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R.E.C.A.M. Notes and Studies No. 6: Jews, Christians and Heretics in Acmonia and Eumeneia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

A. R. R. Sheppard
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Extract

It is hoped that one of the advantages of the creation of the R.E.C.A.M. archives in Ankara and of the eventual publication of the regional catalogues will be that the synoptic study of particular topics in a given region will be made easier. A provisional reassessement of the relations between Jews, orthodox Christians and related groups in two Phrygian cities is here attempted.

Jewish settlements were established in Phrygia as military colonies by Antiochus III, in the last decade of the third century B.C. Evidence from both inscriptions and rabbinic literature suggests that, by the Roman imperial period, these communities were distinctly Hellenized. The Talmud provides an interesting anecdote, which appears to refer to the Jews of Phrygia and neighbouring Lydia:

The wine of (?) Perugitha and the waters of Diomsith cut off the Ten Tribes from Israel. Rabbi Eleazar ben Arak visited that place. He was attracted to them and his learning vanished. …

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 29 , December 1979 , pp. 169 - 180
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1979

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References

1 I am grateful to the T. C. Eski Eserler ve Müzeler Genel Müdürlüǧü for granting permission for work at Denizli, to Bay Doǧu Göksel and his staff for their hospitable reception and assistance during my visit to Denizli in 1976 and to the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara for financial support in 1975–6. Dr. S. Mitchell kindly commented on this paper and made valuable suggestions; I remain, of course, responsible for errors and omissions.

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