Sofia Puchkova: The Refashioning of a Potter’s Vessel: Why Did Theodore of Mopsuestia Create a New Baptismal Image?

In his Catechetical Homilies, to explain the meaning of baptism Theodore of Mopsuestia created a new image – the refashioning of a broken potter’s vessel. This image originated in Theodore’s interpretation of Jeremiah’s visit to a potter (Jr. 18, 1-6). My short presentation tackles the question why Theodore created this new baptismal image. To answer this question, I will analyze the influence of Theodore’s doctrine of the Two Ages on his biblical exegesis of Jeremiah’s visit in 14th Catechetical Homily. The analysis will demonstrate that Theodore’s interpretation of this passage largely depends on his idea of the Two Ages. Indeed, the image of the refashioning of a broken vessel illustrates obtaining of the immutability, a feature of human nature in the Second Age. Additionally, I will examine Theodore’s use of the traditional baptismal images in the same homily. This examination will show that Theodore described the baptism as the second birth, the death and resurrection with Christ and the adoption of children, but he never employed such images as the flood, crossing of the Red Sea and circumcision. Interestingly, all the images that Theodore used, as well as the refashioning of a potter’s vessel, illustrate a change of a state of human nature in baptism and thus they fit into the doctrine of the Two Ages. On the other hand, the traditional images of the flood, crossing of the Red Sea and circumcision are absent, because they are not relevant for this doctrine.