ABSTRACT
Belief in resurrection was an essential part of Christian faith in late antiquity and a hope visually expressed in the catacomb paintings or sarcophagus reliefs. Christians understood their time on earth as only the rehearsal for eternal life, which was initially promised and symbolically acted out in the sacrament of baptism. As a tenet of the faith, the affirmation of belief in the resurrection of the dead may be found in the earliest creeds and baptismal confessions, including the formula contained in the third-century Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus. At the third immersion the initiate asserted that he or she believed in the Holy Spirit, the holy church, and the resurrection of the flesh. 1
