Theodore’s Baptism and the Innuendo of Early Christian Rites

What we know of Theodore’s baptism from his own remembrance is quite eye-opening. By Theodore’s own account, the two “brothers” are described as ἐραστὰς, or lovers, lustfully drawn after their teacher Origen, the presumed eromenos in the relationship. It is significant that in the Letter to Origen, the two “brothers” feel an erotic attraction not toward one another but toward their Alexandrian instructor. Origen is literally described in Christ-like terms, taking on the role of a father figure or bishop, much like in the account of the Markan sect in the Philosophumena. Theodore adds color to his description of the “lust” he felt for Origen by using one of the favorite passages of modern “queer Bible studies” – 1 Samuel 18’s depiction of the love between Jonathan and David. Theodore describes their souls as knit together, the inferior clinging to the superior, to explain the attraction that each “brother” feels for Origen.

The Hidden Brother: Athenodoros

Another part of Gregory’s “clean-up effort” with respect to the Vita was to eliminate Athenodoros from the account. This is especially noteworthy as Eusebius consistently cites the two sitting together as bishops over the churches of Pontus. The point here isn’t whether this relationship “really” progressed to homosexual sex between the “brothers.” Let’s assume it didn’t. The pairing must have seemed at least “queer” to ignorant barbarians in their remote bishopric. Tertullian reports the pagans' taunts of “See that they love one another … [see that they call them]selves brothers.” There were, after all, many such “brother pairings” linked to some sort of mystical brother-making rite—the apostles Philip and Bartholomew, Cosmas and Damian, Sergius and Bacchus, Cyrus and John the so-called “thaumatourgoi anargyroi,” and of course, Theodore and Athenodoros’s fourth-century “successors” Gregory Nazianzen and Basil the Great.

A Spiritual Brotherhood

It has often been suggested, with good reason, that Gregory and Basil saw themselves as walking in the footsteps of Theodore and Athenodoros. When we read a century later Gregory Nazianzen referencing his “brother” Basil with language that his namesake reserved only for Origen in his letter, we can connect the dots and see the baptism ritual as being something akin to a spiritual marriage: “[w]e became everything to each other: we shared the same lodging, the same table, the same desires, the same goal. Our love for each other grew daily warmer and deeper … We seemed to be two bodies with a single spirit…Each of us was with the other and in the other.”

Again, there is no evidence to suggest that any of these relationships were “carnal” in any way. But it surely must have seemed so to outsiders. And “so appearing” is an entirely subjective experience which manifests itself in a multitude of ways.

The Inevitability of Innuendo

That the English word “buggery” developed, through the intermediacy of the French form bougerie or ‘heresy,’ from reports of “secret rites” of the Bulgarian Cathars shows perhaps the inevitability of the homosexual innuendo with these matters. People of all ages and cultures can’t help but imagine sex taking place when “secret religious mysteries” are invoked.

Conclusion

The implications of Theodore’s baptismal rites, as well as the interpretations and misinterpretations that surrounded them, are significant for understanding early Christian practices and the controversies they sparked. The notion of a “spiritual marriage” between initiates, overseen by a respected teacher like Origen, opens up fascinating avenues for exploring the intersection of theology, ritual, and personal relationships in the early Church. While modern readers may be quick to ascribe contemporary notions of sexuality to these historical accounts, it is crucial to approach them with an awareness of the cultural and historical contexts in which they were situated. The legacy of innuendo and suspicion, as evidenced by the taunts reported by Tertullian and the later controversies surrounding figures like Morton Smith, continues to shape our understanding of these ancient rites and relationships.