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  • From: "Tsalampouni Ekaterini" <etsalampouni AT hotmail.com>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re:Why were Gentiles attracted to Christianity?
  • Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 01:56:21 +0300


Dear Jeffrey,

I have read your answer and since my thesis was about Macedonia in NT times
(I tried to investigate the social, religious and political environment of
the first Christian communities there) I would like to share some thoughts
with you.
I think that a Gof-fearer needn't be someone who did not worship the idols
while at the same time showed respect for the Jewish God. I do not think
that the Lukan idea is that of an ex-Gentile. For example the centurion
whose slave Jesus healed is not explicitly someone who refrained from
worhipping the idols.
What I found while searching the archaeological (mostly epigraphical)
material of Thessalonica were some inscriptions where the cult of Theos
Hypsistos (the Most High God) is attested. An interesting aspect of this
cult in Thessalonica, flourishing from the mid 1st c. AD to the end of it,
was the fact that the deity was worshipped by a thiasos (association) whose
major activity was a common meal. I do not believe that the God-fearers of
Thessalonica should be identical with the worshippers of Theos Hypsistos.
Although it is a very fascinating idea, it is very simple and too good to be
true, I am afraid. What we could conclude though is the fact that the
citizens of Thessalonica were in a way prepared to understand the preaching
of Paul regarding a God that is transcedent but very close to them as well
(these ideas can be found in Theos Hypsistos as well).
If I may add a last remark. The oldest epigraphical attestation of the
existence of synagogues (!) in Thessalonica should be dated by the end of
the 2nd c. AD.
I hope this very short and hasty notes would offer some help to the
discussion.

Regards
Dr. Ekaterini Tsalampouni

> The problem with this -- if I am reading you correctly -- is that in at
least two of
> Paul's letters (1 Thess and Gal) there is **no** indication that his
converts had any
> association with the/a synagogue before Paul preached to them. 1 Thess
1:9 (as well as
> -- to my knowledge -- a lack of any archeological evidence that there was
a synagogue
> in Thessalonika) indicates that members of the Thessalonican congregation
did not turn
> from worshipping idols **until** they heard Paul -- a description hardly
befitting the
> (mind you) Lukan definition of God fearers. And the same can be said, I
think for the
> Galatian converts.





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