The Photisterion in Late Antiquity. Reconsidering Terminology For Sites and Rites of Initiation
The Photisterion in Late Antiquity. Reconsidering Terminology For Sites and Rites of Initiation
The Photisterion in Late Antiquity. Reconsidering Terminology For Sites and Rites of Initiation
What is a photisterion? Translators usually render the Greek word pho ̄tiste ̄rion (site of illu-
mination) as ‘baptistery’ (site of immersion in water). This article reopens the study of pho ̄tis-
te ̄ria, arguing that being ‘immersed’ or ‘illuminated’ evokes different senses of the
concomitant meaning of the sites and rites of initiation. It situates late ancient pho ̄tiste ̄ria
from epigraphic and literary sources in their theological and liturgical contexts. The evidence
from Galilee, Syria, Jordan and Cyprus corroborates the idea that many Christians of late
antiquity preferred ‘illumination’ to express the composite rite of initiation in a pho ̄tiste ̄rion,
within which ‘baptism’ was one part.
hat is a pho ̄tiste ̄rion? You will not find this word in a standard
P. Day, The liturgical dictionary of eastern Christianity, Collegeville, PA , .
I prefer ‘illumination’ to ‘enlightenment’ for a translation of this Greek word
group because of the latter’s association in the English language with, on the one
hand, ‘The Enlightenment’ era of modernity and, on the other hand, ‘enlightenment’
within Buddhist religious traditions.
M. Peppard, The world’s oldest church: Bible, art, and ritual at Dura-Europos, Syria, New
Haven . ‘Initiation’ is itself a terminological choice that bears meaning, that of
beginning a process, a designation which is both true (the rites of initiation did
usually begin a new form of life for the participants) and not true (most participants
had begun an incipient form of membership in the community already, as catechumens
or as familial relations of existing members). The term ‘initiation’ remains the best one
for discussing the rites overall, whether ancient (for example, M. E. Johnson, The rites of
Christian initiation: their evolution and interpretation, rev. edn, Collegeville, PA ) or
modern (‘RCIA’, the Roman Catholic ‘Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults’).
THE PHOTISTERION IN LATE ANTIQUITY
During that previous research, investigation of inscriptions from the
region that named the various rooms of late ancient churches led to one
curious discovery which specifically launched this current project. In
north-western Galilee, at a kibbutz in ‘Evron near Nahariya, there are foun-
dations and partial mosaic floors from a little-known early Byzantine
church. One of the surviving inscriptions gained some fame for its use of
the Hebrew letter yod three times (the first letter of the divine name), prob-
ably to signify the divine Trinity. But of interest for our purposes is an
inscription that dedicates the renovation of the church’s pho ̄tiste ̄rion. It is
a unique example in the extant corpus because this inscription is in a differ-
ent room from the one which contains the basin for water baptism. As
described by Michael Avi-Yonah, ‘by some unexplained mistake the inscrip-
tion referring to the “place of light [photisterion, i.e. the baptistery]” was
found in one room, and the fount in another’.4 Avi-Yonah’s comment
assumes that pho ̄tiste ̄rion and baptistery must have the same referent, and
that the inscription in an adjacent room was thus ‘some unexplained
mistake’. However, what if the term pho ̄tiste ̄rion designated something
else, something different or larger than the room where the font was?
What would give modern archaeologists the confidence to claim that a
mosaic inscription – requiring time, money, planning and artisanship –
would mistakenly label the wrong room? Or was this a peculiar aberration,
a local term that was not in use elsewhere? Or, for some Christians in late
antiquity, did pho ̄tiste ̄rion really mean something other than the room for
baptism?
Without further evidence, the disjunction between this pho ̄tiste ̄rion
inscription and the font in the next room remains unexplained. But
Avi-Yonah’s identification of the issue invites further examination of the
available pho ̄tiste ̄ria from the region, located in Galilee, Syria, Jordan and
(probably) Cyprus. The contention of this article is that the liturgical
signifiers of water and those of light should not be so quickly elided.
The unwitting conflation of these two different terms is surprising in a
field full of philologists and metaphorically-knowledgeable interpreters.
The power of metaphors to shape our thinking, even to delimit the bound-
aries of possible thoughts, is well understood. G. Lakoff and M. Johnson’s
classic, Metaphors we live by, has demonstrated how much meaning is carried
through language surreptitiously, depending on the metaphors chosen –
or rather, not consciously chosen – by those doing the talking.5 Ideas are
food; arguments are war; love is a force of physics; theories are buildings.
These are just a few conceptual metaphors identified by Lakoff and
Johnson that undergird the English language, as the hidden infrastructure
M. Avi-Yonah, ‘Places of worship in the Roman and Byzantine periods’, Antiquity
and Survival ii (), –, quotation at p. .
G. Lakoff and M. Johnson, Metaphors we live by, Chicago .
MICHAEL PEPPARD
of our thought. Conceptual metaphors such as these, because they are used
without the feeling of having thought about them, can limit the extent and
predetermine the meanings of possible thought on a topic.
Indeed, regarding the crucial roles played by metaphor in determining
interpretation, scholars of early Christianity are quite conscientious in
certain fields of discourse. Consider the fine distinctions drawn within
the realms of Christological language. Historians and theologians rightly
differentiate the meanings and valences of titles and metaphors used to
express the mystery of divinity and humanity in Jesus Christ: Son, Lord,
Begotten, Adopted, Light, Word, Wisdom, Radiance, Emanation, King,
Shepherd. We do the same careful work with figurative language about sal-
vation, knowing that each image carries with it a particular history and
specific contextual connotations: sacrifice, victory, ransom, redemption,
exaltation, reconciliation, cleansing, knowledge. If an ancient source said
that Christ was begotten from the Father, we would never translate that
as an ‘adoption’. We stake strong claims on distinguishing Logos / Word
from Sophia / Wisdom. If a Greek text calls Christ a ἱλαστήριον, the term
would not be translated as a ‘cleansing’ or a ‘victory’; the sacrificial
imagery of that metaphor would in some way be retained.
In Christology and soteriology scholars are appropriately fastidious
about figurative language, but for source texts concerning initiation, pho ̄tis-
mos is regularly translated as ‘baptism’, pho ̄tizomenoi as ‘candidates for
baptism’, neopho ̄tistos as ‘newly baptised’, and pho ̄tiste ̄rion as ‘baptistery’. It
is as if in Christology the choice had been made to conflate the Greek
words for ‘king’ and ‘shepherd’ by translating them all as ‘king’. To be
sure, there are some contemporary scholars who are careful in distinguish-
ing images of initiation, such as Maxwell Johnson, Robin Jensen and
others.6 And the classic study of Greek baptismal terminology does
devote an entire chapter to interpreting pho ̄tismos on its own terms.7
Overall it is customary to read about a church’s ‘baptistery’ and its
‘newly-baptised’, but if the Greek is checked the words for light are
revealed. The light of Christian initiation is thus hidden under a bushel –
or rather, under a font.
This essay asks us to reconsider the practice of translating words for ‘illu-
minating something with light’ with words that refer to ‘dunking some-
thing in water’. Then, what happens to the meaning if we stop doing so?
M. E. Johnson, Rites, and Images of baptism, Chicago ; R. Jensen, Baptismal
imagery in early Christianity: ritual, visual, and theological dimensions, Grand Rapids, MI
; E. Ferguson, Baptism in the Early Church: history, theology, and liturgy in the first five
centuries, Grand Rapids, MI .
J. Ysebaert, Greek baptismal terminology, Nijmegen , –.
THE PHOTISTERION IN LATE ANTIQUITY
Linguistic and archaeological evidence for phō tistēria
What is the linguistic and archaeological evidence for pho ̄tiste ̄ria and baptis-
te ̄ria? In the Thesaurus linguae graecae, an extensive database of Greek litera-
ture, the quantitative evidence for both words is sparse. But the word
pho ̄tiste ̄rion, which seems prima facie to be more obscure, actually occurs
more often than baptiste ̄rion, the cognate for what became the more
common word in English and some other modern Western languages.8
This would be surprising enough for casual users of the word ‘baptistery’,
but the evidence from Greek inscriptions tells an even more dramatic story.
The Packard Humanities Institute’s database of Greek inscriptions, which is
an extensive, albeit incomplete, collection of published inscriptions from
antiquity and late antiquity, contains only two examples of baptiste ̄ria.9 By con-
trast, the database has at least eleven clear examples of the word pho ̄tiste ̄rion
from Galilee, Syria and Jordan in the fifth through seventh centuries; and
two more probable examples would would bring the total count to thirteen.10
What is more, this tally of names for sites of initiation does not include at
least sixteen examples of individuals called neopho ̄tistos in inscriptions, while
there are no examples of neobaptistos. In the Thesaurus linguae graecae, that
Through the seventh century, forms of baptiste ̄rion occur about twenty-one times
compared with about twenty-eight for pho ̄tiste ̄rion. These calculations are approximate
because of the challenges of dating some of the references. Estimated dates are as in
Thesaurus linguae graecae digital library, ed. M. C. Pantelia, Irvine, <http://www.tlg.uci.
edu>. In two cases an author uses both baptiste ̄rion and pho ̄tiste ̄rion, possibly referring
to the same room or type of room, but in each of these it is also possible that the baptis-
te ̄rion is an inner part of a pho ̄tiste ̄rion (or vice-versa): Palladius, Dialogue on the life of St John
Chrysostom – (early fifth century); The miracles of St Artemios (seventh century).
Packard Humanities Institute, Searchable Greek inscriptions, <https://inscriptions.
packhum.org/>. There are perhaps more not entered in the database, though a
search of the Supplementum epigraphicum graecum, Leiden –present, did not reveal
any others.
One of the probable pho ̄tiste ̄rion inscriptions has been reconstructed by others as
baptiste ̄rion, but only the second half of the word is legible: L. Jalabert and
R. Mouterde (eds), Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, Paris –, v. ,
lines –. Considering its Syrian provenance it is more likely to have been the word
pho ̄tiste ̄rion. Another incomplete example, not included in the Packard database has
been plausibly reconstructed as pho ̄tiste ̄rion: from Hippos-Sussita ( CE), in R. Gregg
and D. Urman, Jews, Pagans, and Christians in the Golan Heights: Greek and other inscriptions
of the Roman and Byzantine eras, Atlanta, GA , inscription no. SUSI. Other epi-
graphic designations for rooms relating to initiation are diakonikon (for example in the
church at ‘Evron, perhaps something akin to a sacristy) and pistikon (for example, St
Babylas, Antioch, perhaps a room for catechesis). For the latter inscription see
W. Mayer and P. Allen, The churches of Syrian Antioch (300–638 CE), Leuven , ,
. On possible layouts of church floor plans in the region see B. Mulholland, The
early Byzantine Christian church: an archaeological re-assessment of forty-seven early Byzantine
basilical church excavations primarily in Israel and Jordan, and their historical and liturgical
context, Oxford , ch. v.
MICHAEL PEPPARD
difference is even more stark: there are 146 uses of neopho ̄tistos through the
seventh century, and no examples of neobaptistos. Contrary to this evidence
from literary and epigraphic sources, G. W. H. Lampe’s lexicon for patristic
Greek reveals an English translator’s bias toward ‘baptism’ language, even
amid the prevalence of ‘illumination’ language. Though it does use ‘newly
illuminated’ as the first translation of neopho ̄tistos and confirms that the
term retains ‘the idea of illumination’, it then proceeds to use ‘baptised’
or its cognates seven times in the rest of the dictionary entry, while words
for light never appear again.11 In general, Lampe claims, the word is
used as a ‘synonym’ for neobaptistos, which leads the reader to assume
that neobaptistos is the more common word. Yet the great twentieth-
century lexicographer could find only scarce, obscure and very late exam-
ples of neobaptistos, as confirmed by the twenty-first-century Thesaurus
linguae graecae. As for the sites of initiation, so too for the rituals’ partici-
pants: Greek words for light outshone words for water.
Before proceeding to individual examples of pho ̄tiste ̄ria, another well-
attested Greek term for a site of initiation in early Christian materials
should be noted: kolumbe ̄thra, an ancient Greek word for ‘pool’, a place
for swimming or wading. For Christians, the word echoed the popular
story of the healing of the paralytic, as narrated in John v.2–9: in that
version the healing took place near a ‘pool’ by the ‘Sheep [gate]’, and
thus the word kolumbe ̄thra retained an association with baptism, healing
and the salvation experienced by the paralytic.12 In addition to many
early Christian homilies about this story, an ancient papyrus records a
prayer to the ‘God of the Sheep Pool’, and another papyrus receipt from
an Egyptian monastery mentions a mechanism that draws water from a
garden to fill up their kolumbe ̄thra.13 Inscriptions also use the term to
refer to the basin that holds water for baptism, although it does not seem
to refer to the room or the overall building, in the way that baptiste ̄rion or
pho ̄tiste ̄rion might.14 Early Christian Latin, especially in the fourth century
and later, also uses some words for ‘pond’ or ‘pool’: piscina (fish pond)
was a popular term for the site of baptism, along with natatorium (swimming
pool) and fons (spring of water).15 The present study focuses on the Greek
evidence, though, due to the distinctive use of the word pho ̄tiste ̄rion.
G. W. H. Lampe, A patristic Greek lexicon, Oxford , b.
For example, the room for initiation at Dura-Europos preserves a painting of this
story immediately to the right of the basin for baptism: Peppard, World’s oldest church, ch.
iii.
ὁ θ(εὸ)ς τῆς προβατικῆς κολυμβήθρας: P.Oxy. . (fifth century CE?), lines –;
ὕδωρ εἰς τὴν ἁγί(αν) κολυμβήθραν: P.Oxy. . ( Apr. ), lines –.
For example, the ‘kolumbe ̄thra of regeneration’ in the diakonikon at Mount Nebo,
Jordan: M. Piccirillo, The mosaics of Jordan, Amman , .
Due to the difficulties of analysing large data sets of Coptic or Syriac, I have
focused on Greek examples during this stage of research. Coptic uses a mix of Greek
THE PHOTISTERION IN LATE ANTIQUITY
Five epigraphic examples of the word pho ̄tiste ̄rion are especially clear and
can serve as a representative data set, along with a sixth that is suggestive:
. Bsakla (northwest Syria). The earliest extant example comes from Bsakla/
Beseqla in Syria and has not been officially published. Prior to the current
civil war in Syria the mosaic inscription was preserved in the mosaic
museum at Maarat al-Numan where it was photographed in 2010 (see fig.
1).16 Dated provisionally to 404 CE in connection to a dated inscription pre-
sumably from the same church, it reads: ‘Having made vows to saints,
Marianos, son of Theodosios, [provided for] laying the mosaics of the basil-
ica of the holy pho ̄tiste ̄rion, by the zeal of Mesika the most-revered presbyter
and Martinos the deacon.’17 The location is not far from the professionally
excavated site of Huarte, which also has an inscription for a pho ̄tiste ̄rion.18
. ‘Evron (Galilee). This example is dated to / by connection to another
inscription in the same church. It is the one that caused Avi-Yonah to wonder
why it was in a different room from the basin for water baptism. Found on a
church floor near the town of Nahariya, it reads simply: ‘In the time of the
most-revered presbyter Marinos, the pho ̄tiste ̄rion was renovated.’
Apparently no photograph exists of this inscription, which was uncovered
during the settling of a kibbutz on the property. The Israel Antiquities
Authority could not locate a photograph in its archives nor could the
overseer of the site’s modest archaeological museum, when consulted in
. The kibbutz chose to backfill most of the excavated church floor
and let vegetation cover it again, keeping the area clear of modern buildings
but not uncovered for viewing. Other inscriptions from the church record
loan words and native Egyptian vocabulary when discussing baptism, and it does use
terms for ‘illumination’ in addition to those for ‘dipping in water’. W. E. Crum gives
examples from Shenoute (‘they received the light’) and Coptic narrative texts (‘the
ones who recently received the light’ for new initiates): A Coptic dictionary, Oxford
, a. Syriac seems not to use illumination language but to use Aramaic terms
with the same meaning as the Greek ‘baptise’. The fifth-century Testamentum Domini
uses the Syriac phrase ‘house of baptism’ (i. ) as the name of the site of initiation.
For a discussion of this mosaic see R. Jwejati, ‘Sur le Chemin de Jérusalem: étude
archéologique et iconographique de mosaïques paléochrétiennes de la Syrie du Nord’,
unpubl. PhD diss. Toronto , –.
‘εὐχὲς ἁγίων εὐξάμενος Μαρειανὸς Θεοδοσείου ἐψήϕωσεν τὴν βασειλικὴν τοῦ
ἁγείου ϕωτιστηρίου σπουδῇ Μεσίκα τοῦ εὐλαβεστάτου πρεσβυτέρου καὶ Μαρτείνου
διακόνου’: author’s transcription and translation from the photograph.
P. Canivet and Marie-Therese Canivet, Huarté, sanctuaire Chrétien d’Apamène IVème-
VIème siècle, Paris .
‘ἐπὶ τοῦ εὐλαβ(εστάτου) Μαρίνου πρεσβ(υτέρου) ἀνενεώ[θ]η τὸ ϕωτιστήριν’: tran-
scription from V. Tzaferis, ‘The Greek inscriptions from the early Christian church at
‘Evron’, Eretz-Israel xix (), *–*.
I am grateful to Professor Sarit Kattan Gribetz for taking the time to visit the
kibbutz and conduct this on-site research.
MICHAEL PEPPARD
Figure . Dedicatory inscription for pho ̄tiste ̄rion in Bsakla / Beseqla, Syria (th
century CE). Open access. Photo by Sean Leatherbury/Manar al-Athar, image
ID , Manar Al-Athar archive, <http://www.manar-al-athar.ox.ac.uk>.
Piccirillo, Mosaics of Jordan, .
‘[ἐπὶ τοῦ θ]εοϕιλ(εστάτου) [καὶ ὁ]σιωτάτου ἐπισκόπου Κύρου ἐϕιλοκαλίθη καὶ
κατεστάθη τὸ ἅγιον ϕωτηστίρεν’: author’s translation from Piccirillo’s transcription.
THE PHOTISTERION IN LATE ANTIQUITY
‘ἐπὶ τοῦ θεοϕιλ(εστάτου) Στεϕάνου πρεσβ(υτέρου) καὶ ἡγουμένου ἐγένετο ἡ
ψήϕωσις τοῦ ϕωτιστηρίου ἐν μη(νὶ) Δεκεμβρίῳ ἰνδ(ικτιῶνος) τετάρτη(ς) ἐπὶ τοῦ εὐσεβ
(οῦς) καὶ ϕιλοχ(ρίστο)υ ἡμῶν βασιλέως Μαυρικίου, ὑπατίας πρώτης’: author’s transla-
tion from Yves Blomme, ‘Inscriptions grecques à Kursi et Amwas’, Revue biblique
lxxxvii (), –.
Ibid. .
Ibid. .
‘[σὺ]ν̣ βοη[θείᾳ] τοῦ Κυ(ρίου) ἡμ[ῶν Ἰ(ησο)ῦ] Χ(ριστο)ῦ ἐτελειώθη τὸ ἔργον τοῦ
ἁγίου ναοῦ σὺν τῷ ϕωτιστηρίῳ’: author’s translation from Piccirillo, Mosaics of Jordan, .
A. H. S. Megaw (ed.), Kourion: excavations in the episcopal precinct, Washington, DC
.
THE PHOTISTERION IN LATE ANTIQUITY
Figure . Photograph of pho ̄tiste ̄rion at Mt Nebo, Jordan (th century CE), from
Piccirillo, Mosaics of Jordan, fig. . Reproduced by permission of the
Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, Mt Nebo, and the American Center of
Oriental Research, Amman.
shall surely not be ashamed’ (LXX Psalm xxxiii. ). This quotation is else-
where associated with initiation in homilies and hymns. The candidates
are invited to cross the threshold, to ‘come forward’ (προσέλθατε), in
order to ‘be illuminated’ (ϕωτίσθητε), which suggests that their construal
of the overall multi-room complex and the overall signification of the com-
posite set of rituals was related more to light and illumination than it was to
water. In other words, despite the archaeologists’ label, this was probably
described by its ancient initiates as a pho ̄tiste ̄rion.
So why not baptiste ̄rion? Why was it used infrequently? One possibility is that
the fragmentary nature of the evidence is misleading. Most of the Greek
inscriptions dedicating sites of initiation from this era come from Galilee,
Idem, ‘The baptistery’, ibid. , –. Though the mosaic is fragmentary, the
reconstruction is not really in doubt, due to the wide use of this Psalm quotation and
the correspondence of the preserved portions: ‘[προσέ]λθατε [πρὸς α]ὐτὸν κ[αὶ
ϕωτί]σθητε, κ[αὶ τὰ πρό]σωπα [ὑμῶν οὐ μὴ κατ]ε[σχυνθῇ]’. Photograph at p. ,
plate ., no. j .
For example, Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 40 (On baptism) ; cf. Romanos the
Melodist, Hymns xxi. .
MICHAEL PEPPARD
Syria and Jordan, offering an incomplete picture of Greek-speaking early
Christians. Perhaps the word baptiste ̄rion was indeed used in Greek-speaking
congregations further west and the evidence hides that fact. However, if
that were the case, one would expect a more significant linguistic footprint
for the word in Greek literature, which there is not.
Another possibility for the absence of the word baptiste ̄rion relates to the
practical reality of the rituals occurring in the room. That is to say, the vast
majority of these rooms – these pho ̄tiste ̄ria – do not have basins large
enough in which to ‘baptise’ in the literal sense of the word. These
basins were not big enough for anyone but a small child to be dunked,
to be fully submerged in water. It is most likely that initiates in these
rooms were being ‘baptised’ not literally by immersion, but rather with
affusion, the pouring of water over the head and body. That is to say, the
fact that Christian initiates were not going under water perhaps led to
their not calling the room that housed the ritual ‘the place where you
are immersed under water’.
A third possibility – and none of these possibilities are mutually exclu-
sive – is that the conceptual metaphor of ‘illumination’ captured more of
what these Christians thought the rites of initiation performed. That is to
say, even if pho ̄tiste ̄rion might not denote a different ritual space from baptis-
te ̄rion, historians can still be more attentive to what the designation evokes.
In the categories of the philosopher of language Gottlob Frege, even in
cases when the physical referent (Bedeutung) of two words or phrases
may be the same, the sense (Sinn) of those words or phrases can differ.
Historians of Christianity intuitively grasp the different things that a word
might ‘mean’ in other ritual contexts: any given Sunday, one Christian
denomination might ‘kneel’ before an ‘altar’, while another ‘gathers’ at
a ‘table’. Both ‘altar’ and ‘table’ refer to a flat surface with four legs
upon which consecrated bread is laid, but the senses evoked by the
terms are, for one, a place for priestly sacrifice and, for the other, a
place for a familial meal. In a similar way, either being ‘dunked’ or
being ‘illuminated’ evokes different ways of construing the composite,
overall meaning of the set of rituals of initiation.
It is no surprise that the image of light was a master metaphor for initiation.
Light is the most widespread metaphor in the world’s religions and, for
Jews and Christians, the very origin of God’s activity in the world. As
the magisterial church historian Jaroslav Pelikan showed in his book, The
H. Smith, Why religion matters, San Francisco, CA , ch. viii.
THE PHOTISTERION IN LATE ANTIQUITY
light of the world, much of early Christian theology and soteriology can be
understood by its interactions with the imagery of light.31
These facts notwithstanding, what specifically about the initiation rituals
might have encouraged certain Christians to use ‘light’ imagery more than
‘water’ imagery? While no singular cause can be identified, there are a few
focal points that show how eastern Christians in late antiquity imagined ini-
tiation as illumination. These spring from the scholarly consensus that ‘the
theme of divine light is more prominent in the East than in the Latin West’;
and that the Western approach to imagery of light is ‘mainly epistemo-
logical’, while the Eastern is also ‘experiential’. The epistemological
approach in both West and East accounts for widespread use of light to
mean knowledge and even catechesis. This goes back to Paul’s letters,
where Corinthians iv.– refers to the pho ̄tismos of the Gospel and of
knowledge (gno ̄sis). Justin Martyr makes clear the equation of baptismal ini-
tiation and illumination by means of the connection between illumination
and knowledge: ‘Illumination is the name given to this washing since those
being taught these things are illuminated in their minds.’33 Beyond these
epistemological meanings, eastern narrations of illumination ‘often
denote a specific spiritual experience, undergone not only inwardly but
sometimes also outwardly in the body’.34
The first point of interpretation is the ever-present relationship between
oil, fire and light during Christian initiation. Whether encased in an earth-
enware lamp or poured on the tip of a torch, oil was, apart from the sun,
the ancient world’s primary source of light. The Acts of Thomas offers par-
ticularly rich evidence of how initiation was understood and perhaps prac-
tised in early Syrian Christianity, narrating five instances of conversion and
initiation. The first and longest of these, the initiation of King
Gundaphorus, is noteworthy in that it does not narrate water baptism at
all, but only rites of anointing, illumination and eucharist:35
J. Pelikan, The light of the world: a basic image in early Christian thought, New York
.
K. Ware, ‘Light and darkness in the mystical theology of the Greek Fathers’, in
G. O’Collins and M. A. Myers (eds), Light from light: scientists and theologians in dialogue,
Grand Rapids, MI , –, quotation at p. .
Justin Martyr, First apology : translation from L. J. Johnson, Worship in the Early
Church: an anthology of historical sources, Collegeville, PA , i. .
Ware, ‘Light and darkness’, .
On the initiation scenes see S. E. Myers, ‘Initiation by anointing in early Syriac-
speaking Christianity’, Studia Liturgica xxxi (), –. The Greek version,
though derivative from an original Syriac, often bears witness to an earlier version of
the text than the extant Syriac versions, which have been expanded at many points.
See H. Attridge, ‘The original language of the Acts of Thomas’, in H. Attridge,
J. J. Collins and T. Tobin (eds), Of scribes and scrolls, Lanham, MD , –. For mul-
tiple recensions with commentary see A. F. J. Klijn, The Acts of Thomas: introduction, text,
and commentary, Leiden , at pp. – for this scene.
MICHAEL PEPPARD
[The Apostle] ordered [the initiates] to bring him oil, so that through the oil they
might receive the seal. So they brought the oil and they lighted many lamps, for it
was night. The Apostle stood up and sealed them [in the following manner]: The
Lord was revealed to them through a voice saying, ‘Peace to you, brethren.’ They
only heard the voice, and did not see his form, for they had not yet received the
sealing of the seal. The Apostle took the oil, poured it over their heads, smeared
it, anointed them, and then said [a series of invocations] … When they had
been sealed, a youth appeared to them carrying a lighted torch, so that even the
lamps became faint by the approach of its light. He exited and became invisible
to them. The Apostle said to the Lord, ‘Lord, your light is incomprehensible to
us, and we cannot bear it, for it’s too great for our vision.’ When the (sun)light
appeared and day dawned, he broke bread and made them partakers of the
eucharist of Christ.
This ritual narrative focalises the reader’s attention on light and the anoint-
ing oil, which is the subject of prayers (‘epicleses’) and which enables a
period of sacramental vision. Only after being ‘sealed’ with the oil can a
recipient see the presence of the Lord, who in this case appears as a youth
carrying a blazing torch. And though our modern sensibilities, subcon-
sciously formed by the ubiquity of electricity, might fail to appreciate the sym-
bolism at first, this narrative and others make plain the connection between
oil/anointing and light/illumination. Anointed with oil, surrounded by oil
lamps, the initiates come to see the Lord, who outshines their lamps with
a blazing torch, fuelled also by oil. Susan Myers concludes that, for all the ini-
tiation scenes narrated in the Acts of Thomas, ‘water baptism is, of the initi-
atory practices, third in value’, after anointing and eucharist.37 Therefore,
a Christian community that emphasised anointing in addition to (or more
than) baptism might reasonably be led to call its initiation room a pho ̄tiste ̄rion.
Cyril of Jerusalem also describes how initiates called pho ̄tizomenoi carried
their torches in procession toward the rites of initiation, while the women
‘καὶ ἐκέλευσεν προσενεγκεῖν αὐτοὺς ἔλαιον, ἵνα διὰ τοῦ ἐλαίου δέξωνται τὴν
σϕραγῖδα. ἤνεγκαν οὖν τὸ ἔλαιον, καὶ λύχνους ἀνῆψαν πολλούς· νὺξ γὰρ ἦν· καὶ
ἀναστὰς ὁ ἀπόστολος ἐσϕράγισεν αὐτούς· ἀπεκαλύϕθη δὲ αὐτοῖς ὁ κύριος διὰ ϕωνῆς
λέγων· Εἰρήνη ὑμῖν ἀδελϕοί. Οἳ δὲ ϕωνῆς μόνον ἤκουσαν αὐτοῦ, τὸ δὲ εἶδος αὐτοῦ οὐκ
εἶδον· οὐδέπω γὰρ ἦσαν δεξάμενοι τὸ ἐπισϕράγισμα τῆς σϕραγῖδος. λαβὼν δὲ ὁ
ἀπόστολος τὸ ἔλαιον καὶ καταχέας ἐπὶ τῆς κεϕαλῆς αὐτῶν καὶ ἀλείψας καὶ χρίσας
αὐτοὺς ἤρξατο λέγειν· … καὶ σϕραγισθέντων αὐτῶν ὤϕθη αὐτοῖς νεανίας λαμπάδα
ἀνημμένην κατέχων, ὡς καὶ τοὺς λύχνους αὐτοὺς τῇ τοῦ ϕωτὸς αὐτῆς προσβολῇ
ἀμαυρωθῆναι. καὶ ἐξελθὼν ἀϕανὴς αὐτοῖς ἐγένετο. εἶπεν δὲ ὁ ἀπόστολος πρὸς τὸν
κύριον· ἀχώρητον ἡμῖν κύριε τὸ ϕῶς σού ἐστιν, καὶ οὐ δυνάμεθα ϕέρειν αὐτό· μεῖζον
γάρ ἐστιν τῆς ἡμετέρας ὄψεως. αὔγους δὲ γεναμένου καὶ διαϕαύσαντος κλάσας ἄρτον
κοινωνοὺς αὐτοὺς κατέστησεν τῆς εὐχαριστίας τοῦ Χριστοῦ’: Acts of Thomas –, trans-
lation slightly modified from H. Attridge, The Acts of Thomas, Salem, MA . The youth
carries a λαμπάς (‘torch’), while the initiates each carry a λύχνος (‘lamp’). For further
interpretation of the prayers see S. E. Myers, Spirit epicleses in the Acts of Thomas, Tübingen
. Myers, ‘Initiation by anointing’, .
THE PHOTISTERION IN LATE ANTIQUITY
in procession on the painted walls of the Dura-Europos house-church were
shown doing the same.38 Elsewhere in Syrian texts, the Syriac Acts of John
twice describes a blazing fire over oil at its consecration, while Syrian and
Maronite liturgical texts depict a ‘flaming baptismal font’; Jacob of
Serugh and Romanos the Melodist embrace the paradox, calling the
water of baptism a ‘furnace’.39 These references make even more sense
when one notes a second focal point of interpretation: the early
Christian recollection of the light at Jesus’ own baptism.
Though the canonical Gospels do not narrate such illumination, describ-
ing only the divine voice and the dove as signs of God’s activity, the pres-
ence of fire and/or light was attested as early as Justin Martyr: ‘As Jesus
went down into the water, the Jordan was set ablaze.’ It appears in
other sources too, such as Old Latin versions of Matthew’s Gospel: ‘when
he was baptised, a flaming light shone around the water’. Most important
for our purposes, early Syrian texts and art (the Rabbula Gospels, see fig. 4)
transmit this tradition of light at Jesus’ baptism, which has been traced in
detail by Gabriele Winkler. Her argument is crucial because ‘for the
Syrians, the Jordan event forms the model for the shape of their baptismal
rites’.42 The baptismal order of the Maronites, which Winkler considers to
have retained ‘the oldest Syrian baptismal theology’, is replete with imagery
of light and illumination, its invoked prayers flickering back-and-forth
between the one-time Jordan event and the baptismal font of later centur-
ies.43 ‘The appearance of a light at the baptism of Jesus’ had the ‘widest dis-
semination’ and citations from liturgical texts ‘could be continued
indefinitely’, from early Jewish-Christian Gospels (e.g. the Gospel of the
Ebionites) to the Diatessaron, Ephrem, Jacob of Serugh and beyond.44 As
Cyril of Jerusalem, Procatechesis , –, PG xxxiii. –. The torches and proces-
sion signify the wedding and marriage imagery of Christian initiation in Syria and
Jerusalem, an important topic not covered here. For analysis of the role of firelight
in those initiation images see Peppard, World’s oldest church, ch. iv.
G. Winkler, ‘The appearance of the light at the baptism of Jesus and the origins of
the feast of Epiphany: an investigation of Greek, Syriac, Armenian and Latin sources’,
Oriens Christianus lxxviii (), –, trans. in M. E. Johnson (ed.), Between memory
and hope: readings on the liturgical year, Collegeville, PA , – at pp. –; cf.
Romanos, Hymns xvi.. Sebastian Brock also emphasises the prevalence of fire as
the most important manifestation of the Holy Spirit at baptism: The Holy Spirit in the
Syrian baptismal tradition, Piscataway, NJ , –.
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho .
Matthew iii. in Codex Vercellensis (the oldest Latin manuscript of the New
Testament). Winkler, ‘Appearance of the light’, .
On Maronite liturgical theology see A. Mouhanna, Les Rites de l’initiation dans
l’église maronite, Rome , esp. pp. –.
Winkler, ‘Appearance of the light’, , ; cf. H. J. W. Drijvers and G. J. Reinink,
‘Taufe und Licht: Tatian, Ebionäerevangelium und Thomasakten’, in T. Baarda and
others (eds), Text and testimony: essays on New Testament and apocryphal literature in
honour of A. F. J. Klijn, Kampen , –.
MICHAEL PEPPARD
Figure . Close-up of miniature of Jesus’ baptism, with fire upon the water: canon
table, Rabbula Gospels ( CE), Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, Plut.
., fo. v. Public domain, <http://teca.bmlonline.it/ImageViewer/servlet/
ImageViewer?idr=TECA&keyworks=Plut..>.
THE PHOTISTERION IN LATE ANTIQUITY
early as the fourth century the feast of Epiphany – celebrating, in part,
Jesus’ baptism – was being described by the name ‘ta pho ̄ta’ (‘The
Lights’).45
Many texts are suggestive of fire at initiation, and some even discuss the
appearance of a mystical or heavenly light, a kind of anamne ̄sis, a ritual rec-
ollection and reenactment of the light at Jesus’ own baptism. For example,
consider an unusual and little-known Coptic letter from Theophilus of
Alexandria to the Pachomian monk Horsiesios.46 The archbishop asks
the monk to come to the city to help him out with the baptismal ritual,
since he is having trouble consecrating the water. ‘Since my fathers they
have come to baptise on the appropriate day, and while they are praying
by the pool, a ray of light (oy-rhabdos n-oyoein) comes and seals the waters.
But this year we have not been worthy to see this.’47 He then goes on to
say he had a vision that Horsiesios can help him. Horsiesios does indeed
come, and he deflects praise by contrasting the small light of a lamp
(himself) to the light of the sun (Christ), drawing on the aforementioned
imagery in the Acts of Thomas, Methodius and elsewhere.48
With the monk’s help, the shaft of light does then appear. The entire
episode is couched as an etiological tale about the proper date of Easter
initiations and probably also serves to comment on the relationship
between institutional (archbishop) and charismatic (monk) authorities.
Perhaps the pillar of fire at the Exodus was the connection that they
drew to Easter. It is true that the letter does not call the room a pho ̄tiste ̄rion,
instead using both the Coptic word for ‘bridal chamber’ (sheleet) and the
Greek loan-word baptiste ̄rion, while the basin for water is a kolumbe ̄thra.49
Yet it remains another vivid example of the experiential centrality of
light in the narration of early Christian initiatory rituals – even when
water seems to be the context of discussion.
Theophilus of Alexandria was distraught because he had ‘not been
worthy to see’ the sign of light at baptismal initiation. This suggests a
third focal point of interpretation: an ideal of sacramental vision, a connec-
tion between initiation and a new kind of visuality, which was emphasised
by sources from Syria, Egypt and Cappadocia – and was already seen
above through the Acts of Thomas.50 Beyond the biblical resonances of
these ritual descriptions, they may also draw on the traditional mysteries,
For example, Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio 39, PG xxxvi. .
Published in W. E. Crum, Der Papyruscodex saec. VI–VII der Phillippsbibliothek in
Cheltenham: koptische theologische Schriften, Strassburg , –; cf. the section on
Theophilus in the History of the patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria, PO i. .
Author’s translation from the Coptic in Crum, Papyruscodex, .
Other contemporaneous Egyptian sources unite fire with baptism: for example,
Shenoute, There is another foolishness, Codex XE , the White Monastery, Sohag,
Egypt, and Cyril of Alexandria, PG lxviii. b. Crum, Papyruscodex, –.
Clement of Alexandria, Instructor i. ; Ephrem, Hymns on Epiphany vii. .
MICHAEL PEPPARD
such as those of Isis, which used darkness-to-light rituals at their culminat-
ing encounters with a god or goddess. Basil of Caesarea, for his part, makes
explicit the new spiritual visuality enabled by Christian initiation:
‘Ignorance of God is death to the soul. The unbaptised person is not illu-
minated. Lacking illumination, the eye cannot function; the soul cannot
contemplate God.’51 Basil likely draws on the extramission theory of
vision, the widespread (albeit variously defined) ancient notion that eyes
sent something out to enable perception. Just as an internal biological
fiery light enables natural vision, so does a divine light kindled at one’s ini-
tiation enable a new form of sacramental vision. These connections are
solidified in the words of Pseudo-Dionysius:
The same is no less true for the holy sacrament that produces God’s birth within us,
since God is the Creator of light and the basis of all divine illumination, and so it is
correct for us to praise this sacrament according to its proper functioning under
the name of illumination. Although all hierarchic actions transmit light to the
faithful, it is indeed this sacrament which first opens our eyes, its original light
allowing us to view the light diffused by the other sacraments.
If a new sacramental vision is the paramount effect of Christian initiation,
that which enables all other sacramental activities to be viewed, then the
primal sacrament is properly called ‘illumination’.
These early Christian sacramental theologians drew on biblical models
that united water and vision, as when Ephrem describes Jesus’ healing of
the man born blind at the pool of Siloam (John ix): in Ephrem’s interpret-
ation, that man’s eyes were ‘illuminated’ by the water. The inauguration
of a new light which empowers is akin to Methodius of Olympus’ explan-
ation of why newly initiated Christians are called neopho ̄tistoi. He compares
the uninitiated to the moon, which does not generate light of its own; but
those who are regenerated are able to shine with a new ray of light, as
‘Θεοῦ γὰρ ἄγνοια θάνατός ἐστι ψυχῆς. ὁ δὲ μὴ βαπτισθεὶς οὐ πεϕώτισται. ἄνευ δὲ
ϕωτὸς οὔτε ὀϕθαλμὸς τὰ ἑαυτοῦ καθορᾷ, οὔτε ψυχὴ Θεοῦ δέξασθαι δύναται θεωρίαν’:
Basil of Caesarea, Homily 13, On Baptism, PG xxxi., trans. in Johnson, Worship,
ii. .
‘οὕτω δὴ καὶ τὴν ἱερὰν τῆς θεογενεσίας τελετήν, ἐπειδὴ πρώτου ϕωτὸς μεταδίδωσι
καὶ πασῶν ἐστιν ἀρχὴ τῶν θείων ϕωταγωγιῶν, ἐκ τοῦ τελουμένου τὴν ἀληθῆ τοῦ
ϕωτίσματος ἐπωνυμίαν ὑμνοῦμεν. εἰ γὰρ καὶ πᾶσι κοινὸν τοῖς ἱεραρχικοῖς τὸ ϕωτὸς
ἱεροῦ μεταδιδόναι τοῖς τελουμένοις, ἀλλ’ αὕτη τὸ πρώτως ἰδεῖν ἐδωρήσατό μοι καὶ διὰ
τοῦ ταύτης ἀρχικωτάτου ϕωτὸς πρὸς τὴν τῶν ἄλλων ἱερῶν ἐποψίαν ϕωταγωγοῦμαι’: Ps-
Dionysius, Ecclesiastical hierarchy iii. , trans. in Johnson, Worship, iv. .
Ephrem, Hymns on Epiphany vii. ; cf. Romanos, Hymns xvii. . On vision of divine
light in literature of this period see also Alexander Golitzin, ‘Recovering the “glory of
Adam”: “divine light” traditions in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian ascetical lit-
erature of fourth-century Syro-Mesopotamia’, in J. R. Davila (ed.), The Dead Sea Scrolls as
background to postbiblical Judaism and early Christianity, Leiden , –.
THE PHOTISTERION IN LATE ANTIQUITY
reflections of Christ, the sun, and ‘thus are periphrastically called newly
illuminated’ (neopho ̄tistoi).54
These three aspects of interpretation lead to the conclusion that
Christians who used the word pho ̄tiste ̄rion for their sites of initiation prob-
ably understood initiation to be a composite rite, a set of rituals which
involved the embodied fire of oil, the recollection of Jesus’ baptism with
water and fire, and the illumination of the mind and soul, all of which
led to experienced effects of sacramental vision. As historians of initiation
have charted in detail, baptism by immersion or affusion was only part of
the composite experience of initiates in late antiquity, which also could
include enrollment, catechesis, fasting, anointing, exorcism, exsufflation,
renunciation, professions, undressing and dressing, chrismation, eucharist
and more. Some modern historians, such as Juliette Day, Everett Ferguson
and Bryan Spinks, have used ‘baptism’ as a synecdoche for the whole set,
even while richly describing the components of the experience; Hugh
Riley and Maxwell Johnson prefer ‘initiation’ as the representative term,
which leaves room for those traditions that emphasise anointing or euchar-
ist in the process.55 And though liturgical texts and ‘church orders’ from
the fourth through sixth centuries do not use the word pho ̄tiste ̄rion (as
the extant inscriptions do), their textual descriptions of the initiates
favour the light metaphor. The relevant writings of Cyril of Jerusalem,
Gregory of Nazianzus, Ephrem, Romanos and others support the liturgical
designation of neopho ̄tistoi, the term found also in church orders, such as
the fourth-century Apostolic constitutions and the fifth-century Testamentum
Domini.56 By focusing on illumination as the overarching image for initi-
ation, the authors of such texts were not innovating but in fact drawing
on biblical precursors, such as the book of Hebrews (vi.4; x.32), and adapt-
ing them to their developing sacramental theologies. In sum, the evidence
shows that significant numbers of Christians in late antiquity chose ‘illu-
mination’ as the image by which to express the composite rite and ‘phō tis-
tērion’ as the name for its site.
Methodius of Olympus, Symposium viii. .
J. Day, The baptismal liturgy of Jerusalem: fourth- and fifth-century evidence from Palestine,
Syria and Egypt, Aldershot ; Ferguson, Baptism; B. Spinks, Early and medieval rituals
and theologies of baptism: from the New Testament to the Council of Trent, Aldershot , and
‘Baptismal patterns in early Syria: another reading’, in M. E. Johnson and L. E. Phillips
(eds), Studia liturgica diversa: essays in honor of Paul F. Bradshaw, Portland, OR ;
H. M. Riley, Christian initiation, Washington, DC ; Johnson, Rites.
Apostolic Constitutions viii. .; Testamentum Domini i. . For the Greek Vorlage of
the latter, which is fully extant only in Syriac, see the fragment that preserves ‘neophō -
tistoi’ in S. Corcoran and B. Salway, ‘A newly identified Greek fragment of the
Testamentum Domini’, JTS n.s. lxii (), –.
MICHAEL PEPPARD
This article has drawn from epigraphic and literary sources to argue that
pho ̄tiste ̄ria were at least as widespread as baptiste ̄ria among Greek-speaking
early Christians, and probably more so. While it is difficult to determine
precisely the significance of this designation, the safest judgement is that
the Christians who built and used pho ̄tiste ̄ria imagined ‘illumination’ to
express the composite rite of initiation, within which ‘baptism’ was only
one part. By way of conclusion, consider one of the only surviving literary
texts to give contextual clues to the liturgical meaning of pho ̄tiste ̄rion: a
hymn (kontakion) of Romanos the Melodist, the liturgical composer who
was born in the same time and region of most of our extant pho ̄tiste ̄ria
(born late fifth century in Syria and died mid-sixth century in
Constantinople). His hymn in the voice of the repentant sinner of Luke
vii.36–50, the woman who anoints Jesus’ feet and is forgiven by him in
the house of Simon the Pharisee, recapitulates several points of this
article in one poetic stanza. Using the ancient rhetorical technique of
speech-in-character, Romanos imagines these words on the lips of the peni-
tent woman:
What is most striking about this use of pho ̄tiste ̄rion is its juxtaposition with so
many words that relate to washing and cleansing with water.58 The woman
‘Προσέλθω οὖν πρὸς αὐτόν, ϕωτισθῶ, ῶς γέγραπται· ἐγγίσω νῦν τῷ Χριστῷ, καὶ οὐ μὴ
καταισχυνθῶ· οὐκ ὀνειδίζει με, οὐ λέγει μοι· Ἕως ἄρτι ἦς ἐν τῷ σκότει, καὶ ἦλθες ἰδεῖν με
τὸν ἥλιον. Διὰ τοῦτο μύρον αἴρω καὶ πορευθῶ· ϕωτιστήριον ποιήσω τὴν οἰκιὰν τοῦ
Φαρισαίου· ἐκεῖ γὰρ ἀποπλύνομαι τὰς ἁμαρτίας μου· ἐκεῖ καὶ καθαρίζομαι τὰς ἀνομίας
μου· κλαυθμῷ, ἐλαίῳ καὶ μύρῳ κεράσω μου κολυμβήθραν καὶ λούομαι καὶ σμήχομαι
καὶ ἐκϕεύγω τοῦ βορβόρου τῶν ἔργων μου’: author’s translation from Romanos le
mélode: hymnes, ed. J. Grossider de Matons, SC , Paris , Hymn xxi at vol. iii. .
The Greek verbs at the beginning are the same as those in LXX Psalm xxxiii. .
Romanos’s Hymn lii is likewise directed to the neopho ̄tistoi and uses illumination
imagery.
THE PHOTISTERION IN LATE ANTIQUITY
will ‘scrub off’ (ἀποπλύνομαι), ‘purify’ (‘καθαρίζομαι’), ‘bathe’
(‘λούομαι’), ‘wipe clean’ (‘σμήχομαι’), and ‘escape from filth’ (‘ἐκϕεύγω
τοῦ βορβόρου’) in the ‘kolumbe ̄thra’ that she will prepare – and yet
Romanos does not use the word baptiste ̄rion to describe the imagined site
in which the basin of water and all this explicit washing occurs. The
modern English edition of Romanos’s kontakia obscures this fact, render-
ing pho ̄tiste ̄rion once again as ‘baptistery’.59
Romanos, being a native of the region where Syria meets Lebanon, a
region containing dedicatory inscriptions that avoid the word baptiste ̄rion,
instead chose kolumbe ̄thra to describe the water basin and pho ̄tiste ̄rion to
describe the room that houses the composite rite. Just as a contemporan-
eous initiate at Kourion would cross a physical threshold by walking over
a mosaic about illumination, so here does the penitent cross the imagined
threshold of the Pharisee’s house accompanied by the same Psalm. When
he describes her initiation, Romanos draws on his understanding of what
occurred at Jesus’ own baptism: both of his hymns on Epiphany depict a
fiery light at the Jordan.60 Here she approaches the sun, where her past
deeds will be exposed and yet she will not feel ashamed in that light.
Like the moon coming out of its phase of darkness, she will receive illumin-
ation from the source of all light. In this house she will use oil and water, to
be sure, but her composite process of initiation is framed as one from dark-
ness to light – to be illuminated in a pho ̄tiste ̄rion.
M. Carpenter, Kontakia of Romanos: Byzantine melodist, Columbia, MI , i. .
Romanos, Hymns xvi.; xvii..