Early Christianity in Lycaonia and Adjacent Areas: From Paul to Amphilochius of Iconium

1007 Pages·2018·7.57 MB·English

by  Cilliers Breytenbach, Christiane Zimmermann

Early Christianity in Lycaonia and Adjacent Areas
Early Christianity in Asia Minor (ECAM)
The subseries “Early Christianity in Asia Minor”, of which this is the second
volume to be published, is part of the series AJEC. It stands in the tradition of
the work of Adolf von Harnack, Die Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums
in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten (4th ed., Leipzig, 1924). Each volume of ECAM
will focus on the rise and expansion of Christianity in a specific geographic
region of Asia Minor up to the Council of Chalcedon in 451 CE. The mono-
graphs endeavour to take into account all relevant literary and non-literary evi-
dence, paying special attention to epigraphical and archaeological material,
and to document the current state of research.
The first volume by Ulrich Huttner on Early Christianity in the Lycus Valley
was published as AJEC 85 in 2013. The present volume deals with the rise and
expansion of Christianity in Lycaonia and adjacent areas from the initial
Pauline mission until Bishop Amphilochius of Iconium. Volumes on early
Christianity in Phrygia, in Galatia, in Bithynia and on the Hellespont, in Ionia,
and along the lower Meander are in preparation.
Cilliers Breytenbach and Martin Goodman
Early Christianity in Asia Minor
(ECAM)
Editors
Cilliers Breytenbach (Berlin), Martin Goodman (Oxford),
Christoph Markschies (Berlin), Stephen Mitchell (Exeter)
Volume 2
Ancient Judaism and Early
Christianity
Arbeiten zur Geschichte des antiken Judentums und des
Urchristentums
Founding Editor
Martin Hengel † (Tübingen)
Executive Editors
Cilliers Breytenbach (Berlin)
Martin Goodman (Oxford)
Editorial Board
Lutz Doering (Münster) – Tal Ilan (Berlin) – Judith Lieu (Cambridge)
Tessa Rajak (Reading/Oxford) – Daniel R. Schwartz (Jerusalem)
Seth Schwartz (New York) – Christiane Zimmermann (Kiel)
Volume 101
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ajec
Early Christianity in Lycaonia and
Adjacent Areas
From Paul to Amphilochius of Iconium
By
Cilliers Breytenbach and Christiane Zimmermann
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Breytenbach, Cilliers, 1954; Zimmermann, Christiane – authors.
Title: Early Christianity in Lycaonia and adjacent areas : from Paul to
 Amphilochius of Iconium / by Cilliers Breytenbach and Christiane
 Zimmermann.
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2018. | Series: Early Christianity in
 Asia Minor (ECAM) ; Volume 2 | Series: Ancient Judaism and early
 Christianity, ISSN 1871-6636 ; Volume 101 | Includes bibliographical
 references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017051825 (print) | LCCN 2017052781 (ebook) | ISBN
 9789004352520 (E-book) | ISBN 9789004351554 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Lycaonia—Church history. | Church history—Primitive and
 early church, ca. 30–600. | Christian inscriptions—Turkey—Lycaonia. |
 Lycaonia—Antiquities.
Classification: LCC BR185 (ebook) | LCC BR185 .E26 2017 (print) | DDC
 275.64/201—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017051825
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 1871-6636
isbn 978-90-04-35155-4 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-35252-0 (e-book)
Copyright 2018 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill
Sense and Hotei Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
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Contents
Preface xv
Technicalities xix
List of Abbreviations xxi
List of Maps xxx
1 Introduction: The Christianisation of Lycaonia until AD 451 1
1.1 Research on the Christianisation of Lycaonia and Adjacent Areas 1
1.1.1 The Beginnings: Ramsay, Harnack, Schultze, and Calder 1
1.1.2 The Continuation: Mitchell 4
1.1.3 Recent Developments 5
1.2 Sources for Christianity in Lycaonia and Adjacent Areas 7
1.2.1 The New Testament and Other Christian Literature 7
1.2.2 Identifying Christian Inscriptions from Lycaonia and Adjacent
Areas 8
1.2.3 The Dating of Staurograms, Christograms, Crosses, and
Christian Inscriptions 13
1.2.4 Christian Inscriptions from Lycaonia: Epigraphic
Traditions 20
1.2.5 Archaeology 24
1.3 References to Christians in Lycaonia 26
1.3.1 Group- and Self-Designations 26
1.3.2 Individual Names 28
1.4 Restrictions on Questions and Answers 30
1.4.1 Crossing Boundaries 30
1.4.2 Setting Limits 31
2 Lycaonia and Its Organisation in Roman Antiquity 33
2.1 Natural Space: Lycaonia in Antiquity 33
2.1.1 Access: Through the Mountains to Lycaonia 34
2.1.2 Lycaonia’s Fixed Boundaries and Fuzzy Borders 37
2.1.3 Where There Is Water, There Is Life 38
2.2 Historical Space: Lycaonia 25 bc–ad 451 41
2.2.1 Controlled Space: The Imperial Presence in and around
Lycaonia 42
2.2.2 Structured Space: Early Roman Structures and the Expansion
of Christianity 46
2.2.3 Governed Space: Lycaonian Borders and Christian Bishoprics
under the Roman Empire 48
x contents
3 The Impact of Paul the Apostle: The Rise of Christianity in Lycaonia 60
3.1 Introduction 60
3.2 The Apostle Paul and the “Lycaonian” Churches 62
3.2.1 Survey Based on the Narrative Episodes in the Acts of the
Apostles 62
3.2.2 Additional Information from 2 Tim 3:11 and the Acts of Paul
and Thecla 71
3.2.3 Summary 72
3.3 Named Paul after Paul the Apostle? 73
3.3.1 Introduction 73
3.3.2 The Name Paul 77
3.3.3 The Name Παῦλος among Christians in Lycaonia and Adjacent
Areas 79
3.3.4 Conclusions from the Lycaonian Area 87
3.3.5 Named Paul after Paul? 90
3.4 The Impact of Paul: Thecla, the Virgin, and Appas, the Eunuch 91
3.4.1 Appas, the Presbyter-Eunuch 91
3.4.2 The Acts of Paul and Thecla as a Document of an Ascetic
Pauline Tradition Peculiar to Lycaonia 96
3.4.3 Paul’s Statements about Encraty in His Letter to the
Galatians 109
3.4.4 Conclusion 111
3.5 Were Persons Named Thecla after Thecla? 113
3.5.1 Introduction 113
3.5.2 The Name Thecla 115
3.5.3 The Use of the Name Θεκλα amongst Christians in
Lycaonia 117
3.5.4 Conclusion: Named Thecla after Thecla? 123
3.6 Conclusion 125
4 The Expansion of Christianity in Lycaonian Cities and Villages 127
4.1 Introduction 127
4.2 Iconium and the Konya Basin 130
4.2.1 Iconium 130
4.2.2 The Region around Iconium 151
4.2.3 Summary 162
4.3 Lystra and the Çarşamba Crossings 166
4.3.1 The Colony of Lystra on the North-South Road 166
4.3.2 The Çarşamba Crossings 176