Flashback: the circumcision and baptism of Jesus in film
We celebrated the incarnation of Jesus at Christmas last week. Now we celebrate the initiation rites that draw attention to his physical body.
Happy New Year!
Today is the eighth day of Christmas, which means today, in some churches, is the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ. And in five days, the Eastern churches will mark the end of the Christmas season by celebrating Theophany, which commemorates the baptism of Jesus and the revelation of the Trinity at his baptism.
It is striking, to me, that we have two feasts so close to each other that remind us of how Jesus participated in the initiation rites of two different (but overlapping) faith communities: he was circumcised like all Jewish males, and he was baptized in a ritual that set the template for all the Christians who followed him afterwards.
It is also striking, to me, that these initiation rites are so physical.
We celebrated the incarnation of Jesus just a week ago, at Christmas, but we tend not to focus on the physicality of the baby or the birth-giving so much; indeed, there are traditions going back to the Protoevangelium that go out of their way to obscure it. Mary gives birth privately, maybe even miraculously, and by the time anyone sees the baby Jesus, he is wrapped in swaddling clothes, his body hidden from our view.
There’s no avoiding his body at the circumcision, though. We don’t know how many people witnessed the circumcision of Jesus—it could have happened in the privacy of Mary and Joseph’s home—but the act of removing his foreskin is inherently physical, and draws attention to his humanity (indeed, his gendered humanity) in a very intimate way.
And then there’s the baptism of Jesus—which, yes, has its physical implications, too. We don’t think about it much now, but the early Christians were baptized in the nude, and the ritual itself was probably derived from the Jewish tradition of bathing in a mikveh, which is also done in the nude—so it stands to reason that Jesus was baptized naked, too. It’s also quite possible that he was baptized in front of other people, but even if he wasn’t, his nudity is now depicted in many icons of the baptism, such as the one at my church—so the baptism represents, in a sense, the most public display of Jesus’ body prior to the Crucifixion.
Two years ago, I wrote a couple of Substack posts exploring these themes and looking at how films have (or haven’t) dealt with them—so I figured I’d link to those posts today, particularly for newer subscribers who might not have seen them before.
First up, my post on the tiny number of films that have dealt with the circumcision of Jesus (especially 1977’s Jesus of Nazareth and 2014’s The Savior):
And second, my post on the many, many films in which Jesus wears layers of clothing during his baptism… and the very, very few in which he at least goes shirtless (the post also comments on the depiction of women like Mary bathing in mikvehs in film):
On a related note, I also wrote a post on the nudity of Jesus at his birth, death, and resurrection—and how it has been reflected in films like 2006’s The Nativity Story, 1988’s The Last Temptation of Christ, and 2004’s The Passion of the Christ—for my blog, about twelve years ago. You can read that post here.
Once again, happy new year, and thanks for subscribing.