Pella

by peacefulpete 10 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  peacefulpete

  This short thread addresses the often-repeated legend that Christians fled Jerusalem to Pella and escaped the destruction of Jerusalem. The legend is based upon two 4th century comments.

  The whole body, however, of the Church at Jerusalem, having been commanded by a divine revelation given to men of approved piety there before the war, removed from the city to a certain town beyond the Jordan called Pella. Here, those who believed in Christ removed from Jerusalem as if holy men had abandoned the royal city itself and the whole land of Judea.
  — Eusebius, Church History 3, 5, 3

  
  

  So Aquila (Translator of Old Greek LXX) while he was in Jerusalem, also saw (the disciples of the disciples of) the apostles flourishing in the faith and working great signs, healings, and other miracles. For they were such as had come back from the city of Pella to Jerusalem and were living there and teaching. For when the city was about to be taken and destroyed by the Romans, it was revealed in advance to all the disciples by an angel of God that they should remove from the city, as it was going to be completely destroyed. They sojourned as emigrants in Pella, the city above mentioned in Transjordania. And this city is said to be of the Decapolis.
  — Epiphanius, On Weights and Measures 15

  
  In these two passages Christians were said to have been given revelations or a message from an angel telling them to leave for Pella. A second passage allegedly from Epiphanius however reads:

  This heresy of the Nazoreans... took its beginning after the exodus from Jerusalem when all the disciples went to live in Pella because Christ had told them to leave Jerusalem and to go away since it would undergo a siege. Because of this advice they lived in Perea after having moved to that place, as I said.
  — Epiphanius, Panarion 29,7,7-8

  
  It would seem odd for the legend of a revelation or an angel messenger to have arisen after the version that attributed it to Jesus, suggesting the legend connecting the existence of Christians in Pella with the Gospel is a later invention.

  In fact, he first quote from Epiphanius forms part of an explanation for an apparent contradiction with the belief that Christians had left Jerusalem with the legend that they were in Jerusalem in Hadrian's time still doing miracles......they had somehow and for some reason returned to live in a burnt-out city! The record shows however that when Hadrian arrived (129/30) and determined to rebuild the city as a Roman outpost, Jews (and Jewish Christians) were still forbidden entry on penalty of death. That is after all what inspired the Bar Kochba revolt a few years later and the eventual horrific Roman victory. This demonstrates the lack of historical credibility of many early Christian writings. Distanced by hundreds of years and living at a time when the Jews were again allowed to return (313CE), Epiphanius was unaware of the impossibility of Jerusalem Christians returning and thriving at the time of Hadrian.
  

  
  As an interesting side note, the earlier Greek form of Weights and Measures simply mentions "apostles'" thriving doing all kinds of miracles, whereas the Syriac form adds 'disciples of disciples of' apostles. Clearly, we are seeing a solidification of a more exclusive use of the term 'apostle'.
  
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  raymond frantz

  It would seem to me that both accounts are correct and do not contradict themselves ,that Christians had already created an outpost in Pella and at the same time the ones remaining in Jerusalem prior to 66AD where told by an angel to leave. Also, is this your personal research or do you borrow from a book and if so which one? Thank you
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  peacefulpete

  Merry Christmas Raymond....Often legends, like prophesies, are reverse engineered, that is, something exists or happened, and a backstory is created to explain it. In this case, after the events of the First Jewish-Roman War occurred, it seemed appropriate for Jesus to have predicted it. Mark 13 was, I suspect, recast from an apocalyptic standard end-of-days piece into a specific prophecy of the war with the addition of just a couple paragraphs spliced in awkwardly. It has to be significant that no early writers mentioned this rather significant 'fulfilled' prophecy prior to Tertullian. Even Justin Martyr when supposedly debating the Jew Trypho argues for the superiority of Christ by citing his remarkable prophetic insight to predict the suffering and hardship of Christians. He somehow forgets to mention, 'Oh Yeah, he also predicted Roman armies were going to destroy your Temple and Jerusalem!'

  There is an interesting reference in Josephus to a mass evacuation after the 66CE routing of Celsius' garrison at Beth Horon. Hyper-nationalism among the Jewish victors compelled citizens that had supported the Romans to flee in large numbers. "Distinguished Jews abandoned the city like swimmers from a sinking ship" (War 2.20.1 556).

  It is entirely reasonable to believe any Christians living in Jerusalem left at that point if they felt threatened in that environment.

  A distorted memory of that might have played into the enhancements of Mark 13 and the legends that Christians fled by divine revelation.
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  peacefulpete

  It has to be said that Justin is aware of some sayings parallel the Gospels but whatever documents he had did not include a Jesuine prophecy about the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem. He quotes the OT as having foretold that but knows of no tradition that Jesus had.

  That the land of the Jews, then, was to be laid waste, hear what was said by the Spirit of prophecy. And the words were spoken as if from the person of the people wondering at what had happened. They are these: "Sion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. The house of our sanctuary has become a curse, and the glory which our fathers blessed is burned up with fire, and all its glorious things are laid waste: and Thou refrainest Thyself at these things, and hast held Thy peace, and hast humbled us very sore." And ye are convinced that Jerusalem has been laid waste, as was predicted. And concerning its desolation, and that no one should be permitted to inhabit it, there was the following prophecy by Isaiah: "Their land is desolate, their enemies consume it before them, and none of them shall dwell therein." And that it is guarded by you lest any one dwell in it, and that death is decreed against a Jew apprehended entering it, you know very well.
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  peacefulpete

  I have to correct my earlier statement that Tertullian was the earliest reference to the Gospel prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, not only can I not trust my memory, but I also can't trust AI when I confirmed it. It was Origen around 250 CE.
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  peacefulpete

  LOL. wrong again, it was Tertullian around 208CE. I should go to bed.
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  Phizzy

  Thanks once again for a fascinating and informative Thread P.P.

  Having been aware for a long time that the Gospel of Mark was a work of Fiction in the main, but of the Gospel Genre, it has also been long in my mind that this "Prophecy" was written after the event, using the methodology of the Writer of Daniel, but to have it confirmed that this was a very late interpolation is satisfying.

  Thinking on it, Luke 21v21 must be a late interpolation too ?
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  peacefulpete

  The Synoptics were developed in a basic order of Mark-Matt-Luke. I can't see why that would be different in this particular section. What I'm proposing is that Mark was written perhaps as early as 60 or as late as 90CE, adjusted at some point to have Jesus predict the fall of the Temple and Jerusalem. That has been discussed before. That necessitates Matt was created very soon thereafter with Luke 20-40 years later after a number of other recensions were floating about (I speculate after the Bar Kochba revolt). The internal evidence follows that pattern.

  Note also that Mark does not suggest the 'your House is left in ruins/desolate' but Matt does (23:35) and Luke follows (13:35). While this could be understood theologically, it more easily follows the literal loss of the Temple.

  Whatever documents Justin has, which appear to be meager elements, he doesn't seem to have at his disposal any fully developed Gospel. That may be the result of lack of distribution or persecution. It is hard to speculate, but it is surprising given his living in Rome.

  As I speculated before, the 'tear down this Temple and build another' element might have played into this as well. If some early version of the story had Jesus claim to be able to destroy the Temple and rebuild it, (as apparently was the same as making a claim to be the Messiah through an interpretation of Zechariah) it would be simple to rework that as predicting the destruction of it.
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  peacefulpete

  I suggest Mark 13 read something like this:

  1 As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”

  2 " I tell you, I will tear down this Temple and build another!"

  3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, 4 “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?”

  5 Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 6 Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. ..... 8 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines.

  9 “You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. .... 11 Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.

  12 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. .....

  17 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 18 Pray that this will not take place in winter, 19 because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again.

  24 “But in those days, ....“‘the sun will be darkened,

  and the moon will not give its light;
  25 the stars will fall from the sky,
  and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’[c]

  26 “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.

  28 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 29 Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it[d] is near, right at the door. 30 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
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  raymond frantz

  So based on your research @peacefulpete , do you agree with the following?

  Epiphanius wrote **Weights and Measures** in the late 4th century, approximately 300 years after the events of the Roman siege of Jerusalem (70 CE). His account adds the detail of an angelic revelation, which is not mentioned in earlier sources like **Eusebius of Caesarea** (*Ecclesiastical History*, 3.5).

  Epiphanius' account may reflect a theological interpretation or later tradition rather than a historical fact. The earlier and more widely accepted tradition (e.g., Eusebius) attributes the Christians' departure to a divine warning or prophetic revelation without mentioning an angel.

  The claim that an angel instructed the Christians to leave Jerusalem comes specifically from **Epiphanius of Salamis** in *Weights and Measures*. However, it should be treated with caution as it is a later embellishment not found in earlier, more historically grounded sources.