A critical investigation of archaeological material assigned to Palestinian Jewish-Christians of the Roman and Byzantine periods

Abstract

The Franciscan Fathers B. Bagatti and E. Testa have developed the hypothesis which holds that Jewish-Christians with a heterodox theology venerated and utilised many important Christian holy sites before they were appropriated by the "Gentile" Church in the fourth century.

This thesis argues that Jewish-Christians should not be defined in terms of heterodox theology but by their maintenance of Jewish praxis, which may accompany various theological perspectives. A detailed examination of the literary traditions and archaeology of the land in general and important Christian holy sites in particular shows that there is no evidence for Jewish-Christians in the heartland of Palestine, which was in the third century extensively populated by pagans. Moreover, there is no evidence that any Palestinian Christians venerated places they considered sacred prior to the fourth century. If the definition of pilgrimage implies travel to specific holy places in order to pray, then there were no Christian pilgrims prior to Constantine's mother, Helena. It was Constantine who established the first Christian holy sites in Palestine, using the pagan model of the sacred shrine. Before Constantine, Christians had visited Palestine out of interest in the land of the Bible, but had not considered any site "holy" (which was too materialist a notion). After Constantine, Christian holy places multiplied. Biblical or apocryphal stories were attached to certain areas; this served in part to fulfil the expectations of the flood of Christian pilgrims who followed Helena's example. Some of the designated Christian holy places had been associated with Biblical or apocryphal stories already (e.g. Bethlehem, Eleona, Golgotha), though only a few sites (e.g. Golgotha, Gethsemane, Bethesda) are probably "genuine" in that they really were locations at which New Testament events took place. Frequently, holy sites were claimed and appropriated by the Church from pagans, Jews and Samaritans (e.g. Mamre, Bethlehem, Golgotha, Bethesda and many tombs and caves). Byzantine holy places were also created which had no traditional significance and where nothing sacred existed before (e.g. the Bethany Cave, the Tomb of the Virgin, the Church of Holy Zion, the Rock of the Agony, the Imbomon) . The Christian structures in Nazareth and Capernaum should be included in this category. Small pilgrim churches (the "House of Mary" and the "House of Peter" respectively) were built in these two Jewish cities by Joseph of Tiberias who, acting with the blessing of Constantine, constructed them in order to encourage the conversion of Jews in Galilee. Christian pilgrimage in turn provided financial revenue for Jews, who could then afford to construct such an edifice as the Capernaum synagogue.