Endnote 6 – What Are Pagan River Gods Doing in Scenes of Jesus’ Baptism?

Most ampullae are thought to have carried oil from the lamps burning at these sites and not Jordan water as is the custom today. For examples, see André Grabar, Ampoules de terre sainte (Monza, Bobbio) (Paris: Klincksieck, 1958), Bobbio: #18, pp. 40–41; #19, pp. 41–2; Monza: #2, pp. 18–19 (with a personification of the Jordan). Also see Lieselotte Kotszche-Breitenbruch, “Gebun,” in Klauser, Reallexikon, vol. 9 (1973), col. 209; Josef Engemann, “Palästinische Pilgerampullen im F. J. Dolger Institute in Bonn,” Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum, vol. 16 (1973), pp. 5–27; and Archer St. Clair, author of catalogue entry #527 in The Age of Spirituality: Catalogue of the Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, ed. Kurt Weitzmann (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979), p. 588.