Figure 1.-- The bas relief comes from a Christian sarcophagus in iome dated to the 3rd-4th century AD. It is ckearly Roman and not medieval because of the quality of the depiction. It shows an early Baptism scene. This is one of the earliest known depictions of a Baptism. Notice the wavy lines indicating a river.

The early Jesus Movement was a small Jewish cult. They thus practiced mostly Jewish rituals. One was the practice of washing away sins through the symbolic cleansing. Here they took John's Baptism of Jesus as the model and no offering was given to priests, only a vow and oath of belief. There are few images surviving of gthese early baptisms. Early Christians also performed baptisms in rivers as John had done. These were commonly large numbers of believers rather than individuals. The groups varied from 25-to 50 people up to thousands of converts. Age was not a factor. Whole families were included from infants to the elderly. The standard prodedure was for the converts to undress. Two priests who assist them enter the water. Two more priests were ready in the middle, emersing them as ritualistic words wwre recited to God. Two more priests would await the newly baptised on the far side and wrap them in a whie white robe which symbolized the white light of the Holy Spirit that had entered them. The water not only cleansed them, but represented the waters of child birth. Medieval Trends

Created: 4:40 AM 10/23/2017
Last updated: 4:40 AM 10/23/2017