Corpus-Paul

["Mark D. Nanos" <nanos AT gvi.net>]

Dear Warren and List,

Warren wrote:
> I have just returned from a visit to Turkey which included a stop at 
> Antioch in Pisidia...
> Besides building a four-star hotel to raise the comfort level of a 
> stay in Yalvac, Mr.
> Bayram is pressing ahead with excavations. Both decumanus and cardo 
> have now been half
> laid free, forming an L-shape walk up to the temple precinct. An 
> extensive tunnel system
> has been discovered in the massive city walls. The elaborately 
> decorated triple-arched
> city gate is being reconstructed piece by piece as a monumental 
> entrance to the park.
>
> Of more interest to Pauline scholars is the synagogue, a 
> basilica-plan structure located
> near the west wall about 250 m. from the city gate. According to a 
> sign on site, the
> church that was built over the synagogue was the first one dedicated to Paul.
>
> The city museum houses an inscription bearing the name of one Iulius 
> Sergius Paulus, who
> local guides claim is related to Paul's prominent convert in Cyprus, 
> the proconsul Sergius
> Paulus. If this family link can be substantiated, it might help 
> explain why Paul, having
> sailed from Cyprus on his first missionary journey, with all the 
> ripe opportunities for
> mass audiences awaiting him westward along the Asian coast, instead 
> struck out north into
> the mountains. Did Paul perhaps carry a letter from his namesake? Is 
> there anything more
> than speculation behind this intriguing scenario? Or is there a 
> better explanation for why
> Paul's path repeatedly intersected Yalvac?


The Sergius Paulus possibilities are several, and have been argued as 
well to point to justification of the north Galatian hypothesis, 
since he owned significant lands to the north. Another proposal 
presented at the Yalvac conference of 1998 was that Paul was seeking 
a cure at the hot springs which can be found in the north. Such hot 
springs are many in Asia Minor, and were believed to offer help for 
many ailments, including to the eyes. The cures for a cite were often 
posted at the various cites from Roman times to present day. To this 
proposal (of the springs on the road north to Sergius Paulus's lands) 
may be added the observation that such springs are in the Pisidian 
Antioch area, both on the road west on a journey along the Meander 
valley (such as at Pamukkale by Hierapolis, or going east . (This may 
make sense of the purpose of Paul's stay in Galatia, which he gives 
as the result of a "weakness in the flesh," cf. 4:13; whether this is 
a problem of the eyes or not is less clear). This valley was a major 
east/west route across Asia Minor from Syria to Ephesus, with the 
Tarsus mountains along the southern edge. Pisidian Antioch is in the 
Roman province of Galatia during Paul's time (taking its name from 
the Celts/Gauls who settled in the northern/central area of this 
region, by Paul's time a province reaching south to north from sea to 
sea), had a Roman settlement, was a major population center, and was 
of significant religious importance, including a Jewish population.

The chief archeologist of the site, Dr. Mehmet Taslialan, believes 
that the south wall of the church of Paul you mention is a wall of an 
earlier synagogue (the north wall of that synagogue?). I did not see 
the evidence he found there on which this judgment is based. He also 
considers this site to be well within the city center of the time. 
Regardless, a Jewish community or communities would make sense of 
Paul's concern to go there, as I read him anyway.

The letter to the Galatians, as I see it, indicates an audience of 
Christ-believing gentiles within the boundaries of Jewish communal 
life; however, that Jewish community, while dominant for the 
audience, is itself a minority community living within the context of 
the dominant pagan Antiochene community. The resultant constraints 
upon themselves are behind the pressure being brought upon these 
gentiles (thus pagans) to either become proselytes or change their 
expectations for themselves, for they are but pagan guests in their 
present standing; welcome, but not entitled to membership benefits 
such as legitimation to cease participation in pagan cultural life, 
like the practice of imperial cult (an important practice in this 
Roman city). Failure of some pagan family members/neighbors to 
participate might give rise to significant concern for the harm this 
might bring upon all concerned (in commercial as well as divine terms 
of retribution), and would have an interest in correcting any such 
misbehavior (atheism). That is to say, it is not the responsibility 
of the Jewish communal leaders to allow the suffering of the Jewish 
community for its "special" exclusion from such participation, 
because of this infraction which they have not actually authorized, 
perhaps threatening the legitimation of this exclusion for 
themselves, unless these "pagan" guests are seeking to become 
proselytes.

I believe that this makes sense of Paul's accusation in 6:12 that 
those influencing the addressees to seek proselyte status do so 
because they do not wish to suffer persecution for the cross of 
Christ, which is the basis of these gentiles' appeal to the Jewish 
communal leaders to legitimate their right to exclusion from such 
practices as the imperial cult (in view of the meaning of the death 
of Christ for gentiles according to Paul, a Jewish teacher in their 
understanding), making them part of the righteous ones already. The 
political implications of this appeal/language come to the front, 
since why would the death of a Judean martyr of the Roman regime 
legitimate the exemption of pagans in Galatia from the practice of 
the imperial cult, or why should the Jewish communal leaders not 
sharing such a conviction allow the Jewish community to be subject to 
the unpleasant results that result from upholding such a claim? Would 
they not appeal to the available way to gain such standing and 
exemption, that is, to the need to become proselyte candidates and 
complete this ritual transformation, an inclusive option that will 
give them the standing and exemption that they seek (but already 
claim, inscrutably, upon the basis of the teaching of some leather 
worker who had passed through town!).

I see that I have gone well beyond your questions, sorry. Your 
questions and others of my own along similar lines have been an 
aspect of my engagement with this text for some time. In short, it 
seems that there were several possible reasons for Paul to pass 
through here, if he did (assuming Acts is correct about this, since 
Paul does not mention this city in particular, but simply Galatia).

Regards,
Mark Nanos