SH Archive 6th century AD Baptismal Jacuzzi in the Church of Demna, Tunisia

[KD Archive]

This is allegedly a baptismal font, but it sure looks like a Jacuzzi. At leastvto me it does.

The image came from here with the following description.

• A Byzantine baptismal font from the Parish Church of Demna, Tunisia, 6th century AD. Bardo national museum.

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[Archive]

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Username: FriHet
Date: 2020-01-27 20:08:56
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It is very beautiful but its shape reminds me of a Jacuzzi. I'm also thinking of the color scheme there, mostly brown tones. Is that because they could only make those colors "back then"? Or did they have all colors but greens and blues for example, faded?

 

[wild heretic]

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Username: wild heretic
Date: 2020-01-28 12:20:24
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This is allegedly a baptismal font, but it sure looks like a Jacuzzi. At leastvto me it does.

The image came from here with the following description.

• A Byzantine baptismal font from the Parish Church of Demna, Tunisia, 6th century AD. Bardo national museum.

View attachment 39470

Probably both in a way. I reckon this is a pre-Nazarene King worship bath, so more akin to Mithra maybe or being christed (christened) like the Greek emperors. Looks like three people at a time could be fully immersed and sat down for a full real christian "ducking" or baptism.

I'd love to have seen this ritual to see what the old real Christianity looked like. The real date for this I'd put no early than 1300s AD and could be even centuries later as I put Emperor Constantine at the beginning of the 1300s (1306) rather than 306 AD, and that Christian symbol is the one he supposedly saw in the sky - Chi Rho cross.

I think Constantine and that symbol had absolutely nothing to do with the Nazarene King. Christianity existed before the Nazarene King was even born IMO (controversial), but he too was Christed as that was the main ritual for initiation or enlightenment of the Roman Emperors back then. The PTB then latched the Nazarene's story (mixed with lots of other previous stories) on to modern Christianity post 1400.

I'm thinking these days that the Nazarene was crucified because he made a power play as leader of the Roman Empire (at least the Greek side) because he was an illegitimate son of one of the emperors probably.

Doesn't the bible mention John the Baptist ducking people in the waters and this was at the time of the Nazarene King? I'm guessing that it is a Hellenic pagan proto-christian tradition originally, probably akin to somthing like the Mysteries of Mithra which used water baptisms. I know the Attis pagan ritual involved baptism in bull's blood supposedly, as did lots of other Hellenic religious traditions, like the worship of Zeus allegedly.

 

[KD Archive]

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Username: KorbenDallas
Date: 2020-01-28 12:27:27
Reaction Score: 3

We approach religions from the worshipping point of view. I think this is a type of cargo cult. IMHO, it was not worshipping the creator but rather serving those who created you to serve them.

From this perspective all the rituals are twisted remnants of what exactly? Submerge to activate?

 

[Archive]

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Username: jd755
Date: 2020-01-28 13:17:09
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There are four seats aka ledges in that thing with each one facing one other in a cross shape, he says stating the obvious. Top bottom left right or N W S E wise.
This is not coincidence. It was only meant for four at a time to use unless someone else stood in the middle.
Possible in the middle was a holy man for want of a better description pushing the heads of the unbeieverrs under the water to join the rest of their body. Seems a bit of an overkill when a wet finger on a forehead making a cross 'sign/sin' suffices to get into the various derivatives of the church. Possible but doubtful to my mind.

It looks from the photo the only bit above the water would be neck and head for most people though obviously tall people would have their shoulders above the water. It feels like it is either a ritual bath or a meeting place where the great and good can all see each other and can sit naked thus devoid of weapons and 'sort things out' or its the lace where the holy men pass their sins to the waters before communing with their god. Baptisms seems to be the least likely use for thing.
Ad again any age attributed to it is a guess made by an expert, nothing more.

 

[wild heretic]

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Username: wild heretic
Date: 2020-01-28 16:04:33
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From this perspective all the rituals are twisted remnants of what exactly? Submerge to activate?

Possibly. It's been a while since I looked briefly at pagan baptisms. I think I remember it had to do with being born again. So yeah, it could easily be an activation thing.

The interesting thing about the Attis bull ritual was that the priest was drenched in a slaughtered bull's blood while standing in a pit. It was said that the effect lasted for 20 years before it had to be renewed (whatever that meant). Could we be talking about a kind of life extension or immortality here?

Possibly I think.

 

[Ishtar]

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Username: Ishtar
Date: 2020-01-30 14:45:39
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feels like it is either a ritual bath or a meeting place where the great and good can all see each other and can sit naked thus devoid of weapons and 'sort things out' or its the lace where the holy men pass their sins to the waters before communing with their god. Baptisms seems to be the least likely use for thing.

this sounds like exactly the type of thing that happens at the “mikvah”, the Jewish ritual bath which is a much more frequent occurrence than Christian baptism... I wonder if the priests and monks enjoyed their font more frequently then