What defines a text as Christian?

Discussion about the New Testament, apocrypha, gnostics, church fathers, Christian origins, historical Jesus or otherwise, etc.
User avatar
billd89
Posts: 1347
Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2020 6:27 pm
Location: New England, USA

P.Bas. 2.43 (additional speculation on Theadelphia in Fayum)

Post by billd89 »

Regarding P.Bas. 2.43:
Kyrios wasn't exclusively Xian, though; it was common for Serapis also. However, 'Paulus' is suggestive of a Xian I agree.
The letter contains indications that in the early third century {c.220 AD}, Christians were living outside the cities in the Egyptian hinterland, where they held political leadership positions and blended with their pagan environment in their everyday lives.

A brief note to support this is found in G.H.R. Horsley, "Name Change as an Indication of Religious Conversion in Antiquity" Numen, Vol. 34, Fasc. 1 (Jun., 1987), p.5. Where the date is perhaps a century Too Early, see here. Bagnall (1982) held that
until the beginning of the fourth century {c.300 AD}, there is virtually no evidence of Christian names in Egypt

(I'm not opposing the Swiss interpretation, just noting another very different conclusion; yet Bagnall may have recognized this very same Paulus as a 'Xian outlier' against his conclusion.)

Relevant mostly to the tax for the libation of Dionysos c.165 AD in Theadelpheia, p.178:
The Alexandrian citizens were probably all absentees. They may normally have resided in the Arsinoite metropolis or that of another nome rather than in Alexandria, but they probably never lived for long periods in Theadelphia, even if they maintained a house there for the purpose of occasional visits. Some of these Alexandrians may also have possessed Roman citizenship.

If Jews were forced to convert to other cults during/after the holocaust of c.115-8 AD, some probably maintained a vestige of their Jewish identity. otoh, there IS archaeological evidence for linking heterodox Judaism with Dionysios in the 1st C AD, see p.51 of this Diss.:
A. Kerkeslager argues that the Jews in Upper Egypt were strongly influenced by the Hellenized Egyptian traditions and that most scholars passed over the archeological evidence. The Franco-Polish excavators found in the Jewish quarter potteries decorated with animal and Dionysiac forms, a relief with Hathor, images of Harpokrates and ithyphallic figures representing Harpokrates.181 Given the fact that these statues were found among the Jewish ostraca, it seems quite likely that they were common in Jewish homes. These findings should not be ignored because they reveal the assimilation and the social integration of the Jews in the Egyptian environment.

All this merely allows that - if Paulus was an inheriting landowner of several generations - he might have been a vintner of Jewish extraction (3 generations earlier) born as an Alexandrian Xian c.200 AD. If the name Paulus was strange in Theadelphia c.200 AD, then a city origin seems more plausible for a gourmand craving (Alexandrian) fish sauce. But I am admittedly assuming a great deal re: Dionysos here. And Paulus' family could as easily been literate cosmopolitan pagan gentry w/ no Jewish ancestry whatsoever. Still...

There IS considerable evidence Theadelphia was still known as a 'Jewish area' c.140 AD. Another reference is A. Kasher, "First Jewish Military Units in Ptolemaic Egypt" in Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Period, 1978, Vol. 9, No. 1 (1978), p.63.

'Chaldeans' (Syrian 'Jews') they were typically called - I wonder if they were Melchizedekians or Sethians.

Image
User avatar
Jax
Posts: 1443
Joined: Sun Aug 06, 2017 6:10 am

Re: P.Bas. 2.43 (additional speculation on Theadelphia in Fayum)

Post by Jax »

billd89 wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 5:10 pm
Regarding P.Bas. 2.43:
Kyrios wasn't exclusively Xian, though; it was common for Serapis also. However, 'Paulus' is suggestive of a Xian I agree.
Actually, the use of the Nomina Sacra abbreviation for Kyrios is what makes this a probable Christian letter.
Post Reply