Kessel_Ephrem.pdf

Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 20.2 (2017) 435-488

Published in Hugoye 18.1 (2015): 125-145.

Patristic Literature in Arabic Translations (ed. B. Roggema and A. Treiger), 2020

Acta Antiqua, 2016

preproof version of paper in Acta Antiqua

Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2019

What is a photisterion? Translators usually render the Greek word photisterion (site of illumination)as ‘baptistery’ (site of immersion in water). This article reopens the study of photisteria, arguing that being ‘immersed’ or ‘illuminated’ evokes different senses of the concomitant meaning of the sites and rites of initiation. It situates late ancient photisteria 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 photisterion, within which ‘baptism’ was one part.