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EARLY CHRISTIAN GEOGRAPHY by ROBERT M. GRANT 1. Samaria EARLY CHRISTIAN GEOGRAPHY BY ROBERT M. GRANT 1. Samaria-Galilee-Judaea Greek critics beginning with Herodotus claimed that Paris took Helen to Sidon in the Iliad but from Sparta directly to Ilium in the Cypria- which therefore were not written by Homer.' Similarly, Hans Con- zelmann criticized Luke for inventing a special geography of the "holy land," which he found in Luke 17:11, "As he was going to Jerusalem he passed through Samaria and Galilee." From this Conzelmann inferred that for Luke "Judaea and Galilee are immediately adjacent, and ... Samaria lies alongside them, apparently bordering on both the regions."2 He supported his conjecture from Acts 9:31 ("the church in all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria"),3 from the geography of Strabo (who names areas in Judaea, apparently to the north of Joppa, as "Galilee and Jericho and Philadelphia and Samaria, and from an ambiguous expression in Pliny. Strabo, however, does not seem to be following a map when he begins with Galilee and Jericho, to the north- west and southwest of the Jordan, then names Philadelphia to the southeast, and ends in Samaria, south of Galilee. One cannot rely on Pliny, who thought that coastal Samaria began not far north of Gaza and says that "beyond Idumaea and Samaria stretches the wide expanse of Judaea," while "the part of Judaea adjoining Syria is called Samaria."' He has mixed up several directions, not just north and south. Conzelmann's citation of Tacitus is not helpful, for the historian was not speaking precisely when he said that Felix governed Judaea, including Samaria, while Cumanus ruled over Galilee.6 As for the sequence in Acts, it could be due to the mission as described in Luke and, indeed, on the historical sequence as Luke envisaged it: churches first in Judaea and Galilee (Acts 2:7 [in Jerusalem]: "Are not all these Galileans?"), then in Samaria (Acts 8:1,14,25). We suppose, therefore, that the framework in Luke is literary rather than cartographic. He first speaks of Jesus' journey thus: "It happened 106 that when the days drew near for him to be received up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem" and began his journey near "a village of the Samaritans" (9:51-53). After that, he denounces Galilean towns such as Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum (10:13-15). Galileans are men- tioned before dwellers in Jerusalem in sayings found in Luke 13:1-4. Luke 13:22 has Jesus go on "making his way to Jerusalem" because "it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem" (13:33). The sequence of subject matter thus seems to be Samaria-Galilee- Jerusalem. Again, after Luke 17:11 (Jerusalem-Samaria-Galilee) we immediately hear of cleansed lepers who include a Samaritan (17:16). We may add that Luke obviously knows Paul and Barnabas could go from Antioch to Jerusalem through Phoenicia and Samaria (Acts 15:3). The route lay through Tyre or Ptolemais in Phoenicia (Acts 21:3). His geographical picture must be close to that of the reliable Josephus, who says that "the province of Samaria lies between Galilee and Judaea," and that "it was the custom of the Galileans at the time of a festival to 7 pass through the Samaritan territory on their way to the holy city."' Would Luke have contradicted Josephus? 2. Asia Luke also provided details about Paul's journeys and sometimes explained why he visited particular Roman regions. Thus in Acts 16 :6- 10 we hear of Paul's passage through "Phrygia and the Galatian land, prevented by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in Asia." These are obviously regions, not provinces, for "Phrygia" belonged partly to Asia and partly to Galatia, while "Galatia" means the northern part of the province; and "Asia" is primarily the region around Ephesus. "Mysia" too belonged to the province of Asia.' After reaching Mysia Paul wanted to enter Bithynia, but the spirit of Jesus did not permit this. A night vision at Troas summoned him to Macedonia, and there he went. As Conzelmann points out, he could turn neither east nor west and therefore went west to the coast in order to head north. Later he went through the provinces of Macedonia and Achaea (essentially Cor- inth, capital of Achaea, 18:12),9 and spent some time in Asia on his way to Jerusalem and Rome (19:21-22). Other geographical names in Acts show either that Luke knew the area well or that he used a map with old kingdoms as well as Roman provinces. Also in the late first century we find a list of addressees in northern .
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