1 So, although Matthew did query whether such a notion could apply to what happened in the case of Christ,2 even so, this was where the primary stress of much of the early Church’s preaching seems also to have fallen3. Admittedly, John proposed a quite different emphasis, with a forward-looking aspect seen as primary,4 while Paul’s imagery appears to look in both directions.5 So things might have developed quite differently. One key development that ensured that they did not was Augustine’s insistence on baptism’s role in washing away not only actual sin but also the consequences of inherited
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Baptism
