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As a result of the proceedings of the First Council of Constantinople, held in 381, Roman emperor Theodosius I ordered the immediate surrender of all churches to the orthodox Greco-Roman bishops. He issued his edict July 30, 381, authorizing seizure of all Judeo-Christian synagogues and thereby ending any accommodation of Judeo-Christianity. With this act the period of the Great Separation (CE 135-381) came to a close.
For decades Jerusalem�s orthodox bishops and their followers sought to dispossess the Judeo-Christians of their synagogue on Mt. Sion and become the only Christians of Jerusalem. Bargil Pixner, with respect to the synagogue, wrote that the "church fathers (Eusebius, Epiphanius, Jerome and others) called it �a cottage in a cucumber field�" citing Migne Patrologia Graeca 22.43-44 and Baldi, Enchiridion 733, 734 (Pixner 1990:60). This echoes Hippolytus, writing about CE 225, who said of Jerusalem "the daughter of Sion shall be left as a cottage in a vineyard and as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city" (Hippolytus Works, Part II.30, Roberts and Donaldson 1986:mm).
Jerusalem's Judeo-Christians had walled-up their compound on Mt. Sion to isolate themselves from their Gentile adversaries. The only structure of import on the site was their synagogue, called the Holy Church of God by Eusebius, and in later times the Church of the Apostles, the Cenacle, and finally the Tomb of David (its present day name). "Though recognizing the authenticity of the place," said Pixner, "the gentile Christians looked with suspicion and almost contempt at the synagogue of the Judeo-Christians on Mt. Zion, considering their way of life outdated, if not heretical" (Pixner 1990:29-30).
Pixner found the massive sills of an ancient gate which he believes to be the gate to the wall of Sion. He wrote: "We believe that the crudely worked middle sill of our gate was part of an entrance in this primitive �Wall of Sion,� which surrounded an impoverished community of Jewish Christians shunned by other Christians as heretics because they refused to accept the doctrinal decision of the Council of Nicea (CE 325)" (Pixner 1997:31).
In CE 333 the Bordeaux pilgrim apparently entered the Judeo-Christian compound on Mt. Sion through its wall by means of this makeshift southern gate. He left the Mt. Sion compound at a northern gate where again he had to "pass through the wall of Sion" (Pilgrim of Bordeaux 593; Wilkinson 1971:158, 157). The pilgrim reported that as he left the city, apparently from the Temple Mount area, to climb Sion he could see, as he looked below, the pool called Siloam beside the wall. Descending to the Pool of Siloam he then commenced "to climb Sion" where "within the wall, you can see where David had his palace" and also see a synagogue (Pilgrim of Bordeaux 592; Wilkinson 1971:157-158). Bagatti says that the Bordeaux pilgrim itinerary and a history developed by Eutychius, writing ca. CE 935, evidence the religious strife in early fourth-century Jerusalem (Bagatti 1971a:14; Migne Patrologia Graeca 111:1012-1013).
That there existed strife between the different branches of the faithful can easily be gathered both from the expression of the anonymous pilgrim of Bordeaux in 333, who says that the three first basilicas were erected by the gentile Christians "at the command of Constantine", that is, by force, and from the late account of Eutychius (PG 111, 1012-13) that, just at his time the faithful while they were leaving the church on Easter day, were forced to eat pork under pain of death. We know how the Judaeo-Christians refused this in order not to transgress the Mosaic law to which they held bound. (Bagatti 1971a:13-14; see Pilgrim of Bordeaux 594; Migne Patrologia Graeca 111.1012-13; Wilkinson 1971:158.)
A distinct "them" and "us" mentality marked this time. Eusebius, in reference to the throne of James preserved by the Judeo-Christians on Mt. Sion, referred to them as "those brothers" (Eusebius Ecclesiastical History 7.19) translated "the brethren in succession there" in the Loeb edition (Oulton 1986:177) or "The Christians there" in the Penguin edition (Williamson 1965:234). Jerome, concerning the pretended discovery of the body of the apostle James on the east side of the Kidron, stated that it was done by one of "ours" (Migne Patrologia Latina 23.643). Both references connect with the apostle James, the first bishop of Jerusalem, but distinguish between "them" and "us" (Bagatti 1971a:10).
Bishop Cyril of Jerusalem (bishop, 348/50�386), found himself deposed as bishop thrice (357, 360, 367) and thrice restored (358, 362, 378) in regard to accusations of alleged theological submission to his Arian superior Akakios, bishop of Caesarea, on the one hand, and harboring of pro-Nicene sentiments, on the other (Baldwin 1991:571-572). He delivered a series of lectures to new converts, ca. 347 or 348, in the newly constructed Church of the Holy Sepulcher. For Cyril and his orthodox brethren the Judeo-Christian community of Jerusalem were not "Christian" but rather "Nazarene".
He said: "...Jesus Christ being the Son of God gave us the dignity of being called Christians. But some one will say, The name of �Christians� is new, and was not in use aforetime (1): and new-fashioned phrases are often objected to on the score of strangeness (2)" (Cyril Catachetical Lectures 10.16; Schaff and Wace 1989a:61). He responded by quoting Isaiah 65:15 arguing that the people of God would have the new name "Christian". The implication is that "the community of Jerusalem in the first half of the 4th century was not only not formed of solely Gentile Christians, but that these had not yet succeeded in changing its Jewish character" (Bagatti 1971a:12-13).
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With respect to the Judeo-Christian synagogue on Mt. Sion, Cyril told his catechumens it would have been more appropriate for him to speak of the Holy Spirit "in the Upper Church of the Apostles" (Baldi Enchiridion, no. 730; Pixner 1990:28; Schaff and Wace 1989a:116). He could not, of course, as the two communities were apart, and the facility was in the hands of the Judeo-Christians. The edifice, in the control of Judeo-Christians for nearly three centuries, had not been built as a church by Gentile Christians but as a Judeo-Christian place of assembly that in fact served as a church (Murphy-O�Connor 1994:299).
During this period pagans continued to trouble the orthodox at Jerusalem but their cause failed as did an abortive attempt by Jews to rebuild their Temple during the regime of emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363). The latter, although regarded as an orthodox Christian converted to paganism sometime around his 20th birthday, had sought a revival of paganism. According to Jeffrey Broadd "the principal motive for Julian's Temple project was not just friendship toward Jews and Judaism, or even hostility toward Christianity" but rather "an important part of a comprehensive reform of traditional paganism" (Broadd 1995:33, 36). Internal strife over the Arian matter also troubled the Greco-Roman congregation at Jerusalem.
Karen Armstrong, discussing the opposition of Roman emperor Julian to Christianity, suggests that Christians learned a great lesson in the ca. CE 362-363 abortive Jewish attempt to rebuild a temple at Jerusalem under his imperial command and protection. She states that:
Christians did not forget that they had nearly lost their holy city. They could no longer take their tenure for granted and were determined to establish such a strong Christian presence in Palestine in general and Jerusalem in particular that they could never be dislodged again. The character of the city changes as the Christians gradually began to achieve a majority. By 390 the city was full of monks and nuns and foreign visitors came to Jerusalem in large numbers, returning home with tales of the Holy City and enthusiastic descriptions of its impressive liturgy; others stayed on permanently. (Armstrong 1996:197.)
In Asia Minor, a center of Hellenistic Judeo-Christianity, the Council of Laodicea meeting at Laodicea in Phrygia Pacatiana adopted the 29th cannon banning the keeping of the Jewish Sabbath by any Greco-Roman Christian within their sees. While 365 often appear as the date of the synod chronological uncertainties involved place it sometime between the 343 Sardican Council and the 381 Council of Constantinople (Schaff and Wace 1988:124). The legislation for the synod of Laodicea, a provincial council, was an attempt by the Gentile bishops to quash the adoption of Judeo-Christian customs by Greco-Roman Christians of Asia Minor (Bagatti 1971a:88). Pertinent canons are:
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Canon 6 prohibited heretics to enter a church while they continued in heresy (Schaff and Wace 1988:127). |
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Canon 7 required all persons converted from heresies, that is, of the Novatians, Photinians, and Quartodecimans, whether they were catechumens or communicants, to anathematize every heresy, and particularly that in which they were held (Schaff and Wace 1988:127). |
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Canon 29 stated that "Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord's Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ" (Schaff and Wace 1988:148). |
Optatus of Mileve (d. ca. 400) was a fourth-century bishop and polemicist. He wrote a document between 363 and 376. To this he added an incomplete seventh book in 386, against Parmenian, the Donatist bishop of Carthage. This later book is now known as Contra Parnenianum Donatistam (Stuiber 1967:706-707). Optatus, about 370, noted the absence of any synagogue of the Jews on Mt. Sion (De schismate Donatistarum 3:2; Vincent and Abel 1922:473; Murphy-O�Connor 1994:299). He knew that the Cenacle was a place of Judeo-Christian place of assembly that in fact served as a church.
Epiphanius of Salamis in his Ancorarus, written in CE 374 (Baus 1986:72), omits Mt. Sion in his enumeration of the Holy Sites of the Passion�Bethphage, Bethany, the Temple, Olivet, Gethsemane, Praetorian of Pilate, Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre (Epiphanius Ancorarus 40, Migne Patrologia Graeca 43.89-90). Bagatti�s sense of the matter was that: "Since the Cenacle, which is not mentioned, is of prime importance for the institution of the Eucharist, and other places mentioned are of little importance, we must admit that the omission is intentional. We guess that he did not wish to record it because he held the Judaeo-Christians as heretics" (Bagatti 1971a:11).
In the Panarion, written in CE 375-377, Epiphanius makes it quite clear that the Nazarenes, that is, the Judeo-Christians of Jerusalem in particular and of Palestine in general, were not Christians.
7,1 But these sectarians whom I am now sketching disregarded the name of Jesus, and did not call themselves jessaeans, keep the name of Jews, or term themselves Christians-but "Nazarenes," from the place-name, "Nazareth," if you please! However they are simply complete Jews.
7,2 They use not only the New Testament but the Old Testament as well, as the Jews do. For unlike the previous sectarians, they do not repudiate the legislation, the prophets, and the books Jews call "Writings." They have no different ideas, but confess everything exactly as the Law proclaims it and in the Jewish fashion-except for their belief in Christ, if you please! (3) For they acknowledge both the resurrection of the dead and the divine creation of all things," and declare that God is one, and that his Son is Jesus Christ.
7,4 They are trained to a nicety in Hebrew. For among them the entire Law, the prophets, and the so-called Writings-I mean the poetic books, Kings, Chronicles, Esther and all the rest-are read in Hebrew, as they surely are by Jews. (5) They are different from Jews, and different from Christians, only in the following. They disagree with Jews because they have come to faith in Christ; but since they are still fettered by the Law-circumcision, the Sabbath, and the rest�-they are not in accord with Christians. (Epiphanius 29:7.1-5; Williams 1987:117-118.)
Epiphanius also declared that Mt. Sion had been "cut off" as heretical. Inasmuch as it was cut off, and thereby lowered in import and significance. Anathematized Mt. Sion was eminent no longer as that honor passed to the Place, that is, to Calvary. In Epiphanius own words: "...although once the hill of Sion, now lowered, was more eminent than the Place" (Epiphanius Panarion 41:843-6; see Williams 1987).
In his CE treatise on weights and measures Epiphanius stated that on Mt. Sion there was: "...the church of God, which was small, where the disciples, after they returned when the savior was taken up from the Mount of Olives, went up to the upper room....which remained until the time of Maximona the bishop and Constantine the king..." (Epiphanius De Mensuris 14; Koester 1989:93). The fact that he stopped at bishop Maximus of Jerusalem (bishop CE 333�348) shows that he no longer considered the Church of the Apostles, i.e., the Cenacle, as a Christian meeting place but rather from the time of Maximus a seat of heterodoxy. For him the Judeo-Christians who controlled the site were heretics (Bagatti 1971a:11).
Gregory of Nyssa, who visited Jerusalem on route to Arabia wrote in a letter, in reference to the Cenacle, "reported that the very place that was the first to receive the Holy Spirit was now in turmoil, and that a counter-altar had been set up" (Pixner 1990:30; cf., Pasquali 1998:13-19; Gregory of Nyssa 1988a:544; cf. 1988b:382�383). In The Church from the Gentiles Bagatti reported that Gregory�s visit to Jerusalem occurred during the reign of John, that is sometime after bishop Cyril�s death in 386 (Bagatti 1971b:49). Then in The Church from the Circumcision he stated first that Gregory�s visit occurred in 381 (Bagatti 1971a:11) and second that it occurred in 379 on his way from Antioch to Arabia to restore peace between two Christian factions as he had been charged by a church council at Antioch (Bagatti 1971a:91). In each case Bagatti referred to the same event and cited Migne�s Patrologia Graeca 46:1009-1024 each time (see Migne Patrologia Graeca 46:1009-1024).
Even with computer technology conforming the minutiae of two significant simultaneous works by a single author for publishing by the same editor, in this case Eugene Hoade, must be quite difficult. By hand it must have been a nearly impossible task. In any case, in what year did Gregory of Nyssa visit Jerusalem? Bargil Pixner places it in 381. If so, was it before or after the First Council of Constantinople? Accounts of the First Council of Constantinople show Gregory of Nyssa in attendance (Baus 1986:74).
According to Karl Baus, in his comprehensive History of the Church, orthodox bishops met at Antioch for a synod in the autumn of 379, where they declared their unity of the faith with Rome. As Baus states it: "In the autumn of 379, on the initiative of Meletius, who had become the leader of the orthodox majority since Basil�s death on 1 January 379, 153 bishops met at Antioch for a synod at which they declared their unity of faith with Rome. Such a step was entirely in keeping with what was to be expected of the religious policy of the Emperor Theodosius I..." (Baus 1986:68; see Bardy 1933:196-213).
Bagatti provided sufficient details, in the context of the 379 synod at Antioch, which help clarify the occasion of Gregory�s visit. He writes:
In 379 the bishops, meeting in council in Antioch, confided to Bishop St. Gregory of Nyssa the commission of going to Arabia to restore peace between the two Christian factions, who had elected two bishops in the same city of Bostra. He availed himself of the opportunity to go to Jerusalem. On this visit he received such a bad impression that he believed it his duty to make it known in two letters (PG 46, 1009-1024). The first letter is written in Jerusalem to persons now unknown; the second is addressed to the most illustrious and most pious sisters Eustathia and Ambrosia and to the most illustrious and most honourable daughter Basilissa. Gregory does not deny that the visit to the Holy Places had given very great joy, but, he says that he believed in the human birth of Christ prior to seeing Bethlehem, in the Resurrection prior to seeing the Tomb, and in his Ascension prior to seeing Olivet. He then says that he received a bad impression from the Christians, whom he found so divided as to have as many "altar" as they could have, "and so rend the seamless tunic of Christ". He was so disgusted by the fact of finding Christians who implicitly said: "Do not approach, I am pure", believing themselves better than himself; who call the Virgin the mother of man and not God; who admitted three resurrections and believed in the restoration of the Temple with bloody sacrifices. All these were doctrines of the Judaeo-Christians which till then were, it seems, unknown to him. The fact that Gregory in describing the Holy Places does not record Sion, where the mother church and the room of the Cenacle stood, makes us conclude that it was exactly there that he did not find himself at ease. (Bagatti 1971a:91-92.)
Apparently the Judeo-Christians on Mt. Sion made it clear to Gregory of Nyssa that he was persona non grata and that they did not consider him a real Christian either. Gregory experienced the conflict, tension, and factionalism dividing the city.
The context of Gregory�s visit, on the way to Bostra the capital of the Roman province of Arabia, fixes it in the fall of 379. He would not be off on a peace making mission to Bostra at the eve of the First Council of Constantinople nor does his description of the state of affairs comport with the post-councilor Jerusalem. Moreover, as one of the prime participants in the Council attempting to bring unity to the Universal Church he would, presumably, have been preparing for it not touring holy sites in Jerusalem. His letter to Eustathia, Ambrosia, and Basilissa warning about visiting Jerusalem would be superfluous after the Roman ejection of the Judeo-Christians.
Following the battle of Adrianople in CE 378, where the Goths defeated the Roman army, western Roman emperor Gratian became "an ardent Christian and supporter of Orthodoxy" (Gregory 1991:867). He appointed Theodosius I emperor in the East in 379 who became ruler of an undivided empire at the death of Gratian in 383. Theodosius I followed a policy of "national unity" and was "the staunchest supporter of Orthodoxy" (Gregory 1991:2050-2051).
Theodosius I summoned the First Council of Constantinople (May�July 9, 381) with 150 orthodox Greco-Roman bishops present although there were no Western representatives (Papadakis 1991:512). "The Emperor�s letters," wrote Baus, "which invited the bishops to the capital of the East for May 381, must have been sent a few weeks after the beginning of the year, so that those who would participate could have time for preparations and travel" (Baus 1986:69). The Council resolved the Trinity question affirmed the theology of Nicaea, and declared the full consubstantiality and divinity of the Holy Spirit (Baus 1986:74; Papadakis 1991:512). The Emperor�s edit of July 30, 381, ordered the immediate surrender of all churches to the orthodox bishops "who confess that father, Son, and Holy Spirit are of one majesty and power, of the same honor and dominion" (Baus 1986:74; Hefele 1896:369).
Bishop Cyril of Jerusalem now had the authority, motive, and opportunity to confiscate the Church of the Apostles, from the Judeo-Christians ensconced on Mt. Sion, which he presumably exercised in the summer of 381. This act of forcing out the Judeo-Christians and taking control of their Church of the Apostles ended, more or less, the strife in Jerusalem. One can only anticipate complete Judeo-Christian capitulation in this increasingly hostile and repressive environment. Following its annexation, the Jerusalem bishop saw to the full absorption of the facility into Greco-Roman Christianity. The traditions associated with the Church of the Apostles naturally came with it, particularly the Upper Room tradition.
The pilgrim Egeria, or Aetheria, a wealthy nun who visited Palestine from Easter to Easter in CE 381-384, left a fairly graphic description of her time spent in Jerusalem. She recorded explicit details of the liturgy of the Holy Land (Vikan 1991:679) and in her description of the liturgy she refers frequently to worship at the Anastasis and at Sion. Large groups of orthodox moved freely to the church of Mt. Sion which she refers to simply as Sion, or Church of Sion, where orthodox priests officiated. She mentioned the appearance of a new church on Mt. Sion with the praise "now there is another church" (Bagatti 1971b:65; Egeria 43.3; Wilkinson 1971:141; cf. Duchesme 1912. The text in Wilkinson reads "because Sion (though it has now been altered into a church) is the very spot..." (Wilkinson 1971:141).
The counter-altar of Judeo-Christianity was gone. Theodosius I caused an octagonal memorial church, as a type of portico, vestibule, or foyer to be constructed in front of the Church of the Apostles. A question remains as to the time and period of its construction. The Theodosian Octagonal Memorial appeared to be complete in 382 which was the date preferred by Pixner (Pixner 1990:25). The almost immediate construction of the Theodosian Memorial suggests not only the Emperor�s direct involvement in the ejection of the Judeo-Christians but his largess for the project as well.
Egeria, ca. CE 384, refers to going to the Column of the Flagellation located on Mt. Sion on Good Friday. By that time the orthodox authorities had relocated the Column of the Flagellation, a column taken from the ruins of the House of Caiaphas believed to be the literal column to which the soldiers tied and scourged Jesus on Pilate�s order, at the Theodosian Octagonal Memorial. About twenty years following Egeria�s visit Jerome described this column as "holding up the porch of the church [on Mt. Sion]; it is stained with the Lord�s blood" (Jerome Letter 108 at 9.4; Wilkinson 1971:231; 1977:49; Schaff and Wace 1989b:199).
Egeria wrote: "After this, when the dismissal at the Cross has been made, that is, before the sun rises, they all go at once with fervour to Sion, to pray at the column at which the Lord was scourged. And returning thence they sit for awhile in their houses, and presently all are ready" (Egeria 37.1; Wilkinson 1971:136; cf. Duchesme 1912.
"To enhance the attraction of the Theodosian building," argues Bargil Pixner, "the presumed column of the flagellation of Jesus, which so far had been lying in the ruins of the house of Caiaphas, was inserted into the portico" (Pixner 1990:34; cf., Baldi Enchiridion 732). Egeria�s description of the liturgy suggests two sanctuaries on Mt. Sion�the Theodosian Memorial and the Church of Sion (the former Judeo-Christian synagogue).
Jerome, soon after the death of Paola in 404, wrote an obituary (Wilkinson 1977:1-2) containing an account of Paola�s pilgrimage to the Holy Land in CE 386 and her visit to Jerusalem�s holy places (Jerome Letter 108; Schaff and Wace 1989b:195-212; Wilkinson 1977:47-49). When he left Rome in August 385 for Palestine his friend Paola, or Paula, and her daughter Eustochium traveled by another route. Meeting at Antioch they jointly visited Jerusalem in 386 (Wilkinson 1977:47 note 2). While there they climbed Mt. Sion to the new Theodosian Octagonal Memorial where, Jerome said, "she was shown the pillar of the church which supports the colonnade and is stained with the Lord�s blood" and then the Church on Sion (the former Judeo-Christian synagogue) described by Jerome as "the place where the Holy Spirit came down on the souls of more than a hundred and twenty persons" (Jerome Letter 108 at 9.4 in Wilkinson 1977:49; Schaff and Wace 1989b:199).
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| The Theodosian Memorial in the ca. CE 400 Pudentiana mosaic. The Memorial is adjacent to the Holy Church if God (the mother of all churches). The Eleona Church on the Mount of Olives, appears above and behind the latter. A BibArch� Photo. |
Jerome�s account suggests that by the time of Paola�s visit religious authorities had moved the Column of the Flagellation from the House of Caiaphas to the interior of a new colonnaded edifice, the Theodosian Octagonal Memorial, in essence leaving the Church of the Apostles untouched. This is precisely the image preserved, in the ca. CE 400 apse of the Basilica of St. Pudentiana in Rome. In the Pudentiana mosaic the synagogue appears to the right of, and adjacent to, the Theodosian Octagonal Memorial (Mackowski 1980:146; Pixner 1990:29; Finegan 1992:235). The Church of the Eleona, built by order of Constantine the Great, appears above and behind the Mother of All Churches (Mackowski 1980:146; Finegan 1992:235).
The Eleona, "of olives", memorialized the place of the Ascension which its builders believed to have taken place nearby. Its construction, directed by Queen Helena, was over the Eleona Cave, the cave-crypt near the summit of the Mount of Olives, visited by both the Pilgrim of Bordeaux in 333 (Pilgrim of Bordeaux 595; Wilkinson 1971:160) and Egeria in 384 (Egeria 24�49; Wilkinson 1971:123�147; cf. Duchesme 1912. This cave-crypt and the east end of the Constantinian Basilica of Eleona now lie beneath the Pater Noster Church.
Bagatti wrote, concerning the Theodosian Memorial, that the "Calendar of the Church of Jerusalem when it indicates the commemoration of the bishop John II (387-417) uses the phrase: �that he was the first to build on Sion�" (Bagatti 1971b:65). The Jerusalem Calendar, or more specifically the Kalendarium Hierosolymitanum, also known as the Georgian Festival Calendar, preserved in numerous manuscripts, lists the stations at which the Georgian Church in Jerusalem celebrated the festivals each year prior to the Muslim invasion in 638 (Finegan 1992:xx; Goussen 1923; see Kopp 1959, 1963). This ancient Georgian liturgical calendar records in translation: "Commemoration of John, the Archbishop of Jerusalem, who first built Sion and of Modestos, who rebuilt it after the fire" (Pixner 1990:60 note 44; Garitte 1958:187).
Bagatti held that the "intransigent phrase used by the Calendar �who first built Sion� gives us clearly to understanding that, as Epiphanius, also this anonymous author did not consider the first inhabitants as genuine Christians" (Bagatti 1971a:12). Was the Theodosian Memorial attributed to John II? Pixner provided an insightful resolution of this matter.
The reference to John II�s activity can only be to the Theodosian building, since everyone knew that the apostolic synagogue stood already on Mt. Zion for centuries. John�s activity is probably so strongly stressed because John was not only the Jerusalem bishop at the time Theodosius constructed the vestibule church, but also the man who enlarged it into the big rectangular church of Hagia Sion. (In the first Byzantine Zion church, the Column of Flagellation was part of the architecture of the portico; in the second, it stood in the center of the church. See Baldi, Enchiridion, nos. 732, 734, 739, 740, 741, 745, 746.). (Pixner 1990:60 note 44.)
Bishop John of Bolnisi, who recorded that the feast of dedication of the "Holy and Glorious Zion" occurred on September 15, credited Theodosius I as the builder of the octagonal Theodosian Memorial on Mt. Sion. The building to which he referred had to be the Memorial and not the later Hagia Sion Basilica as that construction occurred after the death of Theodosius I in 395 but during the bishopric of John II of Jerusalem. In the words of the bishop: "And the 15th of the same month was the dedication of the Holy and Glorious Zion, which is the mother of all churches, that had been founded by the apostles, which emperor Theodosius the Great has built, enlarged, and glorified, and in which the Holy Spirit had come down on the holy day of Pentecost" (Esbroeck 1975:314-315 as translated and quoted by Pixner 1990:31; cf., Pixner 1991:317). When did the dedicatory ceremony occur? If bishop Cyril died early in 386 before the dedicatory ceremony then credit went to Theodosius I.
Later Bishop John II blessed the altar, kapporet, of the Judeo-Christians by then in the Theodosian Memorial, on the Day of Atonement (September 15) possibly 394 wherein he praised Porphyrius the Israelite (Pixner 1990:31; 1991:317; see Esbroeck 1984:99-133). Porphyrius, who began his career as a monk in the Palestinian desert (372-382), went to Jerusalem in 392 where ordained a priest. He became bishop of Gaza in 395. Pixner attributes to Porphyrius a supposititious reconciliation between Judeo-Christians and Gentile Christians of Jerusalem due to Porphyrius� proselyting activities (Pixner 1990:31; see Esbroeck 1984:99-133).
While the Judeo-Christians lost their religious freedom in Judea and their Church of the Apostles the Judeo-Christians of Galilee continued to resist the orthodox for another century (Bagatti 1971b:71-72). By the end of the fifth century, however, Judeo-Christianity appears to have vanished without a trace.
Some Judeo-Christians presumably became refugees, escaping the stifling Antaean embrace of the orthodox, moving on to regions outside the Roman empire where they could freely practice their religion. Others undoubtedly toughed it out. Eventually many, if not most, of these Christians of Jewish stock became so much like their Gentile neighbors that they appear to have lost any distinctive identity. As the orthodox assimilated them their numbers dwindled. Unable to recover and regroup themselves from the relentless orthodox onslaught they seem to have disbursed and blended into the Gentile populations of the empire. This interpretation may be somewhat illusory. From time to time the later literature of the great orthodox Church records occasional eruptions of Nisan 14 Christian Passover observance and Sabbath keeping, which it condemns as Judaizing, thereby insinuating that various Judeo-Christians to some extent simply hid themselves from orthodox tyranny.
Page last edited: 11/28/04 08:44 AM
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