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  • From: "Mark D. Nanos" <nanos AT gvi.net>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Yalvac
  • Date: Mon, 8 May 2000 08:27:16 -0500


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




  • Yalvac, Warren Fulton, 05/08/2000
    • <Possible follow-up(s)>
    • Re: Yalvac, Graydonsny, 05/08/2000
    • Re: Yalvac, Mark D. Nanos, 05/08/2000

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