by Adolph (von) Harnack
translated and edited by James Moffatt
Second, enlarged and revised English edition;
London: Williams and Norgate / New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1908 (from the 2nd German
edition)..
Theological Translation Library, volumes 19-20
From the German, Die Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten (1902, revised 1906, 1915, and finally 1924)
[[Book 4, Chapter 3, section 3, parts 1-7 (scanned and proofed, Elana Newberger 3/2004), edited RAK 4/2004; checked by Francisco Lameiro 2/2005 (parts 2-7); some ETs still needed, and one Greek passage (Egyptian Church Order), names and British spellings; see further the updated version, which incorporates material from the 1924 final German edition]]
[[97 = 77]]
The first stages in the diffusion of the gospel throughout Palestine (Syria-Palestina) are described, though merely in salient outline, by the Acts of the Apostles, whose narrative I presuppose as quite familiar to my readers. From the outset it was Jerusalem (not the towns of Galilee, as one might imagine) that formed the centre of Christendom in Palestine. It was in Jerusalem that James, the Lord's brother,\2/ took over the government of the church, after the twelve disciples had finally realized that their vocation meant the mission-enterprise of Christianity (probably twelve years after the resurrection, as one early tradition in the Preaching of Peter has it, and not immediately after the resurrection). The choice of James was determined by his relationship to Jesus. He, in turn, was succeeded (60/61 or 61/62) by another relative of Jesus, namely, his cousin Simeon, the son of Cleopas, who was martyred under Trajan at the great age of 120. Thereafter, according to an early tradition,\3/ thirteen Jewish-Christian bishops covered the period between (the tenth year of?) Trajan and the eighteenth year of Hadrian. This statement cannot be correct, and the likelihood is that relatives of Jesus\4/ or presbyters are included in the list.\5/ All these bishops were circumcised persons, which proves that the church was Jewish Christian — as indeed is attested directly for the apostolic age by Paul's epistles and the book of Acts (21.20). It cannot, however, have adhered to the extreme claims of the Jewish Christians; that is, if any basis of fact, however late, underlies the decision of Acts 25.28 f. At the first investment of Jerusalem the Christians forsook the city (Eus. H.E. 3.5, and Epiph. Hœr. 29.7, [[98]] de Mens et Pond. 15,after Hegesippus or Julius Africanus), and emigrated to Pella;\6/ it was only a small number who eventually returned after the city had once more risen from its ruins.\7/ In any case, the local church was small. We have no means of ascertaining its previous size, but the exodus of 68 CE precludes any large estimate.\8/ All we know is that it comprised priests (Acts 6.7), Pharisees (15.5), and Greek-speaking Jews from the Diaspora (6.5), and that it was not rich.\9/ It disappeared completely, after Hadrian, on the conclusion of the war with Barcochba, had forbidden any circumcised person to so much as set foot within the city.
\1/ Cp. Map 3. See Schürer's Gesch. d. jüd. Volkes, 1 (\3/) (1900), 2(\3/) (1898); Mommsen's Röm. Geschichte, 5, pp.487 f. [ Eng. trans., vol. 2, pp. 151 f.]; Marquardt's Röm. Staatsverwaltung, 1, pp.247 f.; and the map in Klostermann's edition of the Onomasticon of Eusebius (1904).
\2/ His episcopal chair was still shown in the days of Eusebius ( H.E. 7.19).
\3/ Details in my Chronologie, 1, pp.129 f., 218 f.
\4/ Zahn's (Forschungen 6.300) idea is that the number includes the names of contemporary bishops throughout Palestine.
\5/ Cp. Knopf, Nachapost. Zeitalter, pp. 25 f.
\6/ At the outbreak of the Jewish war Pella , like some other Hellenistic and pagan towns, was surprised by the Jewish revolutionaries, but it can hardly have been in the hands of the rebels when the Christians took shelter there. They sought refuge in a pagan town. This is all we can say with any show of probability. According to Renan (Antéchrist, p. 237), "no wiser choice could have been made." Scythopolis and Pella were the nearest neutral cities to Jerusalem . "But Pella , by its position across the Jordan , must have offered much greater quiet than Scythopolis, which had become one of the Roman strongholds. Besides, Pella was a free city, though apparently it had allied itself to Agrippa II. To take refuge here was to express open horror at the revolution."
\7/ This is clearly brought out by Epiph. Hœr. 39.7; also de Mens. et Pond. 14 f. {line 400}, where we learn that there were only seven poor synagogues and one little church in Jerusalem when Hadrian visited the city prior to the revolt of Barcochba. The church was on Mount Zion , and the congregation is said to have been composed of those who had returned from Pella (Μετὰ δὲ τὴν ἐρήμωσιν ῾Ιερουσαλὴμ ἐπαναστρέψαντες, ὡς ἔφην, εἰς τὰ ῾Ιεροσόλυμα σημεῖα μεγάλα, ὡς προεῖπον, ἐπετέλουν = "After the devastation of Jerusalem when they returned, as I said, into Jerusalem, they performed great signs, as I reported earlier"). Eusebius (Demonstr. 3.5.108 [124d]), on the other hand, relates: καὶ ἡ ἱστορία δὲ κατέχει ὡς καὶ μεγίστη τις ἦν ἐκκλησία Χριστοῦ ἐν τοῖς ῾Ιεροσολύμοις ἀπὸ ᾿Ιουδαίων συγκροτου μένη μέχρι τῶν χρόνων τῆς κατ’ ᾿Αδριανὸν πολιορκίας {"And the record shows that there was also an impressive church of Christ in Jerusalem; which was composed of Jews/Judeans, down to the times of the siege of the city under Hadrian"} (cp. Theophania 5.45).
\8/ Eusebius and Epiphanius (or their authorities) explicitly assert that all the Christians of Jerusalem withdrew to Pella . The statements of Acts (2.41, 47; 4.4; 6.7) upon the increase and size of the church at Jerusalem are unreliable. The "myriads" of Christians mentioned in 21.20 are not simply Jerusalemites, but also foreigners who had arrived for the feast. But even so, the number is exaggerated.
\9/ Cp. the collection for Jerusalem , which Paul promoted so assiduously. Gal. 2.10 is a passage which will always serve as a strong proof that the name "Ebionite" is not derived from a certain "Ebion," but was given to Jewish Christians on account of their poverty. (As against Hilgenfeld, and Dalman: Worte Jesu, 1898, p. 42; Eng. trans., pp. 52, 53).
The new pagan city of Ælia Capitolina, founded on the site of Jerusalem, never rose to any great importance.\10/ Gentile [[99]] Christians, however, at once settled there, and the date at which the first Gentile Christian bishop (Marcus) entered on his duties is fixed by Eusebius, on reliable tradition, as the nineteenth year of Hadrian's reign, or one year after the war had ended. But before we put together the known facts regarding the church at Jerusalem , we must survey the spread of Jewish Christianity throughout Palestine .
\10/ Cp. Mommsen's Röm. Geschichte 5, p. 546 [ Eng. trans., 2.225]: "The new city of Hadrian continued to exist, but it did not prosper."
"Churches in Judæa" (where there were numerous villages, Tac., Hist. 5.8) are mentioned by Paul in Gal. 1.22 (cf. Acts 11.29), and in 1 Thess. 2.14 he writes: ὑμεῖς γὰρ μιμηταὶ ἐγενήθητε, ἀδελφοί, τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν τοῦ θεοῦ τῶν οὐσῶν ἐν τῇ ᾿Ιουδαίᾳ ἐν Χριστῷ ᾿Ιησοῦ, ὅτι τὰ αὐτὰ ἐπάθετε καὶ ὑμεῖς ὑπὸ τῶν ἰδίων συμφυλετῶν καθὼς καὶ αὐτοὶ ὑπὸτῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων ....{ = "For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus which are in Judea; for you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews....) In Acts we hear of churches on the seaboard, in Galilee and in Samaria. The larger number of these were Hellenized\11/ during the following century and passed over into the main body of Christendom.\12/ When we [[100]] ask what became of the Jewish Christians who could not agree to this transition,\13/ we are obliged to cast back for a moment to the removal of the Christian community from Jerusalem .
\11/ The Hellenizing forces were already in operation; in the independent Greek cities of Palestine and the neighbourhood lying over against the Jewish districts, the large municipal communities and even their rural surroundings were under Hellenistic influence. All that is known of their size, composition, and history will be found in Schürer 2, pp. 72-175 (Eng. trans., div. 2, vol. 1, pp. 57 f.).The following are the 33 (29?) towns:—Raphia, Gaza , Anthedon, Ascalon, Azotus, Jamnia, Joppa, Apollonia, Straton's Tower (Cæsarea), Dora, and Ptolemais in the maritime districts; also the cities of the so-called Decapolis , i.e., Damascus , Hippus, Gadara , Abila, Raphana, Kanata (?), Kanatha (=Kanawat), Scythopolis, Pella (=Butis), Dium, Gerasa, and Philadelphia ( Arabia ). Further, Sebaste ( Samaria ), built by Herod, Gaba (on Carmel ), Esbon (=Heshbon), Antipatris, Phasælis, Cæsarea Paneas, Julias (= Bethsaida ), Sepphoris (the leading city of Galilee , afterwards called Diocæsarea), Julias (=Livias), and Tiberias (rivalling Sepphoris in size and position; its population predominantly Jewish, despite its Greek constitution). In the case of some (e.g., Antipatris, Phasælis, and Julias), it is doubtful whether they had a Greek constitution and independent position. In the post-Neronic age some other towns acquired the rank of independent communes; e.g., Neapolis (Sichem), Capitolias in the Decapolis , Diospolis (Lydda), Eleutheropolis, and Nicopolis (Emmaus), besides Ælia. Greeks also resided in other cities, e.g., in Jericho .
\12/ Till then the brothers and relatives of Jesus (who took part in the Christian mission; cp. 1 Cor. 9.5) played a leading rôle also in these Christian communities outside Jerusalem ; as may be inferred even from the epistle of Africanus to Aristides (Eus., H.E. 1.7.14), where we are told how the relatives of Jesus from Nazareth and Kochaba scattered over the country, and how they bore the title of "desposunoi" ὀλίγοι δὴ τῶν ἐπιμελῶν ἰδιωτικὰς ἑαυτοῖς ἀπογραφὰς ἢ μνημονεύσαντες τῶν ὀνομάτων ἢ ἄλλως ἔχοντες ἐξ ἀντιγράφων, ἐναβρύνονται σῳζομένῃ τῇ μνήμῃ τῆς εὐγενείας· ὧν ἐτύγχανον οἱ προειρημένοι, δεσπόσυνοι καλούμενοι διὰ τὴν πρὸς τὸ σωτήριον γένος συνάφειαν ἀπό τε Ναζάρων καὶ Κωχαβα κωμῶν ᾿Ιουδαϊκῶν τῇ λοιπῇ γῇ ἐπιφοιτήσαντες καὶ τὴν προκειμένην γενεαλογίαν ἔκ τε τῆς Βίβλου τῶν ἡμερῶν, ἐς ὅσον ἐξικνοῦντο, ἐξηγησάμενοι. The tradition of Hegesippus is quite clear. He begins by recounting that "Those who were related to the Lord in the flesh" met after the death of James to elect his successor "for the greater number of them were still alive" (Eus., H.E. 3.11: Μετὰ τὴν ᾿Ιακώβου μαρτυρίαν καὶ τὴν αὐτίκα γενομένην ἅλωσιν τῆς ῾Ιερουσαλὴμ λόγος κατέχει τῶν ἀποστόλων καὶ τῶν τοῦ κυρίου μαθητῶν τοὺς εἰς ἔτι τῷ βίῳ λειπομένους ἐπὶ ταὐτὸν πανταχόθεν συνελθεῖν ἅμα τοῖς πρὸς γένους κατὰ σάρκα τοῦ κυρίου -- πλείους γὰρ καὶ τούτων περιῆσαν εἰς ἔτι τότε τῷ βίῳ). Then he tells of two grandsons of Jude, the brother of Jesus, who were brought before Domitian (3.19, 20). Finally, he states that, after being released by Domitian, they "ruled over the churches, inasmuch as they were both witnesses and also relations of the Lord" (3.20.6: τοὺς δὲ ἀπολυθέντας ἡγήσασθαι τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν, ὡς ἂν δὴ μάρτυρας ὁμοῦ καὶ ἀπὸ γένους ὄντας τοῦ κυρίου); cp. also 3.32.6: ἔρχονται οὖν καὶ προηγοῦνται πάσης ἐκκλησίας ὡς μάρτυρες καὶ ἀπὸ γένους τοῦ κυρίου (" So they come and assume the leadership in every church as witnesses and relatives of the Lord "). This statement about ruling is vague, but it is hardly possible to take προηγοῦνται merely as denoting a general position of honour. Probably they too had the rank of "apostles" in the Christian churches; in 1 Cor. 9.5, at any rate, Paul groups them with the latter as missionaries.
\13/ A priori, it is likely that there were also Jewish Christians who spoke Greek (and Greek alone). And this follows from the fact that a Greek version of the gospel according to the Hebrews existed during the second century. Outside Palestine and the neighbouring provinces (including Egypt), Jewish Christians who held aloof from the main body of the church were, in all likelihood, so few during the second century that we need take no account of them in this connection. Jerome (Ep. ad Aug. 112, c. 13) does assert that Nazarenes were to be found in every Jewish synagogue throughout the East. “What am I to say about the Ebionites who allege themselves to be Christians? To this day the sect exists in all the synagogues of the Jews, under the title of ‘the Minim’; the Pharisees still curse it, and the people dub its adherents ‘Nazarenes,’” etc. (“Quid dicam de Hebionitis, qui Christianos esse se simulant? usque hodie per totas orientis synagogas inter Judaeos heresis est, quae dicitur Minaeorum et a Pharisaeis nunc usque damnatur, quos vulgo Nazaraeos nuncupant”). But this statement is to be accepted with great caution, and it must be qualified. Jewish Christianity also got to the length of India (= South Arabia or perhaps the Axumite kingdom, Eus., H.E. 10.3; Socrat., 1.19; Philostorgius, 2.6), as well as Rome . But the circles which it formed there were quite insignificant.
Eusebius writes as follows (H.E. 3.5.3): τοῦ λαοῦ τῆς ἐν ῾Ιεροσολύμοις ἐκκλησίας κατά τινα χρησμὸν τοῖς αὐτόθι
δοκίμοις δι’ ἀποκαλύψεως
ἐκδοθέντα πρὸ τοῦ πολέμου μεταναστῆναι τῆς πόλεως καί τινα τῆς Περαίας πόλιν οἰκεῖν κεκελευσμένου,
Πέλλαν αὐτὴν ὀνομάζουσιν, τῶν εἰς Χριστὸν πεπιστευκότων ἀπὸ τῆς ῾Ιερουσαλὴμ μετῳκισμένων ... ("The
people belonging to the church at Jerusalem had been ordered by an
oracle revealed to approved men on the spot before the war broke out, to
leave the city and dwell in a town of Perœa called Pella.
Then after those who believed in Christ had withdrawn thither,"
etc.). Epiphanius writes thus (Hœr.
29.7 [vol. 1, p. 330, lines 4ff]):
ἔστιν δὲ αὕτη ἡ αἵρεσις ἡ Ναζωραίων ἐν τῇ Βεροιαίων περὶ τὴν Κοίλην Συρίαν καὶ ἐν τῇ
Δεκαπόλει περὶ τὰ τῆς
Πέλλης μέρη καὶ ἐν τῇ
Βασανίτιδι ἐν τῇ λεγομένῃ Κωκάβῃ, Χωχάβῃ δὲ ῾Εβραϊστὶ λεγομένῃ. ἐκεῖθεν γὰρ ἡ ἀρχὴ
γέγονε, μετὰ τὴν ἀπὸ τῶν
῾Ιεροσολύμων μετάστασιν πάντων τῶν μαθητῶν ἐν Πέλλῃ ᾠκηκότων, Χριστοῦ φήσαντος καταλεῖψαι τὰ
῾Ιεροσόλυμα καὶ ἀναχωρῆσαι δι’ ἣν
ἤμελλε πάσχειν πολιορκίαν. καὶ ἐκ τῆς τοιαύτης ὑποθέσεως τὴν Περαίαν οἰκήσαντες ἐκεῖσε, ὡς
ἔφην, διέτριβον.
("Now this sect of the Nazarenes exists in Berœa in Cœle-Syria, and in
Decapolis in the district of Pella, and in Kochaba of Basanitis —
called Khoraba in Hebrew. For thence it originated after the
migration from Jerusalem of all the disciples who resided
at Pella, Christ having instructed them to leave Jerusalem and retire
from it on account of the impending siege. It was owing to this counsel
that they went away, as I have said, to reside for a while at Pella").
Also Hœr. 18.1 (vol 1, p. 215, lines 14ff):
τοὺς ῾Ημεροβαπτιστὰς καλουμένην τῶν
Νασαραίων, οἵτινες ᾿Ιουδαῖοί εἰσι τὸ γένος, ἀπὸ τῆς Γαλααδίτιδος καὶ
Βασανίτιδος καὶ τῶν ἐπέκεινα τοῦ
᾿Ιορδάνου ὁρμώμενοι
("the so-called Hemerobaptists of the Nasarenes, who are Jewish by
race, came forth from Galaaditis and Basanitis and other places beyond
the Jordan"; so that they were a pre-Christian sect!); and Hœr. 30.2
(vol 1 page 335 lines 6ff):
ἐπειδὴ γὰρ πάντες οἱ εἰς Χριστὸν πεπιστευκότες τὴν Περαίαν κατ’ ἐκεῖνο καιροῦ κατῴκησαν τὸ πλεῖστον, ἐν
Πέλλῃ τινὶ πόλει καλουμένῃ τῆς
Δεκαπόλεως τῆς ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ γεγραμμένης πλησίον τῆς Βαταναίας καὶ Βασανίτιδος χώρας, τὸ
τηνικαῦτα ἐκεῖ μεταναστάντων καὶ ἐκεῖσε διατριβόντων αὐτῶν, γέγονεν ἐκ
τούτου πρόφασις τῷ ᾿Εβίωνι. καὶ ἄρχεται μὲν τὴν κατοίκησιν
ἔχειν ἐν Κωκάβῃ τινὶ κώμῃ ἐπὶ τὰ
μέρη τῆς Καρναὶμ τῆς καὶ ᾿Ασταρὼς ἐν τῇ Βασανίτιδι χώρᾳ, ὡς ἡ ἐλθοῦσα εἰς ἡμᾶς γνῶσις περιέχει
[meaning that the Nazarenes also were to be looked for there]. ἔνθεν
ἄρχεται τῆς κακῆς αὐτοῦ
διδασκαλίας, ὅθεν δῆθεν καὶ οἱ Ναζωραῖοι, οἳ ἄνω μοι προδεδήλωνται. συναφθεὶς γὰρ οὗτος ἐκείνοις
καὶ ἐκεῖνοι τούτῳ, ἑκάτερος ἀπὸ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ μοχθηρίας τῷ ἑτέρῳ μετέδωκε.
καὶ διαφέρονται μὲν ἕτερος πρὸς
τὸν ἕτερον κατά τι, ἐν δὲ τῇ κακονοίᾳ ἀλλήλους ἀπεμάξαντο. ἤδη δέ μοι καὶ ἐν ἄλλοις
λόγοις καὶ κατὰ τὰς ἄλλας
αἱρέσεις περὶ τῆς τοποθεσίας Κωκάβων καὶ τῆς ᾿Αραβίας διὰ πλάτους εἴρηται
(“For when all who believed in Christ had settled down about
that time in Peræa, the majority of the emigrants taking up
their abode at Pella, a town belonging to the Decapolis mentioned in
the gospel, near Batanea and the district of Basanitis, ... Ebion got
his excuse and opportunity. At first their abode was at Kochaba, a
village in the district of Carnaim, Arnem, and Astaroth, in the region
of Basanitis, according to the information which we have received. ...
But I have spoken, in other connections and with regard to other
heresies, of the [[102]]
locality of Kochaba and Arabia ").
Also Epiph., de Mens. et Pond. 15 (lines 395ff):
῾Ηνίκα γὰρ ἔμελλεν ἡ πόλις ἁλίσκεσθαι ὑπὸ τῶν ῾Ρωμαίων καὶ ἐρημοῦσθαι προεχρηματίσθησαν ὑπὸ ἀγγέλου τοῦ
Θεοῦ πάντες οἱ μαθηταὶ μεταστῆναι
ἀπὸ τῆς πόλεως, μελλούσης ἄρδην ἀπόλλυσθαι. Οἵτινες μετανάσται
γενόμενοι ᾤκησαν ἐν Πέλλῃ τῇ προγεγραμμένῃ πόλει, πέραν τοῦ ᾿Ιορδάνου· ἡ δὲ πόλις ἐκ Δεκαπόλεως λέγεται
εἶναι
("For when the city was about to be
captured and sacked by the Romans, all the disciples were
warned beforehand by an angel to remove from the city, doomed
as it was to utter destruction. On migrating from it they settled at
Pella , the town already indicated, across the Jordan . It is said to
belong to Decapolis. ").
Cp. lastly Epiph., Hœr. 30.18 (vol. 1, p. 357, lines 12ff):
[The Ebionites] “spring for the most part from Batanea\14/ [so
apparently we must read, and not NabateaV]
and Paneas, as well as from Moabitis and Kochaba in Basanitis on the
other side of Adraa"
(Οὗτος μὲν οὖν ὁ ᾿Εβίων καὶ αὐτὸς
ἐν τῇ ᾿Ασίᾳ ἔσχεν τὸ κήρυγμα καὶ
῾Ρώμῃ, τὰς δὲ ῥίζας τῶν ἀκανθωδῶν παραφυάδων ἔχουσιν ἀπό τε τῆς Ναβαταίας καὶ Πανεάδος τὸ
πλεῖστον, Μωαβίτιδός τε καὶ Κωκάβων ἐν τῇ Βασανίτιδι γῇ ἐπέκεινα
᾿Αδραῶν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τῇ Κύπρῳ).
\14/ The Christian inscriptions found in Batanea include some from the pre-Constantine period; cp. Le Bas, No. 2145.
These passages and their sources (or source), together with the whole geographical and political situation, afford a wide field for discussion and a still wider for conjecture.\15/ The above-mentioned Kochaba is hardly to be identified with the Kochaba of Julius Africanus.\16/ But their importance for our present purpose lies in the fact that they attest the scattering of most of the Jewish Christians resident in Palestine, west of [[103]] the Jordan as well as at Jerusalem, in connection with and in consequence of the great war, and also their establishment, especially at Pella\17/ in Perea (or Decapolis), at Kochaba in Basanitis,\18/ and in Berea and its surroundings (Cœle-Syria).\19/ Epiphanius, it is true, adds Batanea, Paneas, and Moabitis, but we cannot be sure that the dispersed Jewish Christians reached these districts at the same early period.\20/ Flying from [[104]] hatred and persecution at the hands of the Palestinian Jews, they rightly supposed that they would fare, not comfortably indeed, but at least better in the Greek towns of the East and in the country. This migration, which had been carried out once before in the dispersion of the Jerusalem church after the outburst against Stephen, was repeated in a later age, when a number of Christian heretics during the fourth and fifth centuries fled from the state church into the eastern districts across the Jordan. All these movements of flight presuppose a group of people comparatively small in numbers, with little to lose in the shape of property. They lead us to form a moderate estimate of the numbers of these "Ebionites."\21/ The latter, broken up more than once and subsequently exposed in part to foreign influences, survived in these districts along the Jordan and the Dead Sea as late as the fourth century, and even later. Persecuted by the Jews, treated by the Gentile Christians as semi-Jews (and Jews indeed they were, by nationality and language [Aramaic]), they probably dragged out a wretched existence. The Gentile Christian bishops (even those of Palestine ) and teachers rarely noticed them. It is remarkable how little Eusebius, for example, knows about them, while even Justin and Jerome after him evince but a slender acquaintance with their ways of life. Origen and Epiphanius knew most about them. The former gives an account of their numbers, which is more important than the statement of Justin in his Apology (1.53.3: πλείονάς τε καὶ ἀληθεστέρους τοὺς ἐξ ἐθνῶν τῶν ἀπὸ ᾿Ιουδαίων καὶ Σαμαρέων Χριστιανοὺς εἰδότες; see above, p. 4). He remarks (Tom. 1.1 in Joh., ed. Brooke, 1.pp. 2 f.), in connection with the 144,000 sealed saints of the Apocalypse, that this could not mean Jews by birth or Jewish Christians, since one might quite well hazard the conjecture that there was not that number of Jewish Christians in existence. Now this remark furnishes us with a rough idea of the number of Jewish [[105]] Christians during the first half of the third century. Origen knew the districts where Jewish Christians chiefly resided, as is proved by his travels from Cæsarea to Bostra. He also knew the extent of the Jewish Christian synagogues in Alexandria and Lower Egypt. And these were their headquarters. Besides, we can appeal to yet another estimate of their numbers in this connection. Justin, himself a Samaritan by birth, observes in his Apology ( 1. 26) that "almost all the Samaritans, with only a few foreigners, hail Simon Magus as their chief god." A hundred years later, Origen writes thus (c. Cels. 1.57 ): "At present the number of Simon's disciples all over the world does not amount, in my opinion, to thirty. Perhaps that is even putting it too high. There are extremely few in Palestine , and in the other parts of the world, where he would fain have exalted his name, they are totally unknown."\22/
\15/ For examples of these, see Zahn's Forschungen 6, p. 270, and Renan's Les Evangiles, pp. 39 f.
\16/ There is a Kôkab el Hawâ S.E. of Tabor (cp. Baedeker's Palestine (\5), p. 252), but Kâkab is still less distant (only 3 hours north) from Nazareth ; it is natural, therefore, to take this as the village mentioned by Africanus (in Eus., H.E. 1.7) along with Nazareth . We can hardly think of the Kokaba of Epiphanius, which lay east of the JordanF, as Africanus mentions Nazareth and the other village in the same breath as the home of the relatives of Jesus, who were Galileans. It must therefore be regarded as accidental that the home of the relatives of Jesus and also a place east of the Jordan, where many Christians afterwards resided, were called by almost the same name. — Note, as a curious detail, that Conon, whose martyrdom is put by legend under Decius, and who lived and died as a gardener at Magydus in Pamphilia, declared at his trial that he came from Nazareth and was a relative of Jesus (cp. von Gebhardt's Acta Mart. Selecta, p. 130).
\17/ From Pella came the Aristo who composed, in the first half of the second century, the dialogue between the Hebrew Christian Jason and the Alexandrian Jew Papiscus. Only a few fragments of it are extant, unfortunately. Perhaps Aristo himself was a Jew by birth who had gone over to Gentile Christianity. This dialogue ends with the triumph of Jason.
\18/ Kochaba (or Kochabe, a favourite place-name) is not the Kôkab situated about twenty kilometres [12½ miles] S.W. of Damascus (cp. Baedeker, pp. 295,348, and the map), where Paul's conversion was located during the Middle Ages, for this spot disagrees with the detailed statements of Epiphanius, and, besides, Eusebius writes as follows in his Onomasticon (p.172 line 2): Χωβά ἥ ἐστιν ἐν ἀριστερᾷ Δαμασκοῦ. ἔστιν δὲ καὶ Χωβὰ κώμη ἐν τοῖς αὐτοῖς μέρεσιν, ἐν ᾗ εἰσιν ῾Εβραίων οἱ εἰς Χριστὸν πιστεύσαντες, ᾿Εβιωναῖοι καλούμενοι ("Khoba, which is on the left of Damascus. There is also a village of Khoba in the same district where Hebrews are to be found, who believe in Christ; their name is Ebionites." So Jerome). This Khoba, as Fürrer kindly informs me, is the modern Kâbun, north of Damascus. With this all the statements of Epiphanius agree (see further, Hœr. 40.1: 3 [vol. 2, p. 81, lines 15ff, on the "Archontics"]: καὶ ἀπελθὼν κατῴκησεν ἐν τῇ ᾿Αραβίᾳ ἐν Κωκάβῃ, ἔνθα αἱ τῶν ᾿Εβιωναίων τε καὶ Ναζωραίων ῥίζαι ἐνήρξαντο = ... in Arabia at Kochaba, where the origins of the Ebionites and Nazarenes lay). The locality, however, has not been rediscovered. Its site awaits future research, very possibly westward of Adraa (Der'at; cp. Baedeker, p. 186) and in the vicinity of Tell-el-Asch'ari, which lies not far N.N.W. from Der'at, and may be identified with Karnaim-Astaroth (Baedeker, p. 183). Basanitis, or Batanæa, belonged to Arabia in the days of Epiphanius. Zahn (Forsch. 1, .pp. 330 f.) is inclined to look for Kochaba much farther south; but in order to make such a site probable, he has to cast doubts upon the precise language of Epiphanius. For this there is no obvious reason, especially as Epiphanius (Hœr. 30.2) observes that elsewhere he has given an explicit topographical account of Kochaba. Fürrer kindly informs me that "Kochaba, or Chorabe in Hebrew, may be identified with Kharaba about 8 kilometres N.W. of Bostra. Kharaba, indeed, lies pretty far from Astaroth (Tel Astura) and Karnaim (Dschurên in Ledscha), E. and S. of these places. The name favours the identification. The form Kochaba has disappeared in the course of time." Cp. Renan, 43 f.
\19/ It is doubtful if this migration took place at so early a period. It may have occurred later. Jerome found Jewish Christians in Berœa (de Vir. Ill . 3).
\20/ Moabitis owes its mention perhaps to the impression produced by the fact that the Elkesaites (Sampsæans) were mainly to be found there; cp. Hœr. 53.1 (vol. 2, p. 314, lines 24ff): Σαμψαίων τινῶν ἐν τῇ Περαίᾳ, περὶ ὧν ἤδη ἐν ταῖς ἄλλαις αἱρέσεσιν ἐπεμνήσθημεν, τῶν δὴ καὶ ᾿Ελκεσαίων καλουμένων, αἵρεσίς τις ὑπάρχει ἐν τῇ Περαίᾳ οὕτω καλουμένῃ χώρᾳ πέραν τῆς ἁλυκῆς ἤτοι νεκρᾶς καλουμένης θαλάσσης, ἔν <τε> τῇ Μωαβίτιδι χώρᾳ περὶ τὸν χειμάρρουν ᾿Αρνὼν καὶ ἐπέκεινα ἐν τῇ ᾿Ιτουραίᾳ καὶ Ναβατίτιδι, ὡς καὶ ἤδη μοι πολλάκις περὶ τούτων δεδήλωται
\21/ I need not raise the vexed question as to the relationship between Nazarenes and Ebionites.
("Certain Sampsæans in Peræa ... beyond the Dead Sea in Moabitis, in the vicinity of the Arnon torrent and across the borders in Ituræa [[105b]] and Nabatitis ..."). Whether the sect of the "Peratæ," first mentioned by Clem. Alex. (Strom. 7.17.108) has anything to do with Peræa, as Hort and Mayor suppose (Comment. on Strom. 7, p. 354, 1902), is uncertain. Clement himself thinks that the name arose from some locality.
\22/ Cp. with this Tertullian's notice (de Anima, 7) — though it is not, of course, equally important — of the sect of Menander, which must be also sought in Palestine ( Samaria ) especially. He calls Menander's adherents "paucissimi" {("very few")} and adds: "Suspectam faciam tantam raritatem securissimi et tutissimi sacramenti [i.e., Menander's baptismal rite] . . . . cum contra omnes iam nationes adscendant in montem domini" ("I think it is suspicious when a rite of such protective and saving efficacy is so seldom observed . . . . when, on the contrary, all nations are going up to the mountain of the Lord").
{extra space}
We now come back to Ælia-Jerusalem and to the Gentile Christian communities of Palestine which replaced the Jewish Christians. Marcus (135/136 C.E.) was the first Gentile Christian president in Ælia.\23/ Like the town, the church of Ælia never attained any importance, as is abundantly plain from the negative evidence of Eusebius's Church-History, even when we take into account the fact that Eusebius was bishop of Cæsarea, the natural rival of Ælia. The latter was called “Ælia” even in ecclesiastical terminology (cp., e.g., Eus., H.E. 2.12.3; Dionys. Alex., ibid. 7.5 ; Mart. Pal. 11, though "Jerusalem" also occurs); which shows that even the church [[106]] at first held that the old tradition had been broken.\24/ Nevertheless, as is well known, the sacred Christian sites\25/ were sought out during the second and third centuries; some of them were actually found and visited. A certain amount of theological activity is attested by the existence of a library which bishop Alexander established in Ælia at the opening of the third century (Eus., H.E. 6.20).\26/
\23/ The episcopal list (cp. my Chronologie 1, pp. 220 f.) up to 250 C.E. shows nothing but Greco-Roman names: Cassianus, Publius, Maximus, Julianus, Gaius, Symmachus, Gaius, Julianus, Capito, Maximus, Antoninus, Valens, Dolichianus, Narcissus, Dius, Germanion, Gordius, Alexander. Then come four names — Mazabanes, Hymenæus, Zabdas, and Hermon — two of which, of course, are Syrian.
\24/ By 300 C.E. the name " Jerusalem " had become wholly unfamiliar in wide circles. A good example of this is afforded by Mart. Pal. 11.10, which tells how a confessor described himself to the Roman governor as a citizen of Jerusalem (meaning the heavenly Jerusalem ). "The magistrate, however, thought it was an earthly city, and sought carefully to discover what city it could be, and wherever it could be situated." Even were the anecdote proved to be fictitious, it is still conclusive.
\25/ Eusebius (H.E. 6.2, apropos of Alexander of Cappadocia) gives an early instance of this, in the year 212/213. In consequence, the repute of the Jerusalem church must have gradually revived or arisen during the course of the third century. The first serious evidence of it occurs in the case of Firmilian of Cæsarea (Cyprian's Ep. 75.6), who upbraids the Roman church with failing to observe the exact methods followed by the church of Jerusalem. But even this evidence must not be overrated. Prominent Cappadocian Christians had been for long in close touch with Palestine. The real revival of the Jerusalem church belongs to the age just before Constantine, when the worship of heroes, martyrs, and sacred relics became part and parcel of the faith. Constantine then did his utmost to exalt Jerusalem.
\26/ We have only one important early trace of this library, and even it is enigmatic. It is to be found in the abrupt and paradoxical statement of Cod. Ambros. H. 150. Inf. Sæc. 9: "In commentariis Victorini inter plurima hæc etiam scripta reperimus: invenimus in membranis Alexandri episcopi qui fuit in Hierusalem quod transcripsit manu sua de exemplaribus apostolorum" {[give an ET]} (whereupon a perverse chronology of the life of Jesus follows); cp. von Dobschütz in Texte u. Unters. 11.1.
Once the metropolitan system came to be organized, the bishop of Cæsarea was metropolitan of Syria-Palestina;\27/ but it is quite clear, from the history of Eusebius, that the bishop of Ælia not merely stood next to him, but somehow shared with him the [[107]] management of the synod. And as time went on, he gradually eclipsed his rival.\28/ Under Origen, Cæsarea became a second Alexandria in point of theological learning and activity. Pamphilus, who founded the great local library there for the purpose of biblical interpretation and in order to preserve the works of Origen, has the credit of having adhered firmly to the traditions of his great master, and of having made the work of Eusebius possible.
\27/ The prestige of Cæsarea dates from the days of Herod the Great, who rebuilt the city on an imposing scale. It was the headquarters of the Roman procurators, and consequently became the ecclesiastical capital. Tacitus, (Hist. 2.78) calls it "Judææ caput" {="chief city of Juaea"}; while after Severus Alexander it was the capital of the province Syria-Palestina. The city was always predominantly Greek, not Jewish; hence it was possible to master and massacre the local Jews at the outbreak of the Jewish war {Josephus??}. Acts relates how the first real Gentile Christian was converted at Cæsarea, and that his conversion became the basis of the Gentile mission (Acts 10). He was the military captain of the place! The troops under command of the procurator were stationed at Cæsarea.
\28/ The metropolitan nexus cannot be traced earlier than c. 190 C.E. (the Paschal controversy). Eusebius (5.23) tells how Theophilus of Cæsarea and Narcissus of Jerusalem were then at the head of the Palestinian churches and synod. In noticing the synodal communication (5.23), he puts Narcissus first, while he distinguishes the bishops of Tyre and Ptolemais, who attended the synod, from the Palestinian bishops. The communication is interesting, as it incidentally mentions a constant official intercourse between the provincial churches of Palestine and the church of Alexandria . The leading bishops of Palestine were favourable to Origen. When he was in Cæsarea, in 215/216, he preached in church, though a layman, "at the request of the bishops" (of the local synod in session). Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem , and Theoktistus, bishop of Cæsarea (mentioned in this order), defended this permission against the complaints of Demetrius, the bishop of Alexandria , in a joint letter (Eus., H.E. 6.19.16 f.). The consecration of Origen to the office of presbyter seems also to have taken place at a synod in Cæsarea (Eus., 6.23). Eusebius, however, puts the matter very strangely: τὴν διὰ Παλαιστίνης, πρεσβείου χειροθεσίαν ἐν Καισαρείᾳ πρὸς τῶν τῇδε ἐπισκόπων ἀναλαμβάνει {[supply ET]}
We have also to assume a Palestinian synod about the year 231/232, which refused to recognize the condemnation of Origen by Demetrius (cp. Jerome's Epp. 33.4). In his epistle to Stephanus (Eus., H.E. 7.5.1), Dionysius of Alexandria puts Theoktistus, bishop of Cæsarea, before Mazabanes, bishop of Ælia. But in the synodal document of the great Eastern synod of Antioch in 268 (Eus., 7.30.2), the bishop of Jerusalem precedes the bishop of Cæsarea, while at the synod of Nicæa Macarius of Jerusalem voted before Eusebius of Cæsarea. Eusebius only gives the episcopal list of Cæsarea as far back as 190 C.E., and that of Jerusalem as far back as James. But did Eusebius know of bishops at Caesarea before 190? I pass over, as untrustworthy, the statement of Eutychius (cp. my Chronol. 1, p. 222) that Demetrius of Alexandria addressed a circular letter to Victor of Rome, Maxim(in)us of Antioch, and "Gabius" (Gaius?) of Jerusalem.
We know nothing about the size of the Jerusalem church or the percentage of Christians in the city. But until the intervention of Constantine they were unable to secure possession of the holy sepulchre (or what they both took to be its site; the pagans had erected a temple to Venus on it; cp. Eus., Vit. Const. 3.26), which shows their lack of power within the city.\29/
\29/ The Christian community in Cæsarea seems to have been more influential. According to Socrates (3.23), who depends upon Eusebius, the later Neoplatonist Porphyry {early 3rd century} was beaten by Christians in Cæsarea.
[[108]] In Acts we hear of Christians, outside Jerusalem , at Samaria (and in Samaritan villages; cp. 8.25), Lydda (Diospolis), Saron,\30/ Joppa, and Cæsarea. Codex D of the New Testament locates Mnason, the old disciple (Acts 21.16), at an unnamed village between Cæsarea and Jerusalem .
\30/ Acts 9.35 seems to take Saron as a group of places.
At Nicæa there were present the bishops of Jerusalem, Neapolis\31/ (Sichem), Sebaste (Samaria),\32/ Cæsarea, Gadara, Ascalon, Nicopolis, Jamnia, Eleutheropolis, Maximianopolis, Jericho, Sebulon, Lydda, Azotus, Scythopolis, Gaza, Aila, and Capitolias.\33/ Elsewhere we have direct or inferential evidence\34/ for the presence of Christians (though in very small numbers at particular spots) at Sichar ('Asker), Bethlehem, Anea near Eleutheropolis in the district of Beth Gubrin, Batanea\35/ near Cæsarea (Aulana), Anim, Jattir, and Phæno. Eusebius (H.E. 6.11.3) mentions bishops of churches which were situated round (πέριξ ) Jerusalem , even in the year 212/213; but we do not know who are meant. Similarly, in Mart. Pal. 1.3, he mentions τῶν ἐπιχωρίων ἐκκλησιῶν ἄρχοντες, "rulers of the country churches" (in the neighbourhood of Cæsarea), who were martyred at Cæsarea under Diocletian. But unfortunately he does not specify the localities. Nor do we know anything about the [[109]] church of Asclepius , the Marcionite bishop who was martyred in the persecution of Daza (Eus., Mart. Pal. 10. 1), or about the place to which the bishop mentioned by Epiphanius in Hœr. 63.2 (vol. 2, p. 400, line 8) ( ἐν πόλει μικρᾷ τῆς Παλαιστίνης τὸν τοῦ ἐπισκόπου κλῆρον = in a small town of Palestine ), belonged. The latter outlived the era of the great persecution,\36/ as he is expressly termed a confessor.
\31/ The birthplace of Justin the apologist. Epiphanius (Hœr. 78.24 [vol. 3, p. 473, lines 22ff]) describes a peculiar local cult:
᾿Εν γὰρ Σικίμοις, τουτέστιν ἐν τῇ νυνὶ Νεαπόλει, θυσίας οἱ ἐπιχώριοι τελοῦσιν εἰς ὄνομα τῆς Κόρης, δῆθεν ἐκ προφάσεως τῆς θυγατρὸς ᾿Ιεφθάε, τῆς ποτὲ προσενεχθείσης τῷ θεῷ εἰς θυσίαν· καὶ τοῖς ἠπατημένοις τοῦτο γέγονεν εἰς βλάβην εἰδωλολατρείας καὶ κενολατρείας {[do ET]}
He can also report a remarkable statement about Sichem (Hœr. 80.1 [vol. 3, p. 485, lines 19ff]):
ἀλλὰ καὶ προσευχῆς τόπος ἐν Σικίμοις,ἐν τῇ νυνὶ καλουμένῃ Νεαπόλει, ἔξω τῆς πόλεως ἐν τῇ πεδιάδι ὡς ἀπὸ σημείων δύο, θεατροειδὴς οὕτως ἐν ἀέρι καὶ αἰθρίῳ τόπῳ ἐστὶ κατασκευασθεὶς ὑπὸ τῶν Σαμαρειτῶν πάντα τὰ τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων μιμουμένων {[do ET]}
\32/ The signatures to the Nicene council (Gelzer, Hilgenfeld, and Cunitz, 1898, p. lx) give a double entry: MarinoV SebasthnoV and GaianoV SebasthV. Schwartz (Zur Gesch. des Athanas., 6, p. 286) thinks that the town and the district formed two churches — which is quite likely.
\33/ The presence of bishops or Christians in several of these towns is attested also by Alexander of Alexandria (in Athanas., de Synod. 17, and Epiph., Hœr. 69.4), and Eusebius (Mart. Pa1.).
\34/ I leave out the pseudo-Clementines.
\35/ "Batanea near Cæsarea may be identified with Khirbet Bethân (Ibthân); it is the one ruin S. of Zeita, and W. of Attil, in the district of Saron, about 4 hours E.S.E. from Cæsarea. But this identification seems to me problematical. I would have rather discovered the holy springs of Betaænea (Batanea)"; so Fürrer writes. On the Guthe-Fischer map Batanea is put due E. of Cæsarea.
\36/ This can hardly mean the persecution under Julian, as the bishop in question was dead by 370 C.E., after a long tenure of the episcopate.
The large majority of the localities in Palestine where bishops or Christians can be traced are Greek cities. It was among the Greek population that Palestinian Christianity from Hadrian onwards won most adherents. If we further assume that in general, until Constantine mastered Palestine, there were no Christians\37/ at all in Tiberias — which, with Jabne (Jamnia) and Lydda (Diospolis) formed the headquarters of rabbinic learning,\38/ — in Diocæsarea (Sepphoris), in Nazareth, and in Capernaum\39/ (for the local Christians in primitive times had been driven out by the fanatical Jews); assuming also that [[110]] they were extremely scanty in the territory stretching away to the south of Jerusalem,\40/ then it is impossible to speak of Palestine being Christianized before the time of Constantine. Save for a few exceptions, the lowlands were Jewish, while in Jewish towns and localities Christians were only tolerated against the will of the inhabitants, if they were tolerated at all. In Diocæsarea, e.g., even under Constantine , the Jews were still so numerous that they essayed a rising (Socrat., H.E. 2.33);and Theodoret (H.E. 4.19) relates how in the reign of Valens the town was inhabited by Jews who murdered Christians. In the Hellenistic towns Christians were to be met with, but even there — with the exception of Cæsarea, perhaps — they were not very numerous, while several important pagan towns with ancient shrines — especially those on the seaboard of Philistia — offered them a sharp resistance, and refused to harbour them at all. Thus in Gaza itself no Christian bishop was in residence, as may be certainly inferred from Eus., H.E. 8.13, where Silvanus is described as bishop of “the churches round Gaza ” (cp. Mart. Pal. [short version] 13.4: ὧν ἡγεῖτο ἐκ τῆς Γαζαίων ἐπίσκοπος ὁρμώμενος Σιλβανός = “Silvanus, a bishop from Gaza ") at the time of the great persecution. Not until after 325 C.E. was the church organized strongly by Constantine amid the obstinate paganism of these towns (cp. Vit. Const. 4.38);thus even Asclepas, who was present at the council of Nicea (cp. Epiph., Hœr. 69.4),was no more than the bishop of the churches round Gaza ,\41/ although a rather small (and secret?) Christian conventicle is to be assumed for Gaza itself as early as the age of the persecution (see Eus., Mart. Pal. 8.4, 3.1).\42/
\37/ This does not follow from Epiph., Hœr. 30.4, for the permission granted by Constantine to Joseph to build churches there, might per contra suggest the presence of local Christians. But in 30.11 (vol. 1, p. 347, lines 13ff) we read that Joseph merely secured one favour, viz., permission to build churches in those Jewish towns and villages throughout Palestine "where no one had ever been able to erect churches, owing to the absence of Greeks, Samaritans, or Christians. Especially was this the case with Tiberias, Diocæsarea, Sepphoris, Nazareth, and Capernaum, where members of all other nations were carefully excluded"
(ἔνθα τις οὐδέποτε ἴσχυσεν προστήσασθαι ἐκκλησίας διὰ τὸ μήτε ῞Ελληνα μήτε Σαμαρείτην μήτε Χριστιανὸν μέσον αὐτῶν εἶναι. τοῦτο δὲ μάλιστα ἐν Τιβεριάδι καὶ ἐν Διοκαισαρείᾳ τῇ καὶ Σεπφουρὶν καὶ ἐν Ναζαρὲτ καὶ ἐν Καπερναοὺμ φυλάσσεται <τὸ> παρ’ αὐτοῖς [τοῦ] μὴ εἶναι ἀλλόεθνον).
This is not contradicted by the statement of Epiphanius himself (30.4 [vol. 1, p. 339, lines 5f]) regarding a "bishop whose district adjoined that of Tiberias" (ἐπίσκοπον πλησιόχωρον τῆς Τιβερι<έ>ων ὄντα) in the pre-Constantine period; for this bishop was not exactly bishop of Tiberias. -- There must have been numerous purely Jewish localities in Palestine; thus Origen (in Matt. 16.17.1) describes Bethphage as a village of Jewish priests. In Mart. Pal. p. 61 (ed. Violet) we read that "in Palestine there is one populous city whose inhabitants are entirely Jewish, called Lud in Aramaic and Diocæsarea in Greek." — It may be purely accidental that rabbi Elieser met on the upper street of Sepphoris a disciple of Jesus called Jacob of Kephar Sechanja (cp. Aboda Sara, 16b, 17a, and Midrash rabba on Koh. 1.8; cp.Hennecke's NTliche Apocryphen 1, pp. 68f).
\38/ On the Jewish schools at Lydda and Jabne ("une sorte de petite Jérusalem resuscitée"), cp. Renan's Les Évangiles, pp. 19 f.
\39/ But a priori it is likely that originally there was a Jewish Christian community at Capernaum, and a passage in the Jerusalem Talmud confirms this supposition.
\40/ On some exceptions to this (Anim and Jattir), see below. — For idolatry in Mamre, see Vit. Const. 3.51-53. Constantine had a church built at Mamre. Sozomen (H.E. 2.4) describes the summer festival attended by Christians, pagans, and Jews there.
\41/ The seaport of Gaza , Majuma, undoubtedly belonged to this group of churches. But other towns and townships in the vicinity were still pagan entirely. Thus Sozomen (H.E. 5.15.14) declares that his grandfather and his grandfather's family were the first converts in Bethelia: Ταύτης δὲ τῆς φυγῆς μετέσχον πολλοὶ τῶν ἐμῶν προγόνων καὶ ὁ ἐμὸς πάππος. καθότι πατρὸς ῞Ελληνος ὤν, αὐτός τε πανοικὶ καὶ οἱ ἀπὸ τοῦ γένους ᾿Αλαφίωνος Χριστιανοὶ πρῶτοι ἐγένοντο ἐν Βηθελέᾳ κώμῃ Γαζαίᾳ, πολυανθρώπῳ τε οὔσῃ καὶ ἱερὰ ἐχούσῃ ἀρχαιότητι καὶ κατασκευῇ σεμνὰ τοῖς κατοικοῦσι, καὶ μάλιστα τὸ πάνθεον ὡς ἐπὶ ἀκροπόλεως χειροποιήτου τινὸς λόφου κείμενον καὶ πανταχόθεν πάσης τῆς κώμης ὑπερέχον. {do ET} Incidentally, we learn that Jews as well as pagans resided there.
\42/ A Christian woman "from the country of Gaza " ( τούτων ἡ μὲν προτέρα τῆς Γαζαίων χώρας ἐλέγετο) is mentioned in Eus., Mart. Pal. 8.8 (short version).
[[111]] Palestinian Greek Christianity and its bishops gravitated southwards to Alexandria more readily than to Antioch and the north\43/ (see above, on Eus, H.E. 5.25); even in spiritual things it depended upon Alexandria throughout our period. This was the natural outcome of the purely Greek, or almost purely Greek, character of Christianity in Palestine, which is brought out very forcibly by the names of the martyrs recounted by Eusebius (in his Mart. Pal.). In that catalogue Jewish or Syrian names are quite infrequent (yet cp. Zebinas of Eleutheropolis, and Ennathas, a woman from Scythopolis, Mart. Pal. 9.5-6).\44/
\43/ Eus., Mart. Pal. 3.3, supports the view that in the seacoast towns of Palestine Christianity was to be found among the floating population rather than among the old indigenous inhabitants. Six Christians voluntarily reported themselves to the governor for the fight with wild beasts. "One of them, born in Pontus , was called Timolaos; Dionysius, another, came from Tripolis in Phœnicia; the third was a subdeacon of the church in Diospolis, called Romulus : besides these there were two Egyptians, Paësis and Alexander, and another Alexander from Gaza .'' Hardly any of the martyrs at Cæsarea were citizens of the town. — The relations between Palestine (Cæsarea) and Alexandria were drawn still closer by Origen and his learning. We also know that Africanus went from Emmaus to Alexandria in order to hear Heraclas, and so forth.
\44/ Old Testament names — after the end of the third century, at least — do not prove the Jewish origin of their bearers; cp. Mart. Pal. 11.7 f.: "The governor got by way of answer the name of a prophet instead of the man's proper name. For instead of the names derived from idolatry, which had been given them by their parents, they had assumed names such as Elijah, or Jeremiah, or Isaiah, or Samuel, or Daniel."
Unfortunately, this treatise of Eusebius furnishes far less illustrative or statistical material for the church of Palestine than one would expect. We can only make out, from its contents, that it corroborates our conclusion that even in the Hellenistic towns of Palestine — which Eusebius has alone in view — during the great persecution there cannot have been very many Christians. This conclusion is ratified by all we can ascertain regarding the history of Christianity in Palestine during the fourth century, especially along the Philistine seaboards.\45/ The attempt made by Constantine and his successors to definitely acclimatize Christianity in Palestine did not [[112]] succeed. Numberless churches, no doubt, were built on the sacred sites of antiquity as well as at spots which were alleged to mark past deeds and events or martyrs' graves.\46/ Hordes of monks settled down there. Pilgrims came in their thousands. But there was no real Christianizing of the country as an outcome of all this, least of all in the proud cities on the south-west coast. As late as 400 C.E. Gaza and Raphia remained essentially pagan. Look at Sozom., 7.15, and the Vita Porphyrii of Marcus (ed. Teubner, 1895). Here we are told that but a very few Christians — 127 in all\47/ — were to be found in Gaza, before Porphyry entered on his duties (394 C.E.), while the very villages near the city were still entirely pagan.\48/ For our purpose that number (127) is most valuable. It teaches us the necessity of confining within a very small limit any estimate we may choose to form of the Christianity which prevailed on the Philistine seaboard during the previous century. There is also significance in the fact that the name of "the old church" (p. 18.6) was given to the church which Asclepas, who was bishop of Gaza during the great persecution and under Constantine , had erected shortly after 325. This means that previous to 325 there were no Christian edifices in the place. Ascalon,\49/ too, had a strongly pagan population as late as the fourth century, just as Diocæsarea (see above) was inhabited by a preponderating number of Jews.\50/ The seaport [[113]] of Anthedon remained entirely pagan as late as Julian's reign.\51/
\45/ See some data upon this in V. Schultze's Gesch. des Untergangs des griechischrömischen Heidentums (1892), 2, .pp. 240 f., and especially the "Peregrinatio Silviæ" (ed. Gamurini, 1887).
\46/ Cp. the important passage in Eus., Mart. Pal., p. 162 (ed. Violet).
\47/ Mark the Deacon , Vita Porphyrii episcopi Gazensis p. 12.1 {Teubner = TLG 11 line 12}: οἱ τότε ὄντες Χριστιανοί, ὀλίγοι καὶ εὐαρίθμητοι τυγχάν οντες (cp. p. 74.15 Teubner), "The Christians of that day were few and easily counted." It is also noted (p. 20.2 Teubner) that Porphyry added 105 Christians in one year to the original nucleus of 127. Compare the following numbers: on p. 29.10 (Teubner) there are sixty named, on p. 52.1 (Teubner) thirty-nine, then on p. 61.16 {Teubner = TLG 74 line 9} we have one year with three hundred converts, καὶ ἐξ ἐκείνου καθ’ ἕκαστον ἔτος αὔξησιν ἐπεδέχετο τὰ Χριστιανῶν ("And thenceforward every year saw an increase to the strength of local Christianity").
\48/ Vit. Porphyr., p. 16.7 {= TLG 17 line 6}: Πλησίον Γάζης κῶμαι τυγχάνουσιν παρὰ τὴν ὁδὸν αἵτινες ὑπάρχουσι τῆς εἰδωλομανίας ("Near Gaza there are wayside villages which are given over to idolatry").
\49/ Sozomen (H.E. 5.15) does mention Christians at Ascalon who venerated his grandfather, but this refers to the second half of the fourth century.
\50/ Cp. Socrates, H.E. 2.33: Οἱ γὰρ ἐν Διοκαισαρείᾳ τῆς Παλαιστίνης ᾿Ιουδαῖοι κατὰ ῾Ρωμαίων ὅπλα ἀντῇραν, καὶ περὶ τοὺς τόπους ἐκείνους κατέτρεχον. ᾿Αλλὰ τούτους μὲν Γάλλος, ὁ καὶ Κωνστάντιος, ὃν Καίσαρα καταστήσας ὁ βασιλεὺς εἰς τὴν ἑῴαν ἐξαπέστειλεν, δύναμιν ἀποστείλας κατηγωνίσατο· καὶ τὴν πόλιν αὐτῶν Διοκαισάρειαν εἰς ἔδαφος κατενεχθῆναι ἐκέλευσεν ("The Jews who inhabited Palestinian Diocæsarea took up arms against the Romans, and began to lay waste the neighbourhood. Gallus, however, who was also called Constantius, whom the emperor had sent to the East after creating him Cæsar, despatched an armed force against them and routed them; whereupon, by his orders, their city, Diocæsarea, was razed to the ground").
\51/ Cp. Sozomen, H.E. 5.9.7:
ἐπεὶ καὶ αὐτὸς τότε μικροῦ συλληφθεὶς παρὰ τῶν Γαζαίων ἀνῃρέθη· ἀσχολουμένου δὲ τοῦ πλήθους περὶ τὸν φόνον τῶν αὐτοῦ ἀνεψιῶν καιρὸν εὑρὼν ἔφυγεν εἰς ᾿Ανθηδόνα πόλιν ἐπὶ θάλασσαν, ἀφεστῶσαν Γάζης ὡσεὶ σταδίους εἴκοσι, παραπλησίως δὲ τηνικαῦτα τῷ ῾Ελληνισμῷ χαίρουσαν καὶ περὶ τὴν θεραπείαν τῶν ξοάνων ἐπτοη μένην {provide ET}.
I now proceed to give a list of towns and localities in which Christians can be traced prior\52/ to 325, adding very brief annotations.
\52/ During the second century in particular, these Gentile Christian churches were certainly to some extent infinitesimal. They were exposed to the double fire of local Jews and pagans, and they had no relations with the Jewish Christians. The following decision of the so-called Egyptian Church-Constitution is scarcely to be referred to Egypt . It rather applies to Palestine or Syria. <gr> {not in TLG?} </gr>
("Should there be a dearth of men, and should it be impossible to secure the requisite number of twelve capable of taking part in the election of a bishop, let a message be sent to churches in the neighbourhood"); Texte u. Unters. 2.5.71 f.
Jerusalem, represented by bishop Macarius at Nicæa; “churches round Jerusalem" in the year 212/213 are noted in Eus., H.E. 6.11.3. For the episcopal list, see above, p. 105.
Nazareth (Julius Africanus: relatives of Jesus here, but afterwards no Christians at all).
Cæsarea, the best harbour on the coast, and perhaps the largest Greek city in Palestine, though with a number of Jewish residents (Acts 10). Bishops are to be traced from 190 C.E., viz., Theophilus (circa 190, Eus., H.E. 5.22.25); Theoktistus (at the crisis over Origen in Alexandria, also at the time of the Antiochene synod upon Novatian and bishop Stephanus of Rome, Eus., H.E. 6.19.17; 6.46.3 [where he is called “bishop in Palestine,” as a metropolitan]; we do not know if he was the immediate successor of Theophilus); Domnus (who only ruled for a short period, according to Eus., H.E. 7.14; he succeeded Theoktistus in the reign of Gallienus); Theoteknus (who succeeded Domnus in the same reign, and took part in the synods against Paul of Antioch, Eus., 7.14.28, 30; 7.32.21, [[114]] 24), and Agapius (Eus., 7.32.24). Ambrosius, Origen's friend, was a deacon, Proteknus a presbyter of Cæsarea (cp. Orig., Exhort. ad Mart.). Romanus was a deacon and an exorcist in a neighbouring village (Violet, Mart. Pal., p. 11). Catholic Christians and a Marcionite woman, from the country near Cæsarea, were martyred under Valerian (cp. Eus., H.E. 7.12). Counc. Nic. (bishop Eusebius). Legend makes the tax-gatherer Zacchæus the first bishop of Cæsarea. For “churches at Caesarea,” see Mart. Pal. 1.3. Christianity in Palestine had its headquarters at Cæsarea. Even the pagan population circa 300 C.E. seems to have been inclined that way.\53/ In the fourth century the house of the chief captain Cornelius was shown, built into the church, “et Philippi aediculas et cubicula quattuor virginum prophetarum” {=add ET} (Jerome, Ep. 108.8).
\53/ Eusebius (Violet's ed., p. 42) tells how the miracle of the corpse of Appianus the martyr took place before the eyes of the whole city, "and the whole city (young men and old, women of all ages, and virgins) gave with one accord the glory to God alone, and confessed with loud voice the name of Christ." Cp. also pp. 69 f.
Samaria-Sebaste (Acts 8, Counc. Nic., bishop Marinus; here John the Baptist was buried, acc. to Theod., H.E. 3.3).\54/
\54/ Simon Magus came from Gitta, a Samaritan village, and Menander from the village of Capparetæa .
Lydda-Diospolis (Acts 9; Theod., 1.4; Counc. Nic., bishop Antius. Close by was Arimathæa, a place visited by pilgrims, etc., Jerome).
Joppa (Acts 9).
Localities on the plain of Saron (Acts 9).
Emmaus-Nicopolis (Julius Africanus; Counc. Nic., bishop Petrus. The local church in the fourth century was held to be built out of the house of Cleopas, according to Jerome, loc. cit.).
Sichem-Neapolis (Counc. Nic., bishop Germanus).
Scythopolis\55/ (Mart. Pal. 6, p. 4.7.110, cp. longer form of Mart. Pal., ed. Violet in Texte u. Unters. 14.4; Alex. of Alex. in Athanas., de Synod. 17; cp. Epiph., Hœr. 30.5; Counc. Nic., bishop Patrophilus). [[115]]
\55/ The biblical Beth-san (Baischan, Bêsân).
Eleutheropolis (Mart. Pal. 9.5, cp. Violet, p. 73; Epiph., Hœr. 68. 3, 66.1; Counc. Nic., bishop Maximus).\56/
\56/ Clermont-Ganneau, Compt. rend. de l'Acad. des Inscr. et Bell Lettr., 1904, Jan.-Feb., pp. 54 f.; recently discovered inscriptions have laid bare the opening of this city's era (199 C.E.), when, as we now know, Septimius Severus was in Egypt and Palestine and conferred autonomy on the city. — Epiphanius was born at Besanduke, a place near Eleutheropolis, c. 320 C.E. (according to the "Life"), probably of Christian parents, but possibly of Jewish.
Maximianopolis (Counc. Nic., bishop Paulus).\57/
\57/ It may be the town between Cæsarea (Straton's Tower) and Scythopolis. Probably it is. But we may also think of the town N. of Bostra in the S. Hauran (now es-Suweda, cp. Baedeker, p. 191).
Jericho (Counc. Nic., bishop Januarius ; cp. also Euseb., 6.16).
Sabulon\58/ (Count. Nic., bishop Heliodorus).
\58/ "Sabulon," says Fürrer, "I take to be the Zabulon of Josephus, which is the same as his Chabolo, the modern Kabûl, on the border of the plain of Ptolemais."
Jamnia (Mart. Pal. 11.5; Alex. of Alex. in Epiph., Hœr. 69.4; Counc. Nic., bishop Macrinus).
Azotus (Counc. Nic., bishop Silvanus).
Ascalon (Mart. Pal. 10.1; Alex. of Alex. in Epiph., Hœr. 69.4 ; Counc. Nic., bishop Longinus).
Gaza (for a small local conventicle with no bishop and the “churches round Gaza,” under bishop Asclepas,\59/ see above; Epiph., Hœr. 68.3; Counc. Nic. Among the churches round Gaza, the seaport of Majuma was noted for its large number of Christians\60/).
\59/ St Hilarion was born (about 250 C.E.) at Tabatha, "a village lying about 5000 paces from Gaza ," but his parents were pagan. Commodian calls him "Gasæus," but this has nothing whatever to do with Gaza .
\60/ On account of its Christianity, Julian took away its civic rights and attached them to Gaza . Eusebius (Vita Const. 4.37-38, and after him Sozomen, 2.5, 5.3) tells how the local pagans suddenly were converted to Christianity under Constantine , and how the town received from the emperor its civic rights and the name of Constantia. Naturally, being a seaport, it contained a number of Christians before it openly professed the Christian faith. Constantine made it independent, in order to injure the pagan Gaza .
Aila (a seaport on the north-east corner of the Red Sea, included in Palestine at that period; Counc. Nic., bishop Petrus).
Gadara (Zacchæus a local deacon, Violet, p. 8; Counc. Nic., bishop Sabinus).
Capitolias (perhaps= Bêter-Râs; Counc. Nic., bishop Antiochus). [[116]]
Bethlehem (the existence of local Christians is deducible from Orig., c. Cels. 1.51).\61/
\61/ Tertullian (adv. Jud. 13) writes: "Animadvertimus autem nunc neminem de genere, Israel in Bethlehem remansisse, et exinde quod interdictum est ne in confinio ipsius regionis demoretur quisquam Iudaeorum" ("We notice now that none of the race of Israel has remained in Bethlehem; such has always been the case since all Jews were prohibited from lingering even in the confines of the district"). Constantine had a church built on the grotto of the birth (Vita 3.41).
Anea, a village in the territory of Eleutheropolis (Πέτρος ἀσκητὴς ὁ καὶ ᾿Αψέλαμος ἀπὸ ᾿Ανέας κώμης τῶν ὅρων ᾿Ελευθεροπόλεως Mart. Pal. 10.2 [shorter version]. Petrus Balsamus, the martyr, came from the district of Eleutheropolis; see Ruinart, p. 525).
Anim and Jether, two villages south of Hebron (on Jether or Jethira or Jattir, see Baedeker, p. 209; Anim = Ghuwîn = Ruwen, as Seybold kindly informs me (so Guérin); cp. Buhl's Geogr. Pal., p. 164), which Eusebius, in his Onomasticon, declares were exclusively inhabited by Christians. This is a striking statement, as we are not prepared for Christians in these of all districts.\62/ We must not, however, measure the density of the Christian population on the soil of Palestine by this standard. These two villages must have formed an exception to the general rule,\63/ although it remains a notable fact that there were villages already which were completely Christian.\64/ [[117]]
Sichar-`Asker (as Eusebius observes in his Onomasticon that a church was already built there, it follows that there must have been some local Christians at an earlier date).\62/ Fürrer, however, calls attention to the fact that many famous rabbis had also fled south.
\63/ Eusebius (7.12) tells of three Palestinian martyrs (Priscus, Malchus, and Alexander) in the reign of Valerian, stating expressly that they lived on the land, and that they were reproached for thus enjoying an unmolested life whilst their brethren in the city were exposed to suffering. Hence they voluntarily betook themselves also to Cæsarea, etc. Unfortunately, Eusebius has not specified their original home.
\64/ Fürrer writes to me as follows: "There is a slight confusion about Anim, Anea, and Anab. In the Onomasticon we read that Anab was in the district of Eleutheropolis (p. 26 line 9) : ᾿Ανάβ (Jos 15, 50). φυλῆς ᾿Ιούδα. κώμη εἰς ἔτι νῦν ἐν ὁρίοις ᾿Ελευθεροπόλεως. ἀλλὰ καὶ ᾿Αναία ἐστὶ κώμη ᾿Ιουδαίων μεγίστη καλουμένη <ἐν τῷ> Δαρωμᾷ πρὸς νότον Χεβρὼν ἀπὸ σημείων θʹ. {do ET} Then, on Anim (p. 26 line 13): ᾿Ανείμ (Jos 15, 50). φυλῆς ᾿Ιούδα. ἄλλη ᾿Αναιὰ πλησίον τῆς προτέρας, ἣ νῦν ὅλη Χριστιανῶν τυγχάνει, οὖσα ἀνατολικὴ τῆς προτέρας. {do ET} Anim has for long been identified with Ghuwîn in the south of Hebron . There are an upper and a lower Ghuwîn. The former is north-east of the latter, and would be the Christian Anim. (In Anab, about six hours south of Eleutheropolis, there are ruins of a church which seem to date from the Roman period.) They were distinguished by their sites on two hills separated by a small valley; the aforesaid ruins lie on the eastern hill. I would be disposed to look for the two Aneas here. In the west, Jews resided; in the east, Christians. On the western hill there are also ruins of a shrine, which afterwards served as a mosque; the traces of its Christian origin are still distinct." — In the Onomasticon (p. 58. 18) Eusebius writes thus: Βηθααβαρά (Ioh 1, 28). «ὅπου ἦν ᾿Ιωάννης βαπτίζων», «πέραν τοῦ ᾿Ιορδάνου». καὶ δείκνυται ὁ τόπος, ἐν ᾧ καὶ πλείους τῶν ἀδελφῶν εἰς ἔτι νῦν τὸ λουτρὸν φιλοτιμοῦνται λαμβάνειν. {get ET} This notice does not permit us to infer the existence of any spot; on the contrary, it suggests the absence of any such spot (cp. Orig., Comm. in Joh. 6.50, and Preuschen in D. Berliner Philol. Wochenschrift, 1903, col. 1358).
Batanæa, a village beside Cæsarea (Mart. Pal. 11.29; where we are not to read Manganæa, Baganæa, Balanea, or Banea; see Mercati's "I Martiri di Palestina nel Codice Sinaitico," Estr. dai Rendiconti del R. Instit. Lombard . di sc. e lett., Serie 2, vol. 30, 1897).
Phæno (according to Mart. Pal. 7.2, and Epiph., Hœr. 68.3, Christians laboured in the mines at Phæno in South Palestine [cp. Mart. Pal. 8.1, and the Onomasticon]; according to Mart. 13.1, they built houses into churches,\65/ and were consequently dispersed by force into settlements throughout the various districts of Palestine.\66/ The Apology of Pamphilus for Origen is directed "To the confessors sentenced to the mines of Palestine" [“ad confessores ad metalla Palestiniae damnatos”]; cp. Routh's Reliq. Sacrœ 4(\2), p. 341).\67/ [[118]]
\65/ In the larger recension of the Mart. Pal. (Violet, pp. 105f.) we are told that the Coptic prisoners of Phæno were for a time together at Zoara (=Zoar). "Much people were with them, some who had come from elsewhere to see them, and many others who provided them with what they required, sought them out affectionately, and ministered to their wants. The whole day they spent in prayer, worship, teaching, and reading . . . . they lived all the while as if it were a festival and convocation. But God's enemy could not bear this. Forthwith a governor was sent to them. His first act was to separate them," etc.
\66/ Phæno has been again discovered; it lay in Eastern Edom , at a place where two valleys meet. The ruins are now called "Phenân" (Fürrer).
\67/ In one town, Aulona, Petrus Balsamus is said to have been martyred. He came from the district of Eleutheropolis (according to the longer Syriac recension of the Mart. Pal., he was born "in the district of Beth Gubrin"). The name of the place is perhaps misspelt, and we may identify it with Anea (see above). [Fürrer tells me, however, that there is a Beth-'Alam S.E. of Eleutheropolis, which reminds one of Aulona; so that Aulona perhaps should be distinguished from Anea.] Nor was he martyred there. It was, on the contrary, the place of his birth. No chor-episcopi from Palestine took part in the council of Nicæa. Was it because there were none at all, or very few, in Palestine ? If so, it is a fresh corroboration of the fact that Christianity had penetrated but slightly into the (Jewish) population of the country. One can hardly refute this by appealing to the bishop "of the churches round Gaza " (see above), for probably in Gaza itself there could not be any bishop. Still, there were churches in the country districts of Palestine , as we have seen, and in all likelihood they had bishops.
To sum up, we may say that, judged from a purely statistical standpoint, the policy of Maximinus Daza, which aimed at the utter eradication of Christianity, was by no means so insensate a venture in the case of Palestine as it was in that of Syria. Christianity won but a slender footing amid the Jewish population of the Holy Land ; such Jewish Christians as there were, had for the most part withdrawn across the Jordan . Amid the Greek population, again, Christianity had not as yet any numerical preponderance;\68/ evidently it drew its adherents from the fluctuating, poorer classes, rather than from the ranks of stable and propertied people.\69/ It is perfectly obvious, to judge from the treatise on the Palestinian martyrs (see above), that the latter section was hardly represented at all in local Christianity, and that so far as it did exist, it knew how to evade persecution. Thus it formed an unreliable asset for the church.\70/ The lengthy communication of Constantine to the [[119]] Palestinian cities (Eus., Vita Const. 2.23-42), issued shortly after the defeat of Licinius, also gives one the impression that local Christians were quite an inferior minority.
\68/ We must not, indeed, underestimate their numbers, for Eusebius would never have been able to say that "Christians are nowadays, of all nations, the richest in numbers" (H.E. 1.4.2), unless this factor had been both noticeable and superior to the religious associations of the country. The historian could not have \pronounced such a verdict, if Christianity had been an insignificant factor in his own surroundings at Cæsarea. From Eus., H.E. 9.1.8 ( μέγαν τε καὶ μόνον ἀληθῆ τὸν Χριστιανῶν θεὸν = "The Christians' God is great, and the only true God"), it follows also that public feeling, in Cæsarea at any rate, was not absolutely unfavourable to Christians; cp. also the passage quoted above (p. 114), with 9.1.11 (ὡς καὶ τοὺς πρότερον καθ’ ἡμῶν φονῶντας τὸ θαῦμα παρὰ πᾶσαν ὁρῶντας ἐλπίδα, συγχαίρειν τοῖς γεγενημένοις = "So that even those who formerly had raged against us, on seeing the utterly unexpected come to pass; congratulated us on what had occurred"), and especially 9.8.14 (θεόν τε τῶν Χριστιανῶν δοξάζειν εὐσεβεῖς τε καὶ μόνους θεοσεβεῖς τούτους ἀληθῶς πρὸς αὐτῶν ἐλεγχθέντας τῶν πραγμάτων ὁμολογεῖν· = "Glorify the Christians' God, and acknowledge, under the demonstration of the facts themselves, that Christians were truly pious and the only reverent folk").
\69/ It would be important to know the nationality of the inhabitants of the villages which Eusebius describes as entirely Christian, i.e., the villages in which any Christians resided. They were Catholic Christians, not Jewish Christians — otherwise Eusebius would have noticed the point. They might be Greeks, but more probably they were Aramaic or Arabic speaking pagans who had been converted.
\70/ The excavations in Palestine , so far as I am aware, have as yet yielded extremely little for the history of local Christianity during the pre-Constantine age (cp. Kaufmann, Handbuch d. christl. Archäol., pp. 103 f.),but a thorough investigation of the country has hardly begun. Some Christian graves can be shown to be ancient, but we do not know how far they go back.
Christians in Palestine used Greek\71/ as the language of their worship; but, as we might a priori conjecture, several churches were bilingual (Greek and Aramaic). Direct proof of this is forthcoming in the case of Jerusalem and Scythopolis (Mart. Pal., longer edition, pp. 4, 7, 110, ed. Violet). Procopius, we are told, himself a native of Ælia, did the congregation of Scythopolis the service of translating\72/ from Greek into Aramaic (Syriac), a statement which also proves that the servicebooks were still (c. 300 A.D).) untranslated into the vernacular. Translated they were, but orally.\73/ This statement also shows that the need of translation was not yet pressing. Translations of the Scriptures into the Palestinian Aramaic dialect (I pass over what is said in Epiph., Hœr. 30.3.12) were [[120]] not made, so far as we have yet ascertained, until a later age. Fresh fragments of these versions have been recently made accessible,\74/ and we may expect still more of them. But it is unlikely that their originals will be pushed back into the third century.
\71/ We have already (cp. p. 105)called attention to the fact that the Gentile Christian bishops of Jerusalem down to the middle of the third century were wholly Greek — to judge from their names; two of them, however, had Syriac names after that period. The names of the nineteen Palestinian bishops at Nicæa are almost entirely Greek (the Roman name of "Longinus" occurs, at Ascalon). Two bishops indeed (Nicopolis and Aila) were called Petrus and Paulus, but this is no clue to their origin. Thus in 325 C.E. the Palestinian bishops were wholly or almost wholly Greek. At the same time, Semites, it must be recollected, took Greek names. At any rate, they were within the range of Greek civilization. For the names of the martyrs, etc., cp. above, pp. 111 f.
\72/ In Gaza a boy of the lower classes, about 400 C.E., only spoke Syriac. His mother affirmed that neither she nor her son knew Greek υἱὸς τὴν ἑλληνικὴν γλῶσσαν. ἣ δὲ διεβεβαιοῦτο ὅρκοις μηδὲ αὐτὴν μηδὲ τὸ αὐτῆς τέκνον εἰδέναι ἑλληνιστί {do ET} Mark the Deacon, Vita Porphyrii episcopi Gazensis (ed. Teubner, 1895), 66f. {= TLG 68 line 17}.
\73/ Cp. here Silviœ Peregrinatio 47: "Et quoniam in ea provincia [Palestina] pars populi et graece et siriste novit, pars etiam alia per se graece, aliqua etiam pars tantum siriste, itaque, quoniam episcopus, licet siriste noverit, tamen semper graece loquitur et numquam siriste, itaque ergo stat semper presbyter, qui, episcopo graece dicente, siriste interpretatur, et omnes audiant quae exponuntur. lectiones etiam, quaecumque in ecclesia leguntur, quia necesse est graece legi, semper stat, qui siriste interpretatur propter populum, ut semper discant. sane quicumque hic [sc. in Jerusalem] latini sunt, i.e., qui nec siriste nec graece noverunt, ne contristentur, et ipsis exponit episcopus, quia sunt alii fratres et sorores graeci-latini, qui latine exponunt eis" ("And as in the province of Palestine one section of the population knows both Greek and Syriac, whilst another is purely Greek, and a third knows only Syriac, therefore, since the bishop, though he knows Syriac, always speaks in Greek and never in Syriac, a presbyter always stands beside him to interpret his Greek into Syriac, so that all the congregation may know what is being said. Also, as the readings from Scripture in the church have to be in Greek, a Syriac interpreter is always present for the benefit of the people, that they may miss nothing of the lessons. Indeed, in case Latins here [in Jerusalem], i.e. people who know neither Greek nor Syriac, should be put out, the bishop expounds to them by themselves, since there are other brethren and sisters, GræcoLatins, who expound to them in Latin").
\74/ Cp. Lewis and Gibson, The Palestinian Syriac Lectionary of the Gospels (1899), and Violet's discovery in Damascus (see the Lexicon of Schulthess, 1903).
The inner development of the Palestinian Greek churches during our period shows — though our materials are scanty — no special features of any kind. The connection with Alexandria and the tenacious reverence for Origen, to which we have called attention, are the outstanding traits. In the history of the origin and growth of monasticism Palestine also runs parallel to Egypt. Furthermore, the veneration of heroes and martyrs (cp. the erection of martyr-chapels) can be proved for Palestine as well as for the rest of the East during the pre-Constantine age.\75/
\75/ Cp., e.g., Mart. Pal. 11.28 (fuller version), p. 102 (Violet): ἐπὶ τέτταρας δῆτα ἡμέρας τοσαύτας τε νύκτας προστάξει τοῦ Φιρμιλιανοῦ τὰ πανάγια σώματα τῶν τοῦ θεοῦ μαρτύρων εἰς βορὰν τοῖς σαρκοβόροις θηρίοις ἐξέκειτο· ὡς δὲ οὐδὲν αὐτοῖς προσῄει, οὐ θήρ, οὐκ ὄρνεον, οὐ κύων, ἐξ οἰκονομίας θεοῦ ληφθέντα σῶα καὶ ἀβλαβῆ, τῆς προσηκούσης τιμῆς καὶ κηδείας λαχόντα, τῇ συνήθειπαρεδόθη ταφῇ, ναῶν οἴκοις περικαλλέσιν ἀποτεθέντα ἐν ἱεροῖς τε προσευκτηρίοις εἰς ἄληστον μνήμην τῷ τοῦ θεοῦ λαῷ τιμᾶσθαι παραδεδομένα. {do ET}
[[Book 4, Chapter 3, section 3, part 2 (page 120 = 2nd German ed p. 98) (scanned and proofed, Elana Newberger 4/2004), edited RAK 5/2004; checked by Francisco Lameiro 2/2005; Greek added, some ETs still needed]]
[[120 = 98]]
2. PHOENICIA\1/
As we learn from Acts, Christianity reached the cities of Phoenicia at a very early period. When Paul was converted, there were already Christians at Damascus (Acts 10.2, 12 f., 19); [[121]] for Christians in Tyre see 21.4, for Ptolemais see 21.7, for Sidon 27.3, and in general 11.19.\2/
\1/ Phoenicia, as a special province, separated from Syria by Septimius Severus, was equivalent to Phoenicia proper with the adjoining interior eastward, but without Auranitis, Batanea, and Trachonitis, which Diocletian added to the province of Arabia (cp. signatures of Nicaea, and Marquardt's Staatsverwalt., 1. pp. 264 f.). That an ecclesiastical province of this name existed in 231-232 C.E. is proved by Jerome, Ep. 30.4: "Damnatur Origenes a Demetrio episcopo exceptis Palaestinae et Arabiae et Phoenicis atque Achaiae sacerdotibus." -- Cp. Maps 3, 4.
\2/ In the pseudo-Clementine Homilies, the island of Aradus (12.12), Orthosia (12.1), and Paltus (13.1), the frontier-town between Syria and Phoenicia, are all mentioned. Whether Christians existed there at that early date is uncertain.
The metropolitan position of Tyre, which was the leading city in the East for manufactures and trade, made it the ecclesiastical capital of the province; but it is questionable if Tyre enjoyed this pre-eminence as early as the second century, for at the Palestinian synod on the Easter controversy Cassius, the bishop of Tyre, and Clarus, the bishop of Ptolemais, took counsel wit
