Page - 86 - in The Power of Urban Water - Studies in premodern urbanism

86 ChristianeZimmermann in someotherwater. And if you cannot bapitze in coldwater, usewarm.But if youhave neither, pourwater on the head three times in the name of Father and Son and Holy Spirit. But both the one baptizing and the one being baptized should fast before the baptism, alongwith someothers if they can. But command the onebeing baptized to fast oneor twodays in advance.6 Theactofbaptismincludespreparatory fastingof thepersons involved,baptism,anda formula spoken by the Baptist: in the name of Father and Son andHoly Spirit (cf. Mt 28, 19). A special focus here is on the quality of water: the recommendation is to baptise in running or ‘living’ water; stillwater is thesecondchoiceand if there isnocoldwater,warmcouldbeusedaswell. Themention of still water andwarmwater could be references to urban circumstanceswhere ‘living’waterwasnot easily available.7 Anotherpointdiscussed in thechurchordernotes situationswhere there isnopossibilityof immersionor submersion: theDidachevalidatespouringwater over aperson (affusion) instead of immersing the person inwater.8 This regulationmight refer to urban situations, too, where openwater-placeswerenotavailableeverywhere.Thereisnomentionofbaptismalbasins, fonts, or even special buildings for baptism, i.e., baptisteries. Later texts inform us about different elaborations, suchasbaptismal instructionanddifferent theological interpretationsofbaptism.9 The earliest rites of baptism described in 2nd century AD texts did not demand a specific locationorbuilding for baptism,but theydiddemandsubmersionor affusion–probablymost often performed in rivers – and a baptismal formula. A precondition for baptism therefore is the environmental access to (flowing)water.AroundAD200,Tertullianpoints out that there is no difference between being baptised in the sea, a pond, a river, a spring, a lake, or a basin (Tert. bapt. 4, 3); he attests a development of the ritual which, at least in Carthage, included praying, fasting, confession of sins, triple submersion, anointing, and the laying on of hands. Other texts from the 3rd century AD attest to similar, but also different wide-ranging develop- ments; in the4thcenturyAD,wefindthatbaptismcould lastseveralweeks(Jerusalem,Antioch) and become a long process that culminated in the baptismal act as such.10 Baptism therefore wasnotpractised ina singular andconsistentway fromtheverybeginning, but seems tohave been apurification and entrance rite11 into the groupof Christ believers that developedwithin the context of the local settings of theChristian communities. During the first Christian centuries, baptismmight have been performed either in living water outside, in open or public water places,12 or in private buildings in still water.13 The earliest church buildings and intact, free-standing buildings of baptisteries date from the 4th century AD,when Christian religion became the official religion in the Roman empire.14 It was only then that baptism acquired its own fixed architectural location. In addition to the introductionofbaptisteries,whichdefineda fixedplaceasakindof ‘entrance’building inclose connectionwith the church buildings, baptismdefinitely took place inside andwas no longer visible to outsiders; it became a hidden act in which only chosen members of the Christian communitywould participate,with a special preparation and liturgy knownonly bymembers of this Christiangroup. 6 TranslationbyEhrman2014.Onbaptism in theDidache, seeMitchell 2014. 7 Fürst 2008, 125. 8 Klauser 1974; Lindemann2011, 784. 9 Strecker 2011, 1391–1404, gives a short summaryof thematerial from the first Christian centuries. 10 Strecker 2011, 1396–1404. 11 On theproblemofdefinition, seeKlostergaardPetersen 2011. 12 Cf. Justin, 1 Apol. 61, 3:Then they are led by uswhere to there iswater andare reborn in the kind of rebirth in whichweourselveswerealso reborn (translationbyMinns 2009). 13 Klauck 1981;Meeks 1993, 159–180.On theproblemof identifyingprivate Christianhouses, seeMell 2010, 19f. 33f. The socalledhousechurchofDuraEuropos inSyria,whichdates fromAD241, remains to thisdayasingular example: it hada roomwitha rectangularwater basin thatmighthave servedas abaptismal basin. 14 Brandt 2011;Mell 2010, 33; Fürst 2008, 169f.; Ristow1998.