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corpus-paul - RE: Why were Gentiles attracted to Christianity?

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  • From: "David C. Hindley" <dhindley AT compuserve.com>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: Why were Gentiles attracted to Christianity?
  • Date: Fri, 7 Jun 2002 09:39:12 -0400


Mark replied:

>>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.<<

Thanks, Mark! I knew that you had decided not to try and
tackle the location issue in order to concentrate on the
rhetoric (pg. 9, I think), but I had a feeling, though, that
there would be something about existing Jewish communities
in the book since you assumed such were present. Still, the
comments I saw (on page 260-261 seem fairly generalized, and
not really evidence from northern Galatia. However, like
you, I think the southern regions of the province seem like
more likely candidates, considering three of the cities or
towns in the region are specifically mentioned by the author
of Acts as towns he believes Paul had visited.

I was aware that there is quite a lot of evidence for Jewish
residents and synagogues present in Phrygia and Cappadocia,
for sure. However, these areas had relatively large cities,
and this seems to be where the evidence is concentrated.
Northern Galatia seems to have been relatively rural (except
for Ancyra the capital), although that alone does not
preclude the presence of concentration of Jews here and
there.

Still, just to probe Horsley's rural village context a
little more, is there evidence for rural Jewish communities
outside of "Palestine" that you are aware of? Under what
kind of contexts were they present? Perhaps, if there is
such evidence, we can make some generalizations.

Respectfully,

Dave Hindley
Cleveland, Ohio, USA






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