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  • From: "Mark D. Nanos" <nanosmd AT comcast.net>
  • To: Corpus-paul <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: Why were Gentiles attracted to Christianity?
  • Date: Fri, 07 Jun 2002 08:09:07 -0500


David,
One of the interesting things about Pisidian Antioch in Galatia is that we
have the presence of a Jewish population and Romans, which would make it a
good location for the rhetorical situation of Paul's letter--as I understand
it, with both Jewish communal and Roman constraints arising for followers of
Paul's message. It was a fairly good size city at the time. The local
archaeologist describes the south wall of the St. Paul's Church as built
adjacent to the remains of a synagogue. There is too much unresolved to draw
any implications, but it is interesting, and one can hope that further work
there will yield more information. I think there is sufficient epigraphic
evidence throughout central Anatolia, including from small towns/villages,
to suggest the presence of many Jewish communities, of various sizes,
intimately involved with the non-Jewish communities of their locations. You
should find discussion and references in Irony (20-22, 257-71) to the works
of Trebilco, S. Mitchell, and Rajak, which will cover some of this material.
I was wary of drawing conclusions on the precise location of the addressees
because if one privileges one or the other of the prevailing hypotheses this
gets into a problem I want to avoid. So I emphasized approaching the
rhetoric apart from such a decision, so that we can remain as open as
possible to what the rhetoric might reveal about the probable historical
situation.

Anyway, I do not know of any way at present to resolve whether the
addressees in Galatia had been "God-fearers" of some sort associated with
Jewish communities in some way prior to Paul's arrival. I do think it is
highly likely that they were "God-fearers" (associates of Jewish synagogue
communities) in some way at several places in Galatia when he wrote.

Regards,
Mark
--
Mark D. Nanos, Ph.D.
313 NE Landings Dr.
Lee's Summit, MO 64064
USA
nanosmd AT comcast.net





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