Volume 2

150
Life of Jesus Christ
After the repast, Jesus gave an instruction in the hall
opening on the court in presence of the Governor and his
household, all of whom were to be baptized. After that
He went to the place of instruction outside the city where
He found many already waiting for Him, and there, too,
He taught in preparation for Baptism. The people in
bands came and went by turns, proceeding from this place
to the synagogue where they prayed, sprinkled their head
with ashes, and did penance. They repaired afterward to
the bathing garden near the "Place of Grace," where two
by two they performed their ablutions in a bathhouse separated
from each other by a curtain.
When the last band had left the place of instruction,
Jesus and His disciples followed. The baptismal well was
that into which the water from the arm of the Jordan
flowed. The basin here, as in other places, was surrounded
by a canal so broad as to afford a passage for
two, and from it five conduits connected with the basin.
These conduits could be opened or closed at pleasure, and
at the side of each ran a path over the little canal. In the
center of the basin rose a stake which, by a crosspiece
that reached to the, bank, could be made to open and close
the basin.
This reservoir with its five canals had not been
especially constructed for the Baptism. The number five
was a frequent recurrence in Palestine, and the five
aqueducts leading to the Pool of Bethsaida, to John's
fountain in the desert, to the baptismal well of Jesus, bore
reference no doubt to the five Sacred Wounds, or to some
other mystery of religion.
Jesus here gave instructions as an immediate preparation
for Baptism. The neophytes were clothed in long
mantles which they laid aside at the moment of stepping
into the canal, retaining only the covering for the loins
and the little scapular on the breast. Water from the basin
had been let into the canal. On the pathways over it stood