Endnote 5 – What Are Pagan River Gods Doing in Scenes of Jesus’ Baptism?

According to Eusebius (De vita Constantini 4.62, trans. in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers [NPNF], series 2, vol. 1, p. 556; Greek text in Migne, Patrologia graeca [PG], vol. 20, col. 1216), Constantine had wished to be baptized in the Jordan. For descriptions of the Jordan by early pilgrims, see Egeria’s account (c. 400), Peregrinatio Aetheriae 12.4 and 15.1–6, and The Pilgrim of Bordeaux 598 (both trans. by J. Wilkinson, Egeria’s Travels to the Holy Land [Warminster, Eng.: Aris and Philips, 1981]).