“Guided, as it were, by the dim light of inscriptions,” Julien M. Ogereau lays out the evidence published to date for Christianity in Macedonia in the first six centuries CE in his ambitious and thorough Early Christianity in Macedonia (102). Ogereau’s goal is to document the primary sources (both textual and archaeological) for the emergence of Christianity in Macedonia, a topic that has not received much scholarly interest. In particular, he updates and expands on Adolf von Harnack’s initial survey on the spread of Christianity, which concluded that the evidence for Macedonia was poor.[1] Over the course of his monograph, Ogereau shows just how ample the evidence is.
The study primarily focuses on the epigraphic evidence, though that is not all that is considered. Ogereau also makes use of archaeological materials to expand his analysis and pool of evidence. He treats nearly all of the almost 500 published inscriptions, gathered together from scattered publications and building upon Denis Feissel’s collection.[2] Ogereau notes that he began this monograph while working on the Inscriptiones Christianae Graecae, an open-access database of Christian inscriptions in Greek. All the inscriptions discussed are easily found in this database and Ogereau includes a concordance listing the inscriptions’ original publication information alongside the ICG identifier. Though much of what Ogereau discusses has been treated elsewhere, he succeeds in creating an easily accessible corpus of sources that have not previously been considered together. The result is a collection of the literary, epigraphic, and archaeological sources published on the topic to date.
Previous scholarly efforts to document Christianity in Macedonia have focused on the Pauline epistles and have not fully considered the epigraphic evidence. Both in literary and archaeological studies, the focus has been narrow, as with a focus on martyrial centers,[3] or not in-depth, unlike surveys with a different geographical scope.[4] Though no work covers his area of focus, for archaeological material Ogereau frequently relies on treatments of compiled archaeological evidence.[5]
The introduction and following two chapters treat the background information relevant to the emergence of Christianity in Macedonia and its study to date. After the introduction, Chapter Two gives an overview of Roman-era Macedonia, particularly in the categories of travel networks, religious background, and ethnic makeup of the region. Ogereau outlines the travel infrastructure present in the region, like the via Egnatia, especially important for his following discussion of Paul’s travels. The chapter also charts the religious background and ethnic context of Macedonia, describing the Hellenistic, Roman, and local cults and the various peoples who lived in the region. Ogereau concludes that Macedonia was very much like other Roman provinces in diversity and cultural balance.
Chapter Three then turns to the earliest sources for Christianity in Macedonia, namely, the Pauline epistles Philippians and Thessalonians, the Acts narrative of Paul’s travels in the region, and a letter of Polycarp to Philippi. He directs an appropriate amount of skepticism toward the historical reliability of these sources and charts the difficulties and scholarly debates of the dating and authorship of each one. However, he leaves out reference to wider debates in Pauline studies and prevalent readings of the texts, which question whether what Paul was doing can be called “Christianity” and allow space for other interpretations of the Pauline texts.[6] There is a nod toward this debate with the use of the term “Christ-believers,” but some discussion or citation of such interpretations would be beneficial here. Ogereau claims Paul and his companions as Christian and he credits Paul as the founder of the earliest Macedonian Christian communities, with some continuity in those communities to later periods, which is not strongly supported by the following two-century gap in sources. For those who see Paul as a Jew later adopted by Christian tradition, this will be a harder interpretation to accept. Still, Ogereau has a measured approach to the literary evidence, acknowledging that it does not provide detailed historical information on what these communities were like, leaving those questions up to interpretation and imagination. These are the most-studied texts on the region and Ogereau leaves a more thorough analysis to already-published works—instead, his main contribution is putting these texts in conversation with epigraphic and archaeological evidence and firmly rooting them in their geographical location.
After laying out the historical background, the chapters are organized geographically, covering expected cities like Philippi and Thessalonica as well as more rural areas. Each chapter is further subdivided by locales within the subregion, and the evidence is ordered chronologically from there. The chapters describe the geographical bounds used for that region; overall, Ogereau’s use of Macedonia corresponds to “historical Macedonia,” roughly equivalent to the kingdom Philip II established in 348 BCE and to the Roman regions after the Third Macedonian War in 168 BCE (24). The chapters are all full of details and descriptions of the commonalities and oddities in the epigraphic and archaeological evidence. For example, clergy are not well attested in funerary epigraphy in Thessalonica despite the city’s size, and a bird-and-cross motif was the most popular decoration at Edessa. The geographic chapters are full of these sorts of rich details and information.
Chapter Four covers eastern Macedonia, including Philippi and the Strymon valley communities of Amphipolis, Serrai, and Parthicopolis. This region has less epigraphic evidence than the central region, despite having major hubs like Amphipolis and Philippi. Ogereau argues that despite the volume of inscriptions, Christianity thrived here, as evidenced by the monumental architecture that developed in the fourth to sixth centuries in the three episcopal centers of Philippi, Amphipolis, and Serrai. He suggests that the large, numerous sites at Philippi and Amphipolis were likely more than the community itself needed and may have been used for pilgrims traveling to commemorate Paul’s journey.
Central Macedonia is the focus of Chapter Five. As Thessalonica provides most of the epigraphic evidence for all Macedonia, it is the main topic of the chapter, though there is some discussion of Chalcidice. While the initial spread of Christianity here is again attributed to Paul, the religion did not gain momentum in the city until the Constantinian era and further power until the Theodosian period. Overall, Ogereau argues for a fifth century building program in Thessalonica as the city became a religious and artistic center, through remains such as the Acheiropoietos and the Hosios David mosaic. Chalcidice and its monumental architecture are an example of how a lack of inscriptions does not equal a lack of Christianity, a point that Ogereau continuously returns to throughout his discussions in other chapters.
Chapter Six covers western Macedonia, namely Edessa, Beroea, Dium, and the Bottiaean and Pierian plains. The oldest confirmed Christian inscriptions were found here in Edessa, dating to the third century; Ogereau argues that Christianity was established early here even though Paul did not travel to this area. Along with the large chronological gap in sources, the earliest epigraphic sources emerging outside of Paul’s orbit lends credence to a counterargument that perhaps Paul is not key to the emergence of Christianity in Macedonia, which Ogereau does not consider. Though there is limited evidence for a Christian community in the third century, Christianity does not seem more prevalent until the fifth century, as in other regions of Macedonia.
The final chapter treats northern Macedonia, which has left the smallest number of recorded inscriptions. Stobi is the main focus here, while Heraclea Lyncestis and rural regions are also covered. Like western Macedonia, there is no evidence of Paul’s missionizing, and like most of Macedonia no evidence of Christianity prior to the fourth century (though there is intriguing theater-seat graffiti from the second century that could serve as the earliest evidence if taken as Christian). As elsewhere, Ogereau takes the remains of basilicas in the region as evidence of a strong Christian prevalence, regardless of the small number of inscriptions.
Epigraphy is largely linked to major cities, and thus Ogereau concludes that the “Christian epigraphic habit was predominantly an urban phenomenon” (326). However, this is not to say that Christianity did not spread to more rural regions; he is careful to argue that evidence, like the numerous basilicas built in the fifth to sixth centuries, shows a diffusion of Christianity that did not require marking oneself as Christian on an epitaph. The multitude and variety of evidence allows Ogereau to come to a more nuanced conclusion than prior scholars have reached on Christianity’s growth in Macedonia, showing how there were a multitude of ways that Christians left their presence in the historical record.
This volume fulfills its goals and serves as an introduction to the sources for early Christianity in Macedonia, leaving much room for future interpretation and expansion of evidence. Early Christianity in Macedonia is a model for regional history and bridging sources of different media. Though some will disagree with Ogereau’s interpretation of Pauline texts and their influence, the monograph will be useful for anyone interested in considering such texts within their geographical or physical context.
Notes
[1] Die Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten (Lepizig: Hinrichs, 1902). 2nd ed., 1906. 3rd ed., 1915. 4th ed., 1924.
[2] Denis Feissel, ed., Recueil des inscriptions chrétiennes de Macédoine du IIIe au VIe siècle, Bulletin de correspondence hellénique Supplément 8 (Athens: École française d’Athènes, 1983).
[3] Blaga Aleksova, Loca sanctorum Macedonia: The Cult of Martyrs in Macedonia from the 4th to 9th Centuries (Skopje: Macedonian Civilization-Skopje, 1997).
[4] Such as Carolyn Snively, “The Early Christian Period in the Republic of Macedonia: The Churches,” in Macedonia: Archaeology, History, Art, Culture, ed. P. Kuzman et al, 1329-404 (Skopje, 2013).
[5] Especially Fanoula Papazoglou, Les villes de Macédoine à l’époque romaine (Athens: École française d’Athènes, 1988) and Flora Karagianni, Οι βυζαντινοί οικισμοί στη Μακεδονία μέσα από τα αρχαιολογικά δεδομένα (405-1505 αιώνας) (Thessaloniki: University Studio Press, 2010).
[6] Such as: Kimberly Ambrose, Jew Among Jews: Rehabilitating Paul (Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2015); Gabriele Boccaccini and Carlos A. Segoviao, eds., Paul the Jew: Rereading the Apostle as a Figure of Second Temple Judaism (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2016); and Paula Fredriksen, Paul: The Pagans’ Apostle (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017).