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  • From: "Mark D. Nanos" <nanos AT gvi.net>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Synagogues in Thessalonika
  • Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 06:30:59 -0500


Althogh no first century material evidence of Jewish communities may be
presently known, it may also be noted that in addition to the literary
evidence of Acts for a Jewish community in Thessalonika, that Philo too (ca
40 ce) knows of Jewish communities in Macedonia and surrounding regions, in
an extract from a letter from King Agrippa I to Gaius Caligula, as he
relates it anyway:

"While she [Jerusalem], as I have said, is my native city, she is also the
mother city not of one country, Judaea, but of most of the others in virtue
of the colonies sent out at diverse times to the neighboring lands--Egypt,
Phoenicia, the part of Syria called the Hollow and the rest as well and the
lands lying far apart, Pamphylia, Cilicia, most of Asia up to Bithynia and
the corners of Pontus, similarly also into Europe, Thessaly, Boeotia,
Macedonia, Aetolia, Attica, Argos, Corinth and most of the best parts of
Peloponnese. And not only are the mainlands full of Jewish colonies but
also the most highly esteemed of the islands--Euboea, Cyprus, Crete."
(Embassy to Gaius 36.281-4 LCL)

Mark Nanos
Kansas City






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