UNSOLVED QUESTIONS AB OUT EARLY CHRISTIANITY IN ANATOLIA * SHERMAN E. JOHNSON The Churoo Divinity SOOool of the Pacific The land mass that we call Asia Minor or Anatolia was of great significance for Christianity in the formative period A.D. 50-150, and of course later, although the present essay will be confined to the history of that period. The Book of Acts says that St. Paul came from Tarsus (9.11 ;11.25; 21.39; 22.3},1 and certainly he made important journeys in Asia Minor and founded churches there. The Apost1e John is reputed to have spent his last days in Ephesus, and certainly one or more venerable Christians of that name lived there. St. Ignatius of Antioch travelled through western Asia Minor on his way to Rome, and our knowledge of his life and thought is confined to letters written by him at this time. The Book of Revelation was certainly written in the neighborhood of Ephesus. Hierapolis, a city of the Anatolian inter­ ior with easy access to the coast, was the home of Philip and three of his daughters, and of Papias, and it was the birthplace cf Epictetus.2 Melito the apologist was bishop of Sardis. The Quartodeciman and Montanist movements are principally associated with Asia Minor. Many pieces of Christian literature are known to have been written in this region, and some others may conjecturally be assigned to it. Much is known of the political history of Asia Minor in this period through literary remains and archaeology,3 and much of the religion * Amico et socio Allen Wikgren : ad multos annos, amice! 1 This evidence is neither oonfirmed nor oontradicted by the Pauline lettere. Uno questionably Paul was quite at home in Anatolia. In most periods of history Tarsus seems to have had Cl080 connections with Syria, but also with Anatolia north of the Cilician gates. 2 Cf. S.E. Johnson, "Laodicea and Its Neighbors", Biblical Arckaeologiat, 13 (1950), 1-18. 3 The two volume work of David Magie, Roman Ruk in Am Minor (Princeton, 1950), is indispensable for political history, and the voluminous notes provide many bibliographical guides. See also T.R.S. Broughton in T. Frank (ed.), Eoonomic Survey 01 the Roman Empire, IV (Baltimore, 1938), and A.H.M. Jones, Oitie8 01 the Ea8tern Roman Empire (Oxford, 1937). 182 SHERMAN E. JOHNSON and culture.1 But, as always, our knowledge of the ancient world is fragmentary. This is particu1arly true of the Christian movements of the period, for Christians were a minority and when they were not persecuted they were outside the mainstream of culture and political power. Any sketch of Christianity in Anatolia must take into account its literary and archaeological remains, but also the political and cultural history of the region, ineluding especially what is known of Judaism in this area. The purpose ofthe present essay is to formulate some ofthe questions to be asked ifresearch-which has been carried on abundantly for many years-is to make further progress. 1. The question prior to all others is, how appropriate is it to take early Ohristianity in Anatolia a,s a unity of study? Sir William Ramsay made this his life work, and he thought of Paul as both a Roman citizen and an Anatolian Jew. At the same time, we realize that Asia Minor was not an isolated culture area. So far as Greek-speaking people were concerned, it was part of the Hellenistic world and in contact with most parts of it. Greek literature written by Anatolians was circulated everywhere, and writers and scholars travelled widely, Demetrius of Tarsus, for example, a friend of Plutarch, who wrote the treatise On Style, was teaching Greek in York in A.D. 80. The work of Paul stretched from Antioch to Macedonia and Achaia and an Anatolian period in it cannot be marked off as unique. There were always elose Christian associations with Antioch (and perhaps Jerusa­ lem) on the one side and with Rome on the otber. There is also the fact that Asia Minor contained many different 10cal cultures and the old languages were still spoken, particularly in the villages. Cults differed from place to place. But even because of this very fact Anatolian Christianity was open to influences somewhat different from those in other parts of the empire. 2 2. What was it like to be an Anatolian who had absorbed Greek culture ? And what kind of places were tbose towns mentioned in the Book of Acts-Lystra, Derbe, Iconium and Pisidian Antioch? Was this a "developing" country ? 1 M.P. Nilsson, Ge/lchichte der griechischen Religion, 2nd edition, II (München, 1961), is the best introduction to pagan religion in Asia Minor. 2 See particularly R.W. Ehrieh, pp. 1·21 in S.S. Weinberg (ed.), The Aegean and the Near East (Loeust Va.lley, New York, 1956). .