A Cure for Rabies or a Remedy for Concupiscence?: A Baptism of the Elchasaites

Abstract

The author of the Elenchos attributes to Alcibiades of Apamea, an Elchasaite who had arrived in Rome around 220 C.E. , the preaching of a baptism for the remission of sin, and of ablutions for those that had been bitten by a rabid dog, the sick with consumption, and the possessed by demons. Erik Peterson has interpreted the rabid dog and the diseases as allegories of concupiscence, coming to the conclusion that the Elchasaite immersion would not have been an antidote for rabies, consumption, or demonic possession but rather a remedy against concupiscence and against the proliferation of sexual passion. In my opinion, such allegoric explanation is to be rejected. The symptoms of rabies—a disease which causes the infected to suffer from hydrophobia—could have been considered by the baptist Elchasaites as proof of a demonic presence within the person. Likewise, the mention of consumption and demonic possession should be interpreted literally, according to a cultural context in which disease, demonic possession, and sins were considered to be tightly linked. The Elenchos would therefore contain an ancient testimony of a Christian exorcistic rite performed in the water.