[216] See Reitzenstein, _op. cit._, 2te Aufl., pp. 85f. The passage in the papyrus reads as follows (_Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la bibliothèque impériale_, xviii, 1865, p. 315): ὅτι ψεύδη πάντα, καὶ ὁι παρά σε θεοὶ ὁμοίως, ὁτι ἐνβέβληκαν ὑμᾶς εἰς ὔλην μεγάλην, καὶ δυνάμεθα ἀποθανεῖν κἂν ἅδῃς ὄτι μέλλομεν σωσθῆναι, τότε βαπτιζώμεθα. The letter is also contained in Witkowski, _Epistulae privatae graecae_, 1906, pp. 63-66. [217] Moulton and Milligan, _The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament_, s. v. βαπτίζω, Part ii, [1915], p. 102. Similarly Sethe, "Sarapis," in _Abhandlungen der königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen_, philologisch-historische Klasse, Neue Folge, xiv, Nro. 5, 1913, p. 51. [218] Tertullian, _de bapt_. 5 (ed. Reifferscheid et Wissowa, 1890), it must be admitted, connects baptism in heathen religion with regeneration, and mentions the part which sacramental washings had in the mysteries of Isis and of Mithras, and in Eleusinian rites. Despite the post-Pauline date of this testimony, the passage is certainly interesting. Compare Kennedy, _op. cit._, p. 229. With regard to the partaking of sacred food, the evidence is in some respects more abundant. Even in the mysteries of Eleusis, a special significance seems to have been attributed to the drinking of the "kykeon"; and the initiates into the Phrygian mysteries are reported by Clement of Alexandria (similarly Firmicus Maternus) to have used a formula including the words, "I ate from the drum, I drank from the cymbal." So far as the form of the act is concerned, the similarity to the Christian Eucharist is here certainly not great; there was eating and drinking in both cases, but everything else, so far as can be seen, was different. In the mysteries of Mithras the similarity of form seems to have been greater; the initiates partook of bread and of a cup in a way which Justin Martyr regarded as a demoniac imitation of the Christian sacrament. According to Cumont, moreover, the Mithraic practice was clearly sacramental; the initiates expected from their sacred banquet a supernatural effect.[219] But it will be remembered that considerations of date render an influence of Mithras upon Paul exceedingly improbable. And the significance of the eating and drinking in connection with other mysteries is obscure. Apparently these acts did not form a part of the mysteries proper, but were only a preparation for them. [219] Cumont, _Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra_, i, 1899, p. 321. See Heitmüller, _Taufe und Abendmahl bei Paulus_, 1903, p. 46, Anm. 3.