formula, if they had wished to say that only adults had been baptized.1 Quite a different set of considerations leads us to the same result. New inquiries have shown us what significance ‘corporate personality’2 has had for the thinking of the Bible, and how great a part family solidarity played in the ancient world.3 If we wish to understand biblical texts rightly, we must radically free ourselves from modern individualistic thinking, and in particular keep before our eyes the fact that the family