The Sacrament of Chrismation
In Acts 8:14-17 we see people from Samaria who “had only been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus,” and after “the laying on of hands” these Samaritans “received the Holy Spirit.” Likewise in Acts 19:5-6 we’re told about people who were first “baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus,” and then received the Spirit “when Paul laid his hands on them.” These texts heavily imply that baptism alone isn’t enough to bring someone into full communion with the Church, rather some kind of “laying on of hands” is also required for that person’s reception of the Spirit.
Indeed, Hebrews 6:1-2 strongly suggests this as well. St. Paul gives a list of “the elementary doctrines of Christ,” i.e. the doctrines that all beginner Christians should be familiar with, among which are: “repentance from dead works and faith towards God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.” Notice that everything in this list is something that applies to all Christians. All Chrisians are to repent, all are to have faith, all are baptized, all are raised from the dead, and all are eternally judged. It would be very strange if “the laying on of hands” was something that didn’t also happen to all Christians; and it would be even stranger why, if this referred to something like ministerial ordination, the laying on of hands would be something that all newly illumined Christians were supposed to be intimately familiar with. The more likely explanation is that “the laying on of hands,” like baptism, is one of the Church’s rites of initiation, which is why it’s considered an “elementary” or “beginner” doctrine.
And as I’ve explained before, St. Peter’s quotation of Joel 2:32 on the Day of Pentecost sheds further light on the Church’s initiation rites. The prophecy that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” was fulfilled when people were baptized into the name of the Lord, and received the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). One of the ways we know that this process was a ritual, rather than some vague “personal reception of the Spirit,” is because “calling on the name of the Lord” is a phrase that’s consistently associated with ritual sacrifice in the OT.
The first time we see it happen is after the birth of Abel’s priestly successor, Seth. In his days “people began to call upon the name of the Lord” (Gen. 4:26). After this it’s Abram who “build[s] an altar to the Lord and call[s] upon the name of the Lord” (Gen. 12:8, 13:4), and his son Isaac does too (Gen. 26:5). Likewise, when prophet Elijah confronted the priests of Baal, he challenged them to “call on the names of their gods” at their altar, while he “called on the name of the Lord” at his altar (1 Kg. 18:24-38).
Clearly, there’s a strong priestly dimension to “calling on the name of the Lord,” which tells us that entrance into the Church entails some kind of priestly ordination. Indeed, Acts 22:16 documents how St. Paul was “washed” in baptism in order that he might “call on His name”; and John 3:5 likewise connects baptism to the bronze basin that the Levitical priests “washed” themselves in before their ordination. I bring this up because, under the old covenant, being “washed with water” was the first stage of ordination to the priesthood (Lev. 8:6). The second stage was being “anointed with oil” (Lev 8:12, 30), which is what completed the ordination of Aaron and his sons (Ex. 30:30), and allowed them to “eat flesh” and “eat bread” at the entrance of the Tabernacle (Lev. 8:31-32). Given the Holy Spirit’s close association with anointing oil in Scripture, these two stages of ordination are most likely what John 3:5 has in mind when referring to Christian initiation as being born again of both “water and the Spirit” (this is indeed the interpretation of the 7th Council of Carthage held in AD 256).
Israel was always called to be a royal priesthood (Ex. 19:6), but due to the Golden Calf incident, the priesthood got whittled down to the tribe of Levi, and specifically the line of Aaron. Under the new covenant, however, the priesthood (that is, those who have full access to the sanctuary and can eat of sacrifices) is expanded out such that we are all “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, [and] God’s special possession” (1 Pet. 2:9). Whereas priestly ordination formerly belonged only to the Levites, this same ordination is now offered to the whole people of God. Like the Levites, we are washed in baptism, anointed with oil in chrismation, and thereby allowed to partake of the eucharistic flesh of Christ.
And this connection between old covenant ordination and new covenant initiation didn’t go unnoticed by the early Church. In the 3rd century, Tertullian noted how “After this, when we have issued from the font [i.e. after baptism], we are thoroughly anointed with a blessed unction, a practice derived from the old discipline, wherein on entering the priesthood, men were wont to be anointed with oil from a horn, ever since Aaron was anointed by Moses” (On Baptism, 7). Likewise, St. Dionysius the Areopagite documents how a newly initiated Christian is first given “the three immersions in water,” that is baptism, then he’s given “the perfecting anointing of Muron [oil],” which not only “perfects” baptism, but also “unites those who have been perfected to the supremely Divine Spirit”; and it’s only “at the conclusion of all” of this that “the Hierarch calls the man initiated to the most Holy Eucharist” (Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, 2:3:7-8).