Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
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Bede
AD 735
When the Church's baptism was celebrated for the first time, divine mercy providentially gathered together three thousand souls for the profession of the holy Trinity. On the 5th day of the Passover, when the law was given, Moses indeed ordered the festival of first fruits to be introduced. Now, however, with the coming of the Holy Spirit, it is not sheaves of grain, but the first fruits of souls, which are consecrated to the Lord.
For this reason, too, did the apostles, collecting the sheep which had perished of the house of Israel, and discoursing to them from the Scriptures, prove that this crucified Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God; and they persuaded a great multitude, who, however,
