Who should be baptized?

a passage states it a passage rules it out

Common ground

These are affirmed by more than one position, so a passage saying only this counts for none of them.

Adults who come to faith are baptized after instruction (catechumenate)
Baptism in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit
Repentance and faith are expected of adult candidates
Advice to delay baptism for prudential reasons (e.g. Tertullian) without saying infant baptism is invalid (compatible with both)

Believers and their infants

Catholic Orthodox Lutheran Reformed Anglican

Born with a fallen human nature and tainted by original sin, children also have need of the new birth in BaptismCatechism of the Catholic Church, 1250

What sets it apart: The passage says infants or little children are, or should be, baptized.

Formally defined: Council of Carthage (418); Augsburg Confession (1530); Westminster Confession (1646)

Earliest statement: Julian of Eclanum, c. 418

Professing believers only

Baptist

Those who do actually profess repentance towards God, faith in, and obedience to, our Lord Jesus Christ, are the only proper subjects of this ordinance.Second London Baptist Confession, 29.2 (1689)

What sets it apart: The passage says only those who can profess faith should be baptized, or that infants should not be.

Formally defined: Schleitheim Confession (1527); First London Confession (1644); Second London Confession (1689)

No early passage in the library states it yet.

Every deciding passage, earliest first

Julian of Eclanum, c. 418
Baptism is necessary at every age, so that the creature may be adopted among the children of God, not because it inherits anything from its parents that must be cleansed by the washing of rebirth (Titus 3:5; John 1:12–13; Romans 8:15).
- States: Believers and their infants
- Rules out: Professing believers only
Translation in progress
Julian of Eclanum, c. 418
We confess that Christ's grace is necessary for everyone, adults and infants alike. We condemn those who say that a child born to two baptized parents does not need to be baptized.
- States: Believers and their infants
- Rules out: Professing believers only
Translation in progress
Julian of Eclanum, c. 418
Augustine says that the authors deny that infants inherit original sin needing remission in baptism. They nevertheless affirm, and indeed proclaim, that the washing of rebirth adopts them from being children of human beings into being children of God (Titus 3:5; John 1:12–13; Romans 8:15).
- States: Believers and their infants
- Rules out: Professing believers only
Translation in progress