12:5).
Q. 38. Doesn’t Exodus 12:6 say "the whole assembly of the Congregation...shall kill it?"
A. 38. That Assembly excluded all too young to kill the ram; and Exodus12:7 says the eaters
would paint the ram’s blood on the upper doorpost (unreachable by small children ).
Q. 39. Doesn’t Exodus 12:8 say they would then roast and eat the meat with bitter herbs?
A. 39. That’s right; and toddlers can’t roast , and unweaned babies can’t eat bitter herbs .
Q. 40. Exodus 12:11 says to eat it hastily with "your shoes on your feet, with staff in hand."
A. 40. Such must obviously exclude shoeless babies and staffless toddlers!
Q. 41. In Exodus 12:12 God says: "I...will...this night...smite all the firstborn...of Egypt."
A. 41. Yes, Egypt’s grown-up first-born - not Egypt’s just-born babies or toddlers!
Q. 42. In Exodus 12:14a, God says: "This day shall be to you for a memorial."
A. 42. Indeed! And how can a speechless infant or a toddler remember and commemorate?
Q. 43. Exodus 12:14b adds: "You shall keep it a Feast to the Lord throughout generations."
A. 43. Exactly; those who keep it and who commemorate it, do so in each generation.
Q. 44. Exodus 12:15 says the Feasters must remove leaven from their homes for seven days.
A. 44. Also their wives and toddlers must not there eat leaven; as distinct from co-feasting.
Q. 45. How do you know wives and toddlers did not co-feast?
A. 45. Because Exodus 12:16 adds that no man may then work (and toddlers can’t work ).
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Q. 46. Exodus 12:21 says: "Then Moses called for the Elders of Israel to kill the lamb.
A. 46. Elders means "the bearded ones"; and that excludes women and children.
Q. 47. Exodus 12:24 says the Passover shall be observed by bearded ones and their sons.
A. 47. But it does not say those sons ate it before they too become bearded ones!
Q. 48. Did Moses teach his mature sons how to sacrifice?
A. 48. Yes, also at the sacrifice of the Passover (Exodus 12:26-28 cf. 18:2-12).
Q. 49. Exodus 12:26 clarifies also the sons of bearded ones attended the Passover Service.
A. 49. Yes, but such sons were not speechless infants; for they asked a mature question!
Q. 50. They asked the bearded ones eating: "What do you mean by this Service?"
A. 50. Yes, if the askers too had eaten, they would say (but didn’t): "Why are we doing this?"!
Q. 51. What does Calvin say about this verse in his Institutes IV:16:30.
A. 51. He says: "Circumcision, which...corresponds to our Baptism [Colossians 2:11-13], was
intended for infants; but the Passover, for which the Supper is substituted, did not admit
all...but was duly eaten only by those who were of an age sufficient to ask the meaning
of it (Exodus 12:26). Had these men [the Anabaptists] the least particle of soundness
in their brain, would they be thus blind as to a matter so very clear?"
Q. 52. What did those catechizing bearded Elders then reply?
Q. 52. They said: "It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover who passed over the houses of the
sons of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians but delivered our homes."
Q. 53. And only the mature adult males then sacrificed, but not the women and children?
Q. 53. That is so - from the time of Adam right down to the time of Moses and beyond.
Q. 54. Doesn’t the word "first-born" in Exodus 12:29 doesn’t mean babies ate the Passover?
Q. 54. No; in Exodus 12:29 the firstborn already sat on Pharaoh’s throne or in his dungeon.
Q. 55. Exodus 12:37 speaks of 600 000 "men - beside children" clinging to mothers.
A. 55. Such 600 000 was the "count" for the eating of the passover lamb (at Exodus 12:4)
Q. 56. Wasn’t the Passover, like the Supper which replaced it, for ‘whosoever will’?
A. 56. No, Exodus 12:43-45 say: "No stranger shall eat of it" and "a hired servant shall not."
Q. 57. Doesn’t Exodus 12:44 says one’s purchased slave in one’s home may eat of it?
A. 57. Only after being circumcised and, as we shall see, also being catechized.
Q. 58. Does this mean that uncircumcised believers were not to eat of it?
A. 58. Indeed, no uncircumcised prenatal or baby or girl or adult woman might do so.
Q. 59. Would that then not mean that baptized women may not take the Lord’s Supper?
A. 59. No, for after Calvary, such are admitted to both Sacraments (Genesis 3:15; Acts 8:12;
First Corinthians 11:11-24; Galatians 3:27-29).
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Q. 60. Does Exodus 12:46 forbid carrying the Mass through the streets?
A. 60. Among other things, that is precisely what it also forbids!
Q. 61. But Exodus 12:47 says: "All the Congregation shall keep it."
A. 61. Yes; which means only catechized adult males - not uncircumcised babes & women!
Q. 62. Why then must such circumcised adult males also be catechized?
A. 62. For Exodus 12:48 says they must ‘come near’ - meaning: ‘ be catechized’ (12:26 f).
Q. 63. After strangers have been catechized, may their circumcised boys too eat?
A. 63. No, God says "let him" (the stranger but not his boys) then "keep" it. Exodus 12:48.
Q. 64. When can such a stranger’s circumcised boys "keep" and eat of the Passover?
A. 64. Only when such sons themselves have later been catechized and ‘come near.’
Q. 65. But is such a law not only for strangers - yet not also for those born Israelites?
A. 65. No, for Exodus 12:49 commands: "One law shall be to him who is homeborn, and to the
stranger who sojourns among you!"
Q. 66. Who then determines when a covenant child had become a communicable man?
A. 66. Not the child, nor the child’s parents, but the bearded Elders alone (Exodus 12:21-27
cf. Deuteronomy 19:12-15 & 23:1).
Q. 67. But doesn’t Exodus 13:8-14 imply that also baby Israelites ate the Passover?
A. 67. No, for babies cannot ask questions and be catechized - any more than the firstborn
animals which open the womb of animals should eat the Passover.
Q. 68. Doesn’t Exodus 16:16, cf. with 12:4, prove that all those children who ate the manna -
also ate the Sacrament of the Passover?
A. 68. No. For unweaned babies did not, but worms did, eat the manna (Exodus 16:20). Only
the mature men, the complaining Congregation, gathered it. Perhaps even the Israelites’
unprofessing halfbreeds and even some of their animals ate that unsacramental manna.
But the mature men who gathered it, did so only for those in their tents who could eat
it - not for their prenatal babes or their unweaned infants (16:10-16).
Q. 69. Were women and children to eat of the Passover and the other two annual Feasts?
A. 69. Exodus 23:10-19 says: "You men shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread..... So too
the Feast of Harvest, the first fruits of the labours of you men..., and the Feast of
Ingathering...when you men have gathered in your labours.... Three times you men shall
keep a Feast to Me in the year.... Your males shall appear before the Lord."
Q. 70. Is this stated also elsewhere in the Book of Exodus?
A. 70. Exodus 34:l2-26 states: "Take heed...lest you men make a covenant with the inhabitants
of the land!... The Feast of Unleavened Bread you men shall keep.... You men shall
observe the Feast of Weeks...and the Feast of Ingathering.... Thrice in the year, all your
males shall appear before the Lord God.... Neither shall any man desire your land, when
you men shall go up to appear before the Lord your God thrice in the year."
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Q. 71. Don’t some cite Leviticus 12:6-8 as if also women and children sacrificed?
A. 71. But Leviticus 1:2f says: "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: ‘If any man of you
brings an offering to the Lord - you shall bring your offering!’" Leviticus 12:6-8 says
that a new mother shall bring a lamb as a burnt offering not to the female door-keepers
at the door of the tabernacle but "to the priest" (who was always an adult male).
Q. 72. Did women and children manducate at the second Passover in Numbers 9:1-14?
A. 72. No. Certain adult men defiled by a dead body were refused that Passover till they had
cleansed themselves during the next month. This was instituted also for future
generations.
Q. 73. You say, then, that such precludes manducation by women and children?
A. 73. In the Talmud, Rabbi Jose here comments: "It excludes a minor!" And Christian
Scholars like Dr. Richard Bacon and Dr. Joe Morecraft observe that Numbers 9 must also
exclude from the Passover for ever all women menstruating during both the first month
and the second month (and therefore by implication also all other women).
Q. 74. Aren’t those views of the twenty-first century Bacon & Morecraft rather far-fetched?
A. 74. They seem to have fetched them from Herman Witsius’s far-off 1763 Economy of the
Covenants (4:9:15), where he explained that they could become unclean "by touching a
dead body; or by a leprosy; or whose seed went from them; or by any other accident
[Leviticus 13:1 to 15:17]; and women in their monthly courses [see inter alia Leviticus
15:18-33 cf. 12:2-8 etc.] were debarred from the Passover. Numbers 9:6f."
Q. 75. Did Israelitic women and children manducate at the pagan feasts of Numbers 25 & 31
(cf. First Corinthians 10:1-11 where, among other adulteries and idolatries, such are
discussed in connection with sinning before and during the Lord’s Supper)?
A. 75. They did not. Those punished for such actions were the adult Israelitic men and the
whoring Midianitesses concerned, but no Israelite women or pre-adolescent children.
Q. 76. Doesn’t Deuteronomy 6:20 f, compared to Exodus 12:16, imply Paedocommunion?
A. 76. No, Deuteronomy 6:20f has nothing to do with the Passover. Yet even there, no answer
is offered at all - before the son gets old enough to ask a similar question.
Q. 77. Does God discriminate between men - and women and children?
A. 77. Very clearly! In Deuteronomy 20:13, He calls for the death only of weapon-bearing
enemy males (cf. Exodus 12:3f and 12:37) but not of their women and children.
Q. 78. Does Deuteronomy 12:6-18 teach women and children co-sacrificed with men?
Q. 78. No. It teaches men sacrificed, but women and children merely co-rejoiced - while
unclean people too might co-eat meat from unsacrificial and unsacramental offerings.
Q. 79. And what does Deuteronomy 16:1-15 teach?
A. 79. First, that only the Passover is here called a sacrifice; second, that all the men shall
appear thrice annually at the Feasts of the Passover and of Weeks and of Tabernacles; and
third, that then "every man shall give as he is able."
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Q. 80. What did Calvin teach in his Sermon on this passage?
A. 80. "We must also make ‘Confession of our Faith’.... Let us use the Sacrament of the
Lord’s Supper so that we may ask one another what is meant by it! For in Exodus 12:26,
our Lord shows us full well that we must profit in His School to be partakers of the
paschal lamb.... The Lord’s Supper ought to remind that our coming there ought not to
be without instruction.... It be not lawful to admit young children to the Lord’s Supper ."
Q. 81. Does Deuteronomy 23:1f prohibit sexually-minor males sacrificing passover lamb?
A. 81. Clearly. Also the Talmud teaches on this: "All slaughter is valid - except...[that of] an
imbecile or a minor.... They invalidate their slaughtering."
Q. 82. Does Judges 13:3-7 teach that Samson sacramentally communed prenatally?
A. 82. This has nothing to do with the Passover. A fetus does not avoid unclean food, nor
manducate sacramental food. That notion is sacramentalistic to the core. Only physical
nourishment and alcohol poisoning could be absorbing by a fetus via a manducating
mother. For a fetus is nourished not through a mouth as in Exodus 12:3f but through his
umbilical cord. And thus he no more then communes than he would be getting baptized
simply by his pregnant mother herself getting baptized.
Q. 83. Don’t First Samuel one & two imply Elkanah’s wives and children ate the Passover?
A. 83. This doesn’t mention the Passover , nor teach his wives and children co-sacrificed with
him. It tells us Hannah didn’t eat or drink at an annual feast before Samuel was
conceived (1:7-15); nor till after he was weaned and reached late childhood (1:21-25);
nor that Samuel himself did so till a teenager (2:1-26 cf. Luke 2:40-47).
Q. 84. Does Proverbs 9 teach only trained youth are to come for Wisdom’s bread & wine?
A. 84. Matthew Henry here comments: "The grace of the Gospel is thus set before us in the
ordinance of the Lord’s Supper .... Ministers of the Gospel are commissioned and
commanded to give notice of the preparations which God has made in the Everlasting
Covenant for all those that are willing to come up to the terms of it.... Who is the
tempter? ‘A foolish [sex-depraved] woman’.... Who are the tempted? Young people
who have been well educated" and thus catechized - not pre-adolescent children!
Q. 85. What does Proverbs 22:6 really mean and require?
A. 85. "Catechize a lad for the time his beard begins to grow!" Attaining adolescence is to be
the normal terminus ad quem of catechizing - for admission to the Lord’s Supper.
Q. 86. Was the Passover at Second Chronicles thirty restrictive, or for "whosoever will?"
A. 86. The Westminster Larger Catechism (171) cited inter alia also from that chapter to prove
that "they that receive the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper are, before they come - to
prepare themselves thereto, by examining themselves" - unlike those who at Second
Chronicles 30:18 "had not cleansed themselves yet did...eat the Passover" so sinfully.
Q. 87. What light does Joel 1:3 & 2:16 shed against Paedocommunion?
A. 87. Joel distinguishes the "Congregation" and the "Elders" from "the children" and "the
sucklings," and he urges his adult addressees to catechize their children so that they in
turn should later inform their children about God’s awesome works.
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Q. 88. Did Calvin regard Isaiah 7:14f as relevant to the former’s Antipaedocommunionism?
Q. 88. Calvin comments: "There can be no doubt that the Prophet referred to Christ.... He will
be reared in the same manner children commonly are...until He arrives at that age when
He can distinguish between good and evil or, as we commonly say, ‘till the years of
discretion.’" Viz. Luke 2:41-47 cf. the Westminster Larger Catechism 177.
Q. 89. Was Isaiah 28:7f relevant to Matthew Henry’s Antipaedocommunionism?
Q. 89. He comments: "Ministers designed...to ‘make them understand doctrine,’ verse 9. This
is God’s way of dealing with men - to enlighten men’s minds first with the knowledge
of His truth.... It is good to begin betimes with children - to teach them, as they are
capable, the good knowledge of the Lord, and to instruct them.... For our instruction in
the things of God, it is requisite that we have precept upon precept and line upon line....
The same precept and the same line should often be repeated and inculcated....
Children...have ‘need of milk’ and ‘cannot bear strong meat’ (Hebrews 5:12) ."
Q. 90. Does Second Chronicles 35:1-17f teach that children kept the Passover?
Q. 90. It teaches that "Josiah kept a Passover" and got the mature male Congregation to prepare
by the houses of their "fathers" and to "sanctify" themselves and "prepare" their
"brethren" so that the mature "sons of Israel...kept the Passover."
Q. 91. What does Second Kings 23:9-21 teach happened just before that Passover?
Q. 91. Matthew Henry there comments: "The ordinance of the Lord’s Supper resembles the
Passover.... Religion cannot flourish where that Passover is...not duly observed.... He
charged them [Priests and Levites] to sanctify themselves and prepare their brethren.
Ministers...must sanctify themselves in the first place.... But it must not end there.
They must do what they can, to prepare their brethren - by admonishing, instructing....
The whole solemnity was performed with great exactness."
Q. 92. Are there any cases of Paedocommunion during Old Testament times?
Q. 92. Not among the faithful. But indeed among those syncretized with Paganism, and thus
among the syncretistic Samaritans (Second Kings 17:24-34 cf. Ezra 4:1-10f).
Q. 93. Is this reflected in Jeremiah (7:18), where he complains: "The children gather wood, and
the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough to make cakes to the Queen
of Heaven and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods"?
A. 93. Yes, and Calvin comments about the Lamentations 2:12 & 4:4 of that same faithful
Jeremiah: "The use of wine is not allowed to infants." For Jeremiah "speaks not of
sucklings but of children three or four years old."
Q. 94. What does the Prophet Ezekiel (44:4-21) predict about the cleansed Passover alias the
New Testament Lord’s Supper?
A. 94. Dr. Leonard Coppes says in his book Paedocommunion versus the Bible (pp. 22-24): "In
Ezekiel 44:4-9, God says that the New Covenant Israel is responsible to discipline [or to
disciple] those who approach Him. In the Judaism of Jesus’ day, Ezekiel 44 was
manifested in what has come to be known as bar mitzvah. God submitted Jesus to this
institution before He was allowed to approach God’s presence [ cf. Luke 2:40-47].... The
Rabbis forbid children to drink the wine.... The article ‘Education’ [in the] Jewish
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Encyclopedia [says]...the children were to be treated as if they were to become Priests....
Leviticus 10:8 and Ezekiel 44:21 forbids priests to drink wine."
Q. 95. Why does Nehemiah (8:2) state "Ezra...brought the Law before the Congregation of
men, and to the women and all of them who could hear with understanding"?
A. 95. Matthew Henry here comments that the men "began to offer their burnt-offerings....
Masters of families should bring their families with them to the public worship of God....
Little ones, as they come to the exercise of reason, must be trained up in the exercises of
religion.... As young people grow up to be capable of distinguishing between good and
evil and of acting intelligently, they ought to make it their own act and deed to ‘join
themselves to the Lord..’"
Q. 96. What is the significance to Paedocommunion of Ezra 2:64-65?
A. 96. It says of "the whole Congregation" of 42 360 adult males that it excludes "their servants
and their maids" and also their 200 "singing men and women." This clearly shows that,
as in the Passover passage Exodus 12:3-37, women and children were not included with
the adult males in the number of the Congregation.
Q. 97. How does Ezra 10:1f disprove women and children were counted as Congregation?
A. 97. There was "a very great Congregation of men - and women & children.... Ezra...said
to them: ‘You have transgressed, and have taken strange wives.... Therefore you must...
separate yourselves from...the foreign wives.’ Then all the Congregation [cf. Exodus
12:3-47] answered...with a loud voice: ‘As you have said, we must do!’"
Q. 98. In the Intertestamentary Period, did the Essenes practise Paedocommunion?
A. 98. The B.C. 130 Essenic Book of Jubilees, explicitly quoted in the Qumran Damascus
Document (CD 16:3f), teaches only mature men ate the Passover. Jubilees 49:6-21
teaches that "‘every man’ from twenty years old and upwards...shall eat it in the
sanctuary" - and that their married men ate the Passover alone, without their women and
children. Of them, Josephus writes in his A.D. 75 Wars of the Jews (2:8:7-10) that "if
anyone has a mind to come over to their sect, he is not immediately admitted; but he is
prescribed the same method of living which they use - for a year, while he continues
excluded.... When he has given evidence during that time...that he...approaches nearer
to their way of living..., his temper is tried for two more years.... If he appear to be
worthy, they then admit him into their society" (cf. First Corinthians 11:29).
Q. 99. Is this principle of three years’ catechization among the Essenes found elsewhere?
A. 99. It is rooted in Exodus 12:3f,21,26f,37,48f ; First Samuel 2:11-18f; and Proverbs 22:6 -
and anticipates what is recorded in Acts 20:31 & Galatians 1:18. It further seems to be
reflected in Aboth 5:21; Clement of Alexandria’s Paidogogue 1:4-7 and Stromata II:18;
the Apostolic Constitutions 7:2;24 & 8:4:32 - and in John Calvin’s Institutes 4:19:4-12f.
Ideally, it best runs between the ages of ten and thirteen alias the attainment of puberty
or adolescence (Exodus 12:3,26,37; Proverbs 22:6; Luke 2:40-52).
Q. 100. What is the above-mentioned Aboth 5:21?
A. 100. In the Talmud, it is the Pharisees’ well-known text translated Fathers [cf. the word
"fathers" in the Passover passage Exodus 12:3f] . It states: "At five years old, one is fit
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for Scripture; at ten years, for the Mishnah; at thirteen, for the fulfilling of the
Commandments" (cf. ‘Bar Mitzvaah’ Confirmation).
Q. 101. Some Paedocommunionists say this is a Talmudic ‘doctrine of demons’!
A. 101. Well, Paul was a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee (Acts 23:6). He was born in
Tarsus (Acts 22:3a), and later "brought up" and "taught [or catechized] at the feet of
Gamaliel" (Acts 22:3b). Paul’s being "taught" in Jerusalem would have started at the
very time he became a "youth" (cf. Acts 26:4-5). He himself would thus have become
a Passover Communicant in his "youth" - and indeed at its onset (age thirteen). Genesis
17:25; Exodus 12:3-4,26f,37; First Chronicles 21:5; Proverbs 22:6; Luke 2:40-47.
Q. 102. Is there any further evidence in the Talmud to this same effect?
A. 102. That thirteen is the age when one ceases to be a child and becomes obligated to observe
various ordinances, is clear also from many of the passages in the Talmud and the
Mishnah. See: Niddah (5:6); Yomah (8:4); Baba Kamma (4:4 & 8:4); Arakhin (1:1);
Tohoroth (3:6); and Makshirin (3:8 & 6:1). Furthermore, the fulfilment of various
ordinances at years below this age of thirteen - and notably manducation at the Passover
by pre-pubescent children - is actually forbidden. See: Rosh Ha-Shanah (3:8);
Menahoth (9:8); Hullin (1:1); and Parah (5:4).
Q. 103. But what has all this to do with the New Testament?
A. 103. Note the catechizing of the twelve-year-old Jesus, before His first participation in the
Passover (Luke 2:21,40-43,47)! The same was true of Paul (Acts 22:3; 23:6; Galatians
1:15f ; Philippians 3:5f). Timothy, the son of a mixed marriage between a Non-Jewish
Greek and a Jewess, is particularly significant. Growing up in a religious home, he was
catechized and confirmed as a Communicant in Christ’s Visible Church, perhaps even
by the ‘laying on’ of the hands of Paul himself. Second Timothy 1:2-6; 3:14-17; First
Timothy 4:12-14; 6:12,21. Cf. too: Hebrews 5:14 to 6:2; Proverbs 3:8; 22:6; 31:1f.
Q. 104. What does the Hebrew-Christian Scholar Dr. Alfred Edersheim say about this?
A. 104. He claims the Passover ‘Company’ in Luke 2:44 consisted of a count of at least " ten
persons to every sacrificial lamb [cf. Exodus 12:3f & 12:37].... In such festive
‘Company’ the parents of Jesus went to and returned from this Feast ‘every year’ - taking
their ‘Holy Child’ with them after He had attained the age of twelve (Luke 2:41-49)."
That was "the year before" a child "attained Jewish majority."
Q. 105. What does the great Gentile-Christian Scholar Dr. Emil Schürer say about this?
A. 105. In his book The Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, he refers to the Talmudic
tract Niddah 5:6, which "explains that ‘When a child is twelve years and one day old, his
oaths are tested; when he is thirteen years and a day, they are valid.’
Q. 106. And what does the Dutch Reformed Scholar Dr. R. Bijlsma say about this?
A. 106. In his Short Catechetics, he says: "About the beginning of our Christian Era...there
were Schools of Education established by the Jewish Congregation.... They were
grouped around teachers of the Law, appointed for the purpose, to whom [circumcised]
children...were brought.... Teaching of the Law was given at a higher level in the ‘House
of Doctrine’ (Beth Ha-Midrash). This instruction...is the forerunner of the Christian
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Catechism.... When the child was ten years old, the Doctrine (Mishna) came up. Then,
at the age of twelve to thirteen, children were obligated to keep the Hebrew Legal
Prescriptions (the Mitzvoth).... For many centuries [!], the fixed rule has been that a
youth becomes Bar-Mitzvah [or ‘Son of the Law’] as soon as he is thirteen years."
Q. 107. What happened when Jesus was twelve years old?
Q. 107. He then, approaching adolescence, ac-compani-ed a Passover "Company" or Sunodia
to Jerusalem - with the prospect of being admitted to manducation at that ordinance upon
His Bar Mitzvaah at age thirteen.
Q. 108. Did He first start catechizing only then - or even earlier?
A. 108. Already in Nazareth "the child grew and became strong in spirit - becoming filled with
wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him" (Luke 2:40). As He passed through His
late childhood toward His adolescence, He "became strong in spirit, becoming filled with
wisdom." No doubt God used also the catechetical efforts of Joseph and Mary to deepen
her son’s wisdom. God would soon use also the ecclesiastical Teachers in Jerusalem to
deepen it further, between Christ’s twelfth and thirteenth birthday anniversaries. And
immediately thereafter too, "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with
God and man" (Luke 2:40-52).
Q. 109. For how many years would Jesus probably have been catechized?
A. 109. In Luke 13:6-9, He describes a young fruit-tree being prepared to bear its first fruit
when attaining maturity three years later. This suggests officially starting to groom and
to catechize a ten-year-old covenant child for three years.
Q. 110. What does the A.D. 190 Church Father Clement of Alexandria say about this?
A. 110. In his Miscellanies II:18, that Clement says: "From the Commandments spring both
wisdom...and righteousness.... Farmers derived advantage from the Law in such things.
For it orders newly-planted trees to be nourished three years in succession, and the
superfluous growths to be cut off..., tilling and digging round them.... It does not allow
imperfect fruit to be plucked from immature trees - but after three years, in the fourth
year; dedicating the first-fruits to God after the tree has attained maturity. This type of
farming may serve as a mode of instruction, teaching that we must cut the growths of
sins, and the useless weeds of the mind that spring up round the vital fruit till the shoot
of faith is perfected and becomes strong . For in the fourth year, since there is need of
time to him that is solidly being catechized, the four virtues are consecrated to God." Cf.
Genesis 17:25 & Leviticus 19:23f & Deuteronomy 11:17-22 & 12:5-18 & 16:1-16 &
Proverbs 3:9-13 & 9:1-16 & 22:6.
Q. 111. Why did Jesus at 12 accompany others on their way to the Passover (Luke 2:40f)?
A. 111. To be catechized by the Teachers in Jerusalem during the week-long Passover Feast.
This was "after the custom of the Feast" - with a view to being admitted to manducate
thereat one year later soon after His thirteenth birthday in accordance with "the custom"
or sacred puberty-rite of Bar Mitzvaah.
Q. 112. Though not when twelve 12 manducating there, did Jesus attend the Passover Feast?
A. 112. It was throughout that Feast assumed that He too attended it. "Supposing Him to have
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been in the Company" or Sunodia - and accompanying the ‘Number’ or ‘Count’ of at
least ten mature male Communicants needed to constitute a ‘Congregation’ of the ‘Sons
of Israel.’ Luke 2:44-46 cf. Exodus 12:26-28. The following year, Jesus would turn
thirteen, when becoming a man (’iysh). For then, He would be confirmed as a
‘Communicant Member’ of that "Company." Cf. too Luke 2:41-44 & 22:11-15 with
Exodus 12:3-4.
Q. 113. What does the great Baptist Theologian Dr. John Gill say about this?
A. 113. In his 1748 Exposition of the New Testament, on Luke 2:42 he rightly comments:
"According to the maxims of the Jews, persons were not obliged to the duties of the Law,
or subject to the penalties of it in case of non-performance - until they were...a male at
the age of thirteen years and one day." However, the Hebrews "used to train up their
children and inure them to religious exercises before" that - and especially throughout the
twelfth year before they turned thirteen.... Joseph was obliged to go [up to Jerusalem]
three times a year, as were all males in Israel - at the Passover, Pentecost, and
Tabernacles. Deuteronomy 16:16. The first of these is expressed here, ‘at the Feast of
the Passover’.... The women were not obliged to go up. For so it is said by the Jews [ T.
Hieros. Kiddushin, fol. 61.3]."
Q. 114. What is the meaning of Luke 2:46-47, when Jesus was beyond twelve years old?
A. 114. It says the Temple Teachers were then examining "His understanding and answers."
For Luke 2:46-47 (cf. Acts 22:3 & Exodus 12:26f) suggests such Teachers regularly
catechized and cross-examined Hebrew boys when the latter had turned twelve and up
to the time they turned thirteen years and one day old..
Q. 115. Why does the Westminster Assembly’s Theologian Rev. Dr. John Lightfoot stress the
importance of the 12-year-old Christ’s Passover visit to the Rabbis in Jerusalem?
A. 115. Lightfoot cites first from the Talmudic tract Chetubim (folio 50). There, one reads:
"Let a man deal gently with his son, till he come to be twelve years old.... But from that
time, let him descend with him into his way of living" - that is, says Lightfoot, "let him
[the father] diligently and with severity (if need be) keep him [the twelve-year-old son]
close to that way...by which he [the son] may get his living." Thus, "Christ being now
twelve years old," He now "applies Himself to His proper work" - viz. "to be about His
Father’s business." Even as "Moses, when he was ‘twelve years old’" - explained Rabbi
Chama (in the Shemoth Rabb.) - "was taken from his father’s house." And even
"Solomon when ‘twelve years old’ - as also the Early Church Father Ignatius remarked
in his Epistle to the Magnesians (chapter 3) - "judged between two women."
Q. 116. Why does Matthew Henry insist children were not admitted to the Passover till 13?
A. 116. He says: "Jewish Doctors say that at twelve...children must begin to...learn..., [so] that
at thirteen years old a child begins to be ‘a Son of the Commandment’ [or a Bar
Mitzvaah] - that is, obliged to the duties of Adult Church-Membership, having been from
his infancy by virtue of his circumcision ‘a Son of the Covenant’ [or a Ben Beriyth]...
Those children that were in their infancy dedicated to God should be called upon when
they are grown up to come to the Gospel-Passover - to the Lord’s Supper - [so] that they
may make it their own act and deed to join themselves to the Lord.
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Q. 117. What comment does the great Lutheran Theologian Dr. Rudolph Stier make here?
A. 117. In his famous book The Words of the Lord Jesus, he says: "His parents took the youth
Jesus with them to Jerusalem [Luke 2:41]. There is a latent proof in the ‘twelve years’
[Luke 2:42]...that this was the first time.... The youth of Israel in that period [from
twelve years of age onward] were reputed [to be] Beneey Ha-Tooraah, ‘Sons of the
Law’.... The mistaken idea that Jesus taught [others during that episode]...is refuted by
verse 46. He sat as a learner, hearing those who taught, and asking questions."
Q. 118. What does the Hebrew-Christian Dr. Alfred Edersheim here comment?
A. 118. He says some allege "that, on the occasion referred to, the Saviour had gone up, as
being ‘of age’...as a Bar Mitzvah or ‘Son of the Commandment’.... But the legal age for
this was not twelve, but thirteen (Aboth. 5:21). On the other hand, the Rabbinical Law
enjoined (Yoma 82a) that even before that - two years, or at least one year - lads should
be brought up to the Temple and made to observe [or bear witness without themselves
manducating at] the festive rites.... In conformity with this universal custom...Jesus went
on the occasion named - to the Temple." For Luke 2:42-47 gives the story of Jesus’
"questioning the Rabbis in the Temple, the year before He attained Jewish majority"
status at age thirteen. Then, next Passover, after His Confirmation once thirteen, He
Himself would be able to manducate at that Sacrament.
Q. 119. After He turned thirty, did our Priest Jesus give the Passover also to children?
A. 119. When the annual Passover then drew near, Jesus non-sacramentally broke bread for five
thousand hungry men. John 6:4 cf. Matthew 14:14f. True to the Passover practice, the
‘count’ only of the adult males is stated. The women and children who were with them,
whom Jesus also fed non-sacramentally (because hungry), did not manducate at the
Passover. They were not counted, because the Hebrews were long accustomed to
number only the men - who alone would manducate at the Passover (cf. Exodus 12:3-4
& 12:37). "They that ate, were about five thousand men - beside women and children."
Matthew 14:14,15,20,21. Christ’s feeding of the five thousand men at Passover-time , in
decimal "Companies" (Sumposia) of hundreds and fifties, reflects the significance of at
least ten mature males or multiplications thereof as the essential number needed for
official meetings of Israel’s Congregation of adult males alone.
Q. 120. What does Calvin comment on this passage John 6:26-53f?
A. 120. He says: "This sermon does not refer to the Lord’s Supper, but to the continual
communication which we have apart from the reception of the Lord’s Supper.... As far
as young children are concerned, Christ’s ordinance forbids them to participate in the
Lord’s Supper - because they cannot yet try [or test and examine] themselves, or celebrate
the remembrance of the death of Christ [cf. First Corinthians 11:24f].... It is wrong to
expound this whole passage as applying to the Lord’s Supper."
Q. 121. Does the same apply to Christ’s later institution of the Lord’s Supper?
A. 121. Christ turned His last mature male Chebraah or Passover ‘Company’ into His first
Lord’s Supper, where the absence of children was and is significant. In Matthew 23:1-8,
it is probable that Christ the Teacher actually calls Himself ‘The Catechist’ or Ho
Katheegeetees. Among "His Disciples" - only those twelve who had at that time been
instructed fully by that ‘Great Catechist’ were then admitted to His Holy Table.
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Q. 122. What does Witsius say about this in his Economy of the Covenants (IV:9:13)?
A. 122. He says: "The guests who partook of the paschal lamb, are commanded to meet by
houses or families. Exodus 12:3. If the house had not a ‘Number’ sufficient to
consume a lamb, the neighbours were to be called in - till a just ‘Number’ [alias a
decimal ‘Count’] was made up, verse 4. The Jewish masters took care that the ‘Number’
of [cleansed adult male] guests should not be under ten, nor above twenty [cf. Christ and
His twelve Apostles]. In those ‘Companies’ or ‘Societies’ called Phratrias by Josephus
(and called) by the Hebrews ‘Chaburoth’ - men...sat down together - old men and young;
whole and sick; masters and servants"; excluding women and children.
Q. 123. And what does Rev. Professor Dr. Abraham Kuyper Sr. say about this?
A. 123. In chapter 110 of his great work Our Divine Worship Service, Kuyper writes: "The
Lord’s Supper was instituted at the Passover Feast. In order to celebrate the Passover
Feast, Jesus priorly got everything prepared in the Upper Room. The solemnity of the
Passover Feast, which looked back upon Israel’s redemption from Egypt, was indeed a
symbolic prediction of the redemption which the Lamb of God would bring.... It was
therefore not incidental that the Lord sat with His Disciples at a meal around a table. It
was a Passover. Every man in Israel was required thus to celebrate the Passover [Exodus
12:3-37 & 23:14-17 & 34:23-25]. Jesus too subjected Himself to the ordinance of the
Lord, and therein set an example for His Disciples.... It is true that the solemnity of the
Passover was completed before Jesus went on to institute the Lord’s Supper . But He
then did so, directly in conjunction with the Passover Meal - and without [first] standing
up from the Passover Meal."
Q. 124. Why then do we now give the Lord’s Supper not just to men but also to women?
A. 124. Calvary and the Resurrection were and are the hinge of the admission of women to the
Sacrament of the Eucharist and also to Christian Baptism. For before Calvary, although
by implication even infant males probably received Baptism from John (cf. John 1:25
with First Kings 18:30-36 and Genesis 17:1-27) - there is no indication any infant girls
or adult females were baptized. Yet after Christ’s resurrection, it is clear that both infant
girls and adult women were baptized (Acts 2:17f & 2:38f with 8:12 & 16:15 & 16:33 and
with Galatians 3:27-29). However, no infants of either gender - though indeed adult
women - were then admitted to manducation at the Eucharist (First Corinthians 11:11-
29).
Q. 125. What is the significance of giving the Lord’s Supper to women but not to children?
A. 125. Once the promised mature male Messianic Seed of the woman had crushed Satan on
Calvary (Genesis 3:15) - saved women would be seen to be co-heirs, together with saved
men. As such, also saved women would then be admitted also to the Lord’s Table (First
Peter 3:7 & Second Peter 2:13f). Thus, in the Old Testament, women and infant girls
were uncircumcisable. After Calvary, Circumcision was replaced by Baptism which
could be and thenceforth would be administered also to women and infant girls.
Galatians 3:27-29. So too, after Calvary - manducation at the Passover (which till then
was restricted solely to adult males), would in the Lord’s Supper as its replacement
thenceforth be extended also to catechizable adult females. Cf. Acts 20:7f & 21:9 and
First Corinthians 11:11-34.
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Q. 126. At Acts 2:42, did only adult converts who "continued in doctrine" - eucharize?
Q. 126. Yes. The order of events in the life of those new converts is clearly stated in Acts
2:37-42. It is: (1) baptism; (2) catechization; (3) comradeship; and (4) eucharization.
For those converts were: (1) "baptized"; (2) then "they continued steadfastly in the
Apostles’ teaching" or didachee alias doctrine; (3) thus "they continued steadfastly in
the...fellowship" or koinoonia; and finally (4) "they continued...in the breaking of bread"
alias the Eucharist.
Q. 127. Does Acts 8:5-38 presuppose catechizing both the Samaritans and the Ethiopian?
A. 127. Yes. It illustrates the connection between the Infant Baptism of covenant children on
the one hand and their later Confession of Faith and Confirmation in Christ on the other.
Thus, comments Rev. Professor Dr. John Calvin, "when their age and ability to
understand will allow, they yield themselves to Him as Disciples - and...know, by the
discernment of faith, His power which is represented in Baptism.... The children of the
godly are born sons of the Church - and are numbered among the Members of Christ
from birth.... Christ initiates infants to Himself for this purpose sothat, as soon as their
age and ability to understand will allow, they yield themselves to Him as Disciples" -
alias catechized or ‘taught ones.’ Then it is that they better "know, by the discernment
of faith, His power which is represented in Baptism." Cf. "not discerning" in First
Corinthians 11:29.
Q. 128. In Acts 10f, is there evidence that the household of Cornelius was catechized?
A. 128. Yes. Calvin comments that Cornelius was indeed ‘devout and a God-fearer’ long
before meeting Peter. He says of Cornelius: "As a good family head, he took pains to
instruct the family.... Cornelius had a church in his household." Godly Cornelius had
sent two of his household servants and a ‘devout soldier’ to seek out Peter in Joppa.
Calvin here commends Cornelius "for his diligence in instructing his household....
[However,] the Lord often inflicts just punishment on masters who have not been
concerned about the instruction of their household.... They have neglected to educate
them in piety."
Q. 129. How does all this bear on Confirmation as a Communicant after Profession of Faith?
A. 129. In Acts 10:47f, Peter baptizes both the believing adults and their infants. Here Calvin
comments: "I admit that those who are outside the Church must be instructed before the
symbol of adoption is conferred on them. But I maintain that believers’ children, who
are born within the Church, are Members of the family of the Kingdom of God from the
womb.... God has adopted the children of believers before they are born.... When Luke
says finally that Peter was asked by Cornelius and his relatives to stay for a few days [v.
48b], he is commending the desire they had to make progress. They were certainly
endowed with the Holy Spirit; but they had not reached such a peak that ‘Confirmation’
would be of no further use to them. Following their example, let us make diligent use
of the opportunity to make progress.... Let us not grow swollen with pride; for it bars
the entrance of teaching!"
Q. 130. Did Timothy get the Lord’s Supper before he professed his faith and got confirmed?
A. 130. Timothy was the grandson of a pious woman and the son of a godly and believing
mother. The latter had married a Greek, so that Timothy had not been circumcised in
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infancy. Later he heard the Gospel and became a Christian Either then or later,
Timothy was catechized, made his Profession of Faith, and was then confirmed as a
Communicant Member of Christ’s Church . Cf. Acts 16:1-3f; First Timothy. 4:12-14 &
6:12-21; Second Timothy 1:2-6 & 3:14-17; and Hebrews 5:14 to 6:2.
Q. 131. What happened in this regard in Northern Greece, according to Acts 17 to 20?
A. 131. In Acts 17f, it seems Christians were catechized in Philippi, Berea, and Ephesus. On
Acts 18, Calvin remarks that the previously-catechized Apollos received further
instruction. In Acts 19, Paul catechized some twelve ignorant heretics in Ephesus. And
in Acts 20, it seems the Disciples at Troas had been catechized before they eucharized.
Q. 132. Had all the Communicants in Troas previously been catechized (Acts 20:6-12)?
A. 132. In "the days of Unleavened Bread" the catechized or ‘taught ones’ alias the "Disciples"
there, "came together to break bread." At some distance from the Communicants
themselves - and himself then sitting in "a window" at the side of the meeting-place - was
"a certain young man" called Eutychus. He was still a growing "boy"; apparently being
"catechized" (cf. Exodus 12:26f); and does not seem to have "tasted" the sacramental food
together with Paul and the others. According to many ancient Greek manuscript copies,
it was not all of the Christians who then manducated - but only the "Disciples."
Q. 133. What does it mean where Paul tells the childish Corinthians he had fed them with milk
and not with meat - that he had planted, but that Apollos had watered; and that God kept
on giving the increase (in First Corinthians 3:1-6)?
A. 133. It means Paul was the first to preach Christ to them; had baptized almost none of them;
that Apollos later baptized most of them; and that only those catechized who were of age,
were thereafter admitted to the Lord’s Supper .
Q. 134. How do you know that such was so?
A. 134. Paul himself there tells us as regards those Corinthian Christians: "I could not speak
to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal - even as to ‘babes’ in Christ. I have fed you with
milk, and not with meat. For hitherto you were not able to bear it.... I have planted;
Apollos watered; but God gave the increase."
Q. 135. How does that First Corinthians 3:2 interdict Paedocommunion?
A. 135. Calvin comments:657 "Christ is milk for babes, and solid food for adults." And
Witsius, relating this passage to the Lord’s Supper, observes that "the words of our
Lord’s command are so expressed that they cannot belong to infants - who can neither
receive the bread, nor eat it.... For babes are fed with milk, and not with meat."
Q. 136. Does First Corinthians 5:1-8 also bear on this matter?
A. 136. There Paul, urging excommunication for adulterous incest, says: "Purge out thus the
old leaven, so that you may become a new lump!... For even Christ our Passover has
been sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us observe the Feast not with old leaven, neither
with the leaven of malice and wickedness - but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and
truth!" This excludes pre-adolescents from the Christian Passover or Eucharist.
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Q. 137. What does Calvin comment on this?
A. 137. In his Sermon on Deuteronomy 16:5f, he refers to First Corinthians 5:8 and says:
"Because our Easter lamb is offered up, we must now keep the Feast.... The use of the
Lord’s Supper ought to put us in mind that our coming there ought not to be without
instruction.... It be not lawful to admit young children to the Lord’s Supper ."
Q. 138. At First Corinthians 10:1-8, did children too eat the meat when our fathers did?
A. 138. This distinctly speaks of "our fathers." It does not say "our mothers." Nor does it say
our male ancestors when the latter were still infants. It says that, when fathers, "our
fathers did all eat the same spiritual meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink."
Yet, as pointed out next, some of those fathers, as fathers, were sadly also idolaters and
fornicators - which none of them were while previously still children.
Q. 139. Is this not stretching the meaning of the word "fathers" to exclude their infants?
A. 139. Hardly; for the use of the word "fathers" here needs to be compared to what Acts 7:19
says about Pharaoh - namely, that he "mistreated our fathers so that they cast out their
infants so that they [those infants] might not live." Cf. too Exodus 1:8 to 2:9.
Q. 140. But were not their infants baptized in the Red Sea together with their fathers?
A. 140. Yes, but First Corinthians 10:2 does not say their infants were baptized (passive voice);
it says their fathers actively got themselves baptized (middle voice). Nor does 10:3 say
the infants were fed; it says the fathers fed themselves and (actively) ate meat.
Q. 141. Surely that means both fathers and toddlers ate the Passover and the manna?
A. 141. No, it says nothing about either the Passover or the manna. It is talking not about
physical but about "spiritual meat" - just as 10:4 is talking not about the physical drink
of either wine or water or even milk, but about the "spiritual drink."
Q. 142. But surely also toddlers ate the manna and drank water from the rock?
A. 142. Yes, and worms too ate the manna - non-sacramentally! But the "liquid" in 10:4 is
neither wine nor water nor milk. For the Rock whence the fathers drank, was Christ!
Q. 143. What does Rev. Professor Dr. Charles Hodge comment on these verses?
A. 143. He says the interpretation that the manna was designed not only for the body but also
for the soul, "exalts the manna into a Sacrament - which it was not. It was...ordinary
food; as Nehemiah (9:15) says, ‘Thou gavest them bread...for their hunger, and
broughtest forth for them water out of the rock for their thirst’.... Our Lord represents
it in the same light when He said, ‘Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are
dead.’ John 6: 49. He contrasts Himself, as the True Bread from Heaven Who gives
life to the soul, with manna which had no spiritual efficacy."
Q. 144. Couldn’t pre-adolescents too have done all that Paul here says "our fathers" did?
A. 144. No, for he then goes on to say many of them ‘lusted’ and ‘idolized’ or ‘fornicated.’
Q. 145. What does Calvin comment on First Corinthians 10:1-10?
A. 145. Among other things, he refers at 10:10 "to the story which we have in Numbers
sixteen." There, he argues: "When God had punished the pride of Korah and Abiram,
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the people raised a tumult against Moses and Aaron.... God punished this uproar of the
people with fire from Heaven which devoured more than fourteen thousand...rebels and
trouble-makers." For they - unlike their babies and their toddlers! - "raised their voices
against Himself."
Q. 146. So First Corinthians 10:1-10 is then speaking exclusively about adults?
A. 146. Yes, and it goes on to state that "all these things happened to them, as examples....
They are written for our admonition.... Therefore my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry!"
First Corinthians 10:11-14.
Q. 147. Are you then saying that Paul is here speaking only to the adults in Corinth?
A. 147. Yes, for he tells us in the very next verses: "I am speaking to wise men [alias to
catechized adults with non-preadolescent wisdom teeth]. You need to judge about what
I am saying! The cup of blessing which we bless - is it not the communion of the blood
of Christ? The bread which we [wise ones] break - is it not the communion of the body
of Christ?" First Corinthians 10:15-16.
Q. 148. What does Calvin comment on these and the following verses?
A. 148: He says: "Since Paul was going to base his argument on the mystery of the Supper, he
uses this little preface.... He might have expressed himself in this way: ‘I am not
speaking to beginners! You are well aware of the power of the Holy Supper. How
shameful of you, then, to enter into the fellowship of unbelievers so as to become united
in one body with them!’ But he condemns their lack of thought. For, after being
instructed in the School of Christ" - thus, after being catechized - "they were stupidly
involving themselves in what was sinful." He also discusses Paul’s words ‘Behold Israel
after the flesh!’ - in First Corinthians 10:18. He comments: "The Law of Moses allowed
no-one to the sacrificial feast - unless he prepared himself properly."
Q. 149. Why does Paul dwell so long on the Old Testament and on Grecian Pagan Feasts in
First Corinthians ten and eleven, before going on later in First Corinthians eleven to deal
with the required behaviour at the Lord’s Supper?
A. 149. One needs to see the ‘bridge’ between the Communion passages in First Corinthians
chapters 10 and 11. First Corinthians chapter eleven is indeed the ‘classic chapter’ on
the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Analysis thereof, after chapter ten, shows no approval
of Paedocommunion whatsoever. For the Lord’s Supper was to be no Agapee-meal.
Q. 150. What then does First Corinthians eleven principally teach?
A. 150. The passage falls has three parts. The first, First Corinthians 11:17-22, describes the
awful way the Corinthians had been ‘celebrating’ ( sic) the Lord’s Supper. The second
part, First Corinthians 11:23-26, describes Paul’s account of the Lord’s Own instituting
of the ordinance. The third part, First Corinthians 11:27-34, gives his corrective.
Q. 151. What then does the first part, First Corinthians 11:17-22, principally teach?
A. 151. It precludes infants and toddlers and other unqualified persons from communing. For
it deals with the relationships between men and women - not with that between adults and
children, nor that between boys and girls. Babies and children can neither promote nor
counter the inevitable heresies which surround the Church and her Supper (11:18f).
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Q. 152. What does the second part, First Corinthians 11:23-26, principally teach?
A. 152. It teaches how Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper only for His adult Disciples , and not
for His younger believers. Those manducating were to do it in remembrance of Him,
and also to proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. Infants and toddlers can’t do such.
Q. 153. What does Calvin comment on this part?
A. 153. He says: ""Christ divides the bread among the [fully-catechized adult] Disciples....
The memorial ought...to move us to praise Him openly - so as to let men know...what we
are aware of within ourselves in the presence of God....so that we on our part may
acknowledge it before men.... In order that you may celebrate the Supper properly - you
must bear in mind that you will have to make ‘Profession’ of your faith.
Q. 154. Does ‘Do this in remembrance of Me’ in First Corinthians 11:24 exclude children?
A. 154. Yes. As Professor Dr. Kamphuis here points out in his 1984 article Infant Baptism and
Infant Communion: "Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper for the circle of those who had
professed His Name: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’ (Matthew 16:16)...
‘Do this in remembrance of Me!’ (First Corinthians 11:24-25).... Article 35 of the Belgic
Confession...states inter alia that at the Lord’s Supper we are making a profession of our
faith and of the Christian Religion.... First Corinthians 11:27-29 ought to be understood
from verse 26: ‘For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the
Lord’s death till He comes’.... The acme of the remembrance of the institution of the
Lord’s Supper thus rests upon accentuating the confessing character of the
commemoration."
Q. 155. What does the third part, First Corinthians 11:27-34, principally teach?
A. 155. It teaches that "whosoever" (including pre-adolescents) eats and drinks unworthily,
shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord (11:27). Babies and toddlers and
children should not drink alcoholic wine. "Let a man examine himself" before drinking -
and a pre-adolescent is not a "man" and cannot "examine himself." It says those who
don’t, but yet drink - drink unto their own condemnation, not discerning the Lord’s body
(11:28) . It says those drinking need to judge themselves - which pre-adolescents can’t
do either (11:31). And it says those drinking need to "wait for one another" (11:33) -
which babies and toddlers don’t do.
Q. 156. What does Calvin comment on First Corinthians 11:27f?
A. 156. He condemns those who "are putting a barrier between every single man and woman
and the Supper.... Paul had already clearly pointed out...that those who ‘eat unworthily
shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord’.... He declares that this food, which
is otherwise beneficial, will be turned into poison - and cause the destruction of those
who eat unworthily." In his Institutes IV:16:30, he insists with Paul - that God "does not
admit all to partake of the Supper, but confines it to those who are fit to discern the body
and blood of the Lord.... [For ‘he who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks
damnation to himself - not discerning the Lord’s body’; and] ‘ Let a man examine himself,
and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup!’ Indeed, if those communing
"cannot partake worthily without being able duly to discern the sanctity of the Lord’s
body - why should we stretch out ‘poison’ to our young children , instead of vivifying
food?.... What is our Lord’s injunction? ‘Do this in remembrance of Me!’ [Luke 22:14-
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19 cf. First Corinthians 11:24].... How, pray, can we require infants to commemorate
any event of which they have no understanding?" See too at Questions and Answers 86
& 98 & 120 above and at 194f & 198f below.
Q. 157. What did famous Luther Professor Dr. Walther say about the Lord’s Supper?
A. 157. He said in Amerikanisch-Lutherische Pastoraltheologie: "No one may...be barred from
the preaching of God’s Word.... The case is different with the Lord’s Supper ....
Whoever partakes of the Lord’s Supper without the right faith...unworthily...draws from
it wrath instead of grace; death instead of life; curse instead of blessing. He becomes,
as St. Paul writes [in First Corinthians 11:27-29], ‘guilty of the body and blood of the
Lord; he eats and drinks damnation unto himself, not discerning the Lord’s body’....
Everyone who would approach the Lord’s Table, should first examine himself and
discern the Lord’s body... It will not do to give the Lord’s Supper to children incapable
of examining themselves.... Those who cannot examine themselves...are not to be
admitted to the Lord’s Supper ."
Q. 158. What did Walther’s successor Luther Professor Dr. Pieper say about the Supper?
A. 158. He said in his Christian Dogmatics: "The divine promise guarantees the resurrection
of the body to all who believe that they have the forgiveness of their sins in Christ. Even
if...they have not eaten and drunk Christ’s body and blood in the Sacrament - as, for
instance, in the case of believing children.... Christ preached the Gospel to the Jewish
people generally.... But the first celebration of His Supper He held in the closed circle
of His Disciples [alias His ‘taught ones’] ...excluded...children."
Q. 159. What is the meaning of Paul’s communion words ‘Let a man examine himself!’?
Q. 159. In First Corinthians 11:28, the Apostle Paul enjoins each and every Communicant, as
an adult human being (anthroopos), to keep on examining himself. The command here
is not: "Let all people keep on examining others!" Nor is it: "Let all men keep on
examining one another!" Nor is it: "Let all persons, including babies and toddlers, keep
on examining themselves!" It is: "Let a man keep on examining himself!"
Q. 160. What is Calvin’s comment on these inspired words of the Apostle Paul?
A. 160. He says: "There is one ‘vow’ common to all Believers which, taken in Baptism, we
‘confirm’ and as it were sanction by our Catechism." We do so, "in making ‘Profession
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