However, Koester contends that Justin obtained this saying from a baptismal liturgy rather than a written gospel.

The Crossing of the Red Sea has been seen as echoing the baptismal liturgy and prefiguring the entrance into Heaven.

In Raban Maur's discussion of the baptismal liturgy, for example, the exsufflation is said to expel the devil, the signing to keep him from coming back.

The practice entered the baptismal liturgy proper only as the catechumenate, rendered vestigial by the growth of routine infant baptism, was absorbed into the rite of baptism.

Martin Luther's first attempt at a baptismal liturgy, the () of 1523 (reprinted 1524 and 1525) did retain many ceremonies from the late Medieval ritual as it was known in Germany, including a triple exsufflation of baptizands.