Rhosus or Arsuz

  

The river at Arsuz.

  

Northwest of Antakya, behind the Amanus Mountains on the Mediterranean coast stands the small town of Arsuz, the Rhosus or Rhossus of classical times. Strabo (d. ca. 24 AD), for instance, mentions it in his Geography: "Near the sea in this region lies Seleuceia, and Pieria, a mountain continuous with Mt. Amanus, and Rhosus, which is situated between Issus and Seleuceia."[1]

Nearly 200 years after Strabo wrote his Geography, there was a congregation of Christians in the small town. At that time, though, the ideas of the Christians differed from the teaching of the early congregations. Thus, in Rhosus the congregation used a "gospel" that was regarded as spurious by the Christians in Antioch. It was called The Gospel of Peter.

 

 

 

In Syria, and many other places in the ancient world Christianity had been influenced by Gnostic doctrines. One of the teachings popular among the Gnostics was that everything material is by nature bad. Consequently, according to them, the body of Jesus cannot have been material at all.

The apostle John is arguing strongly against this belief in his first letter.[2] It was difficult to challenge his authority, so instead people with contradictory ideas started to write counterfeit letters and gospels carrying the names of some of the apostles of Christ. One of these gospels was the Gospel of Peter.

When the bishop of Antioch realised that the small congregation used the Gospel of Peter believing it genuine, he felt the need to warn his co-religionists.

  

 

The Orthodox church at Arsuz.

In the second century there was no church building.

The congregations met in private homes.

 

The church historian Eusebius, who wrote his Church History about 150 years later, has this to tell:

 

Chapter XII.—Serapion and his Extant Works.

It is probable that others have preserved other memorials of Serapion’s literary industry, but there have reached us only those addressed to a certain Domninus, who, in the time of persecution, fell away from faith in Christ to the Jewish will-worship; and those addressed to Pontius and Caricus, ecclesiastical men, and other letters to different persons, and still another work composed by him on the so-called Gospel of Peter.

He wrote this last to refute the falsehoods which that Gospel contained, on account of some in the parish of Rhossus who had been led astray by it into heterodox notions. It may be well to give some brief extracts from his work, showing his opinion of the book. He writes as follows:

“For we, brethren, receive both Peter and the other apostles as Christ; but we reject intelligently the writings falsely ascribed to them, knowing that such were not handed down to us.

When I visited you I supposed that all of you held the true faith, and as I had not read the Gospel which they put forward under the name of Peter, I said, If this is the only thing which occasions dispute among you, let it be read. But now having learned, from what has been told me, that their mind was involved in some heresy, I will hasten to come to you again. Therefore, brethren, expect me shortly.

But you will learn, brethren, from what has been written to you, that we perceived the nature of the heresy of Marcianus, and that, not understanding what he was saying, he contradicted himself.

For having obtained this Gospel from others who had studied it diligently, namely, from the successors of those who first used it, whom we call Docetæ[3] (for most of their opinions are connected with the teaching of that school) we have been able to read it through, and we find many things in accordance with the true doctrine of the Saviour, but some things added to that doctrine, which we have pointed out for you farther on.” So much in regard to Serapion.[4]

And indeed, there were very strange assertions in the Gospel of Peter. Among other things it has the following account about the resurrection of Jesus:

  

And in the night in which the Lord's day was drawing on, as the soldiers kept guard two by two in a watch, there was a great voice in the heaven; and they saw the heavens opened, and two men descend from thence with great light and approach the tomb. And that stone which was put at the door rolled of itself and made way in part; and the tomb was opened, and both the young men entered in.

When therefore those soldiers saw it, they awakened the centurion and the elders; for they too were hard by keeping guard. And, as they declared what things they had seen, again they see three men come forth from the tomb, and two of them supporting one, and a cross following them: and of the two the head reached unto the heaven, but the head of him that was led by them overpassed the heavens. And they heard a voice from the heavens, saying, Thou hast preached to them that sleep. And a response was heard from the cross, Yea.[5]

  

A speaking cross and men as tall of skyscrapers! No wonder that the bishop from Antioch got concerned.

  

  

Grave

  

Today Rhosus is called Arsuz. It is the only town in Turkey with a non-Muslim mayor. He is an Orthodox, and besides his job at the municipality, he is running a small fish restaurant besides the river.

  

People in Arsuz are very kind indeed. There are Sunni Muslims, Nusayri Alewites and "Greek" Orthodox. But they are living together in peace and tolerance: A beautiful example for the rest of Turkey and for Europe as well.

  

 

 

---

[1]. Strabo, Geography, Book XVI, chapter 2, accessed May 28, 2013, http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/16B*.html.

[2]. The three letters of the apostle John are found towards the end of the New Testament.

[3]. Docetists. "Docetism is broadly defined as any teaching that claims that Jesus' body was either absent or illusory." – "Docetism," Wikipedia, accessed May 28, 2013, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docetism.

[4]. Eusebius Pamphylius, ed. Philip Schaff, Church History, Book VI, Chapter 12 (New York: Christian Literature Publishing 1890) 528-30.

[5]. "The Gospel of Peter," Early Christian Writings, accessed May 28, 2013, http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/gospelpeter.html.

  

  

Habib al-Najjar and St. George

 

In Antakya Mount Silpius is called the Mountain of Habib al-Najjar (Turkish: Habib-i Neccar). According to a local legend a disciple of Jesus called Habib al-Najjar was martyred in Antioch in the first century. This assumption is usually based on Sura XXXVI in the Kur'an although no name is mentioned there.

As shown earlier, there was hardly any Christian martyr in Antioch during the first century, and the only martyr named Habib is from Şanlıurfa (Urfa or Edessa) and from the third century. (See "Habib-i Neccar and Sham'un," Antioch – The Queen of the East, http://antioch-on-the-orontes.blogspot.com/2011/10/habib-i-neccar-and-shamun.html.)

Nevertheless, halfway up the slopes of the south-western hill of Silpius you find a grotto supposed to have belonged to Habib al-Najjar.

 

 

When Richard Pococke visited Antioch in connection with his journey to the Middle East (1737-42) he found a sanctuary up the slopes of Mount Silpius he called the Church of St. George. He writes:

"About halfway up the south-west hill, and almost opposite to the aqueduct: that is below the iron gate, is the church of saint George; the ascent is very difficult; the Greeks say this church belongs to them, but they permit the Armenians to make use of it; there are about three hundred of the former, and fifty of the latter communion in Antioch." [1]


Is this church the same as the present cave of Habib al-Najjar? We do not know. Its location and the way it looks would indicate a similarity.

 

 

---

[1]. John Pinkerton, A general collection of the best and most interesting voyages and travels in all parts of the world, Vol. X (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1811 ), 561.

The Quartodecimans and the Easter Controversy

 

Speaking about Easter or Passover, we have to mention the controversy about the timing. This strife was finally settled at the Council at Nicaea in AD 325, where it was agreed to celebrate the resurrection of Christ on a Sunday whatever the date. In Wikipedia we read:

"The second stage in the Easter controversy centers around the First Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325). Granted that the great Easter festival was always to be held on a Sunday, and was not to coincide with a particular age of the moon, which might occur on any day of the week, a new dispute arose as to the determination of the Sunday itself, since Sundays can occur on any date of the month. Shortly before the Nicean Council, in 314, the Provincial Council of Arles in Gaul had maintained that the Lord's Pasch should be observed on the same day throughout the world and that each year the Bishop of Rome should send out letters setting the date of Easter." ^[1]

First time we hear of divergences in this question is around the AD 120. According to the church historian Eusebius of Caesarea (d. 339) Polycarp (d. 155), the bishop of Smyrna and a companion of Papias,^[2] who had known the Apostle John, had travelled to Rome to  convince the Pope that the right thing was to commemorate the death of Jesus on the 14^th of the lunar month Nisan. In Rome, and in the West, Sunday had been chosen instead to celebrate the resurrection of Christ.

Quoting Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon, (d. c. 202) Eusebius writes:

"And when the blessed Polycarp was at Rome in the time of [Pope] Anicetus, and they disagreed a little about certain other things, they immediately made peace with one another, not caring to quarrel over this matter. For neither could Anicetus persuade Polycarp not to observe what he had always observed with John the disciple of our Lord, and the other apostles with whom he had associated; neither could Polycarp persuade Anicetus to observe it as he said that he ought to follow the customs of the presbyters that had preceded him." ^[3]

Interestingly, Polycarp based the celebration of the 14^th of Nisan on the practise of the apostles. This would be in harmony with the words of Jesus when he instituted the Lords Supper: "Then he took a loaf of bread, gave thanks, broke it in pieces, and handed it to them, saying, 'This is my body, which is given for you. Keep on doing this in memory of me.'" ^[4]

Polycarp and Anicetus parted in disagreement, but in peace. But this was not the end of the controversy. A footnote to Eusebius has this to tell us:

"About 170 a.d. the controversy broke out again in Laodicea, the chief disputants being Melito of Sardis and Apolinarius of Hierapolis. In this controversy Melito advocated the traditional Asiatic custom of observing the fourteenth day, while Apolinarius opposed it." ^[5]

Many years after the death of Polycarp, the problem was up again. Eusebius writes:

"A question of no small importance arose at that time. For the parishes of all Asia, as from an older tradition, held that the fourteenth day of the moon, on which day the Jews were commanded to sacrifice the lamb, should be observed as the feast of the Saviour’s passover. It was therefore necessary to end their fast on that day, whatever day of the week it should happen to be. But it was not the custom of the churches in the rest of the world to end it at this time, as they observed the practice which, from apostolic tradition, has prevailed to the present time, of terminating the fast on no other day than on that of the resurrection of our Saviour." ^[6]

Polycrates, the Bishop of Ephesus where the Apostle John had died a hundred years earlier, went to Rome to see Pope Victor (d. 199). Eusebius quotes Polycrates addressing Victor with these words:

"We observe the exact day; neither adding, nor taking away. For in Asia also great lights have fallen asleep, which shall rise again on the day of the Lord’s coming, when he shall come with glory from heaven, and shall seek out all the saints. Among these are Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who fell asleep in Hierapolis; and his two aged virgin daughters, and another daughter, who lived in the Holy Spirit and now rests at Ephesus; and, moreover, John, who was both a witness and a teacher, who reclined upon the bosom of the Lord, and, being a priest, wore the sacerdotal plate.

"He fell asleep at Ephesus.

"And Polycarp in Smyrna, who was a bishop and martyr; and Thraseas, bishop and martyr from Eumenia, who fell asleep in Smyrna.

"Why need I mention the bishop and martyr Sagaris who fell asleep in Laodicea, or the blessed Papirius, or Melito, the Eunuch who lived altogether in the Holy Spirit, and who lies in Sardis, awaiting the episcopate from heaven, when he shall rise from the dead?

"All these observed the fourteenth day of the passover according to the Gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith. And I also, Polycrates, the least of you all, do according to the tradition of my relatives, some of whom I have closely followed. For seven of my relatives were bishops; and I am the eighth. And my relatives always observed the day when the people put away the leaven. I, therefore, brethren, who have lived sixty-five years in the Lord, and have met with the brethren throughout the world, and have gone through every Holy Scripture, am not affrighted by terrifying words. For those greater than I have said ‘We ought to obey God rather than man.’” ^[7]

It seems, therefore, that Christians in the East, Antioch included, continued to observe the 14^th of the lunar month of Nisan as the day of Jesus' death.

Interestingly, there was never any disagreement between the eastern and western churches about the date of Jesus' resurrection. All of them admitted that it fell on Sunday, Nisan 16. The issue was about which day to observe. In the words of Catholic Encyclopedia:

"The question thus debated was therefore primarily whether Easter was to be kept on a Sunday, or whether Christians should observe the Holy Day of the Jews, the fourteenth of Nisan, which might occur on any day of the week. Those who kept Easter with the Jews were called Quartodecimans or terountes (observants); but even in the time of Pope Victor this usage hardly extended beyond the churches of Asia Minor." ^[8]

That the Sunday celebration of western churches was for the Lord's resurrection is clear enough. But what did the Quartodecimans, or the eastern churches do on Nisan 14?

These words of Eusebius seem to clarify the matter:

"A question of no small importance arose at that time. For the parishes of all Asia, as from an older tradition, held that the fourteenth day of the moon, on which day the Jews were commanded to sacrifice the lamb, should be observed as the feast of the Saviour’s Passover." ^[9]

Keeping in mind that the 14^th of Nisan started at sunset on Thursday and continued until Friday evening, it is reasonable to believe that the ancient custom consisted of celebrating the Lord's Supper (also called Eucharist) in commemoration of the death of Christ. As a footnote to Eusebius states:

"The Asiatic churches, in observing the fourteenth of Nisan, were commemorating the last passover feast and the death of the paschal Lamb." ^[10]

The question now is how this dissent came about. The standpoint of the eastern churches is clear: they just did what the scriptures apostles had told them to do. The West chose to celebrate the resurrection instead of the death of Christ, claiming that this was what the apostles Peter and Paul had told them to do.^[11] However, both Peter and Paul are connected to the eastern city of Antioch as well, and Paul travelled extensively in Asia Minor, where the practice of the Quartodecimans was widespread.

One cannot help wondering if the western churches changed an ancient custom simply to disassociate themselves from the Jews, who celebrated their Passover on the same day Christ instituted the Lord's Supper.
 

________

1. "Easter controversy," Wikipedia, accessed April 4, 2013, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_controversy.
2. Papias is reported to have said:
"I will not hesitate to add also for you to my interpretations what I formerly learned with care from the Presbyters and have carefully stored in memory, giving assurance of its truth. For I did not take pleasure as the many do in those who speak much, but in those who teach what is true, nor in those who relate foreign precepts, but in those who relate the precepts which were given by the Lord to the faith and came down from the Truth itself. And also if any follower of the Presbyters happened to come, I would inquire for the sayings of the Presbyters, what Andrew said, or what Peter said, or what Philip or what Thomas or James or what John or Matthew or any other of the Lord's disciples, and for the things which other of the Lord's disciples, and for the things which Aristion and the Presbyter John, the disciples of the Lord, were saying. For I considered that I should not get so much advantage from matter in books as from the voice which yet lives and remains." - Michael William Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers in English (Baker Academic, 2006) 309, quoted at Wikipedia, "Papias," accessed on April 6, 2013.
3. Eusebius Pamphilius, ed. Philip Shaff, Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine, (New York:Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1890  493 (Christian Classics Ethereal Library, www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.html ).
4. Luke 22:19, International Standard Version (© 2012).
5. Eusebius Pamphilius, Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine, 487n1687.
6. Ibid., 487-88.
7. Ibid., 489-90.
8. "Easter Controversy," Catholic Encyclipedia (New Advent), accessed April 6, 2013, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05228a.htm.
9. Eusebius Pamphilius, Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine,485.
10. Ibid., 409n1702.
11. Thus Early Church History to A. D. 451, Lesson 10, Page1, accessed April 6, 2013, http://www.parsonsapple.com/church%20history/Lecture10.pdf.

 

Easter

 

 

The Orthodox church in Antakya

 

 

By now Christendom is well over its Easter celebration. Easter is regarded as the main church festival. However, in many aspects it looks more like a pagan festival.

  

The name itself seems to indicate this. At a time when the Church was closer to original Christianity, the festival was called Pascha or Passover, derived from the Hebrew פסח. But as time went on more and more pagan practices were introduced, and the name was changed to Easter. The origin of the name itself may have been pagan. Wikipedia has this to say about it:

  

"In his 725 AD work, De temporum ratione, the Venerable Bede, a Northumbrian monk and Christian scholar, suggested that the modern English term Easter, cognate with modern German Ostern, developed from the Old English word Ēastre or Ēostre. This is generally held to have originally referred to the name of an Anglo-Saxon goddess, Ēostre, a form of the widely attested Indo-European dawn goddess. The evidence for the Anglo-Saxon goddess, however, has not been universally accepted, and some have proposed that Eostre may have meant "the month of opening" or that the name Easter may have arisen from the designation of Easter Week in Latin as in albis." ^[1]

 

In his book The Two Babylons, Alexander Hislop observes: 

 

"Then look at Easter. What means the term Easter itself? It is not a Christian name. It bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven, whose name, as pronounced by the people of Nineveh, was evidently identical with that now in common use in this country. That name, as found by Layard on the Assyrian monuments, is Ishtar. The worship of Bel and Astarte was very early introduced into Britain, along with the Druids, "the priests of the groves." Some have imagined that the Druidical worship was first introduced by the Phenicians, who, centuries before the Christian era, traded to the tin-mines of Cornwall. But the unequivocal traces of that worship are found in regions of the British islands where the Phenicians never penetrated, and it has everywhere left indelible marks of the strong hold which it must have had on the early British mind." ^[2]

  

All this may be right or wrong. Whatever the case, Easter has been mixed up with elements that are foreign to any Christian celebration. An example are the Easter eggs. This custom naturally has a myth of origin. It says:

  

"The coloring of “Easter eggs” originated from the pious legend that Mary Magdala was bringing cooked eggs to share with the other women at the tomb of Christ – This remains the tradition among observant Jews even in our own time – When Mary Magdala saw the Lord, the eggs in her basket turned brilliant red. Thus, the true meaning of dyeing Easter eggs is to show forth the miraculous transformation and re-creation of the whole world by the victorious resurrection of Christ." ^[3]

  

Alexander Hislop disagrees. Quoting Fabulae of Gaius Julius Hyginus (d. AD 17) he writes:

  

"The classic poets are full of the fable of the mystic egg of the Babylonians ; and thus its tale is told by Hyginus, the Egyptian, the learned keeper of the Palatine library at Rome, in the time of Augustus, who was skilled in all the wisdom of his native country: "An egg of wondrous size is said to have fallen from heaven into the river Euphrates. The fishes rolled it to the bank, where the doves having settled upon it, and hatched it, out came Venus, who afterwards was called the Syrian Goddess " — that is, Astarte. Hence the egg became one of the symbols of Astarte or Easter; and accordingly, in Cyprus, one of the chosen seats of the worship of Venus, or Astarte, the egg of wondrous size was represented on a grand scale." ^[4]

  

Hislop may have a point. A footnote by John Garstang  in the book The Syrian Goddess by Lucian of Samosata says: "Atargatis, [Astarte] according to the form of the legend given by the scholiast on Germanicus' "Aratus" was born of an egg which the sacred fishes found in the Euphrates and pushed ashore." ^[5]

  

Now, all this is very strange. In the Middle East, Antioch (or Antakya) included, there was a tradition of weeping for the god Tammuz. The story goes that the young Tammuz (who, among other things, represented vegetation) died and was bewailed by his consort Ishtar (or Astarte), the goddess of love and sex. Eventually he returned to life again. With the egg as a symbol of life or resurrection – and at the same time connected to Venus or Astarte – it is puzzling to read the story of Mary Magdala at Jesus' tomb, where she takes upon herself the role of the wailing the death of Jesus with eggs turning red at his resurrection.

  

Besides all this, it should be remembered that the Nusairy Alewites (a group of Muslims regarded as renegade by the mainstream) in Antakya and western Syria celebrates a "Festival of Eggs" roughly at the same time as the Catholic and Orthodox Churches celebrate Easter. And evidently, this festival has nothing to do with the resurrection of Christ. The Nusairys are not afraid of admitting that they, besides Muslim holidays, also celebrate those of their Christian neighbours, such as "Epiphany, Pentecost, and Palm Sunday." ^[6] However, they do not claim that their Festival of Eggs has any connection with anything Christian.

  

Nevertheless, a similarity exists between the Festival of Eggs and the Melkite story about Mary Magdala. The Nusayri Alewites, like the Hindus, believe in reincarnation in the literal sense of the word. According to a source of mine, a Protestant with an Alewite background, the eggs represent reincarnation. Obviously the Nusayri Alewites and the churches have the tradition of celebrating a festival by using eggs from the same source although the connotations of the eggs are different, but not at all dissimilar.

  

Is it not strange that Mary Magdala, who by some is believed to be a former prostitute, is waiting at Jesus' tomb for his resurrection with eggs in her hands? It is as if the egg-born Astarte is waiting for the resurrection of her Tammuz, just in a new disguise.

  

People are naturally free to mix whatever they like into their popular beliefs. However, the uncontrollable connotations of their new discourse may take them to places they did not anticipate.

  
For further information about the Nusayri Alewites in Antakya, please see my book Antioch on the Orontes - A History and a Guide

__________

1. "Easter," Wikipedia, accessed April 2, 2013, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter.

2. Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons (London: S. W. Patridge &Co., 1858) 103.

3. "Great Lent and the Holy Week," Eparchy of Newton –Melkite Greek Catholic Church, accessed April 2, 2013, https://melkite.org/faith/faith-worship/holy-week-traditions.

4. Hislop, The Two Babylons, 109. See also Hyginus, trans. Mary Grant, Fabulae 150-199, accessed April 2, 2013, http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae4.html:

CXCVII. VENUS

Into the Euphrates River an egg of wonderful size is said to have fallen, which the fish rolled to the bank. Doves sat on it, and when it was heated, it hatched out Venus, who was later called the Syrian goddess. Since she excelled the rest in justice and uprightness, by a favour granted by Jove, the fish were put among the number of the stars, and because of this the Syrians do not eat fish or doves, considering them as gods."

5. Lucian, The Syrian Goddess, (London: Constable and Company LTD, 1913) 81n56

6. Matti Moosa, Extremist Shiites – The Ghulat Sects, (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1988) 393.



The state of old Antakya

  

In 1822 Antakya (Antioch) was hit by an earthquake that destroyed many buildings in the city. The English gentleman Neale, who visited the city 25 years later, has the following description from an English family of three who were living in Antakya at the time of the catastrophe:

Suddenly a terrible sensation was experienced, and the whole house waved to and fro on the stormy billows of a tempest-driven ocean. The sensation was only momentary; the dizziness occasioned, such as ensures when you miss your footing and slip from a narrow plank or pathway down a steep bank side. A fearful report, and shaking as though the earth had been rent in twain, almost instantly succeeded; there was a great cloud of lime, dust, and mortar. a fearfully yell of alarm and pain from all quarters. One half of the city lay prostrate in the dust; the other half was little better than crumbling ruins.¹

            However, Antakya rose again, but only to be struck by another earthquake in 1872. In the meantime Ibrahim Pasha and his Egyptian soldiers had visited the city. Unfortunately he used stones from the walls off ancient Antioch and from ruins of important buildings to built his own palace and the barracks still standing. Neale writes:

In addition to the destructive effects of this catastrophe, Ibrahim Pacha, in his attempt to beautify the modern city, blew up, by means of subterranean mines, almost every particle that remained of the original walls of the city. The superb barracks built by him to accommodate ten thousand men, as well as the beautiful country-residence on the banks of the Orontes, erected for the Pacha's private use, were constructed from materials which had originally formed the oldest structures of the city.²

Today it is still possible to find old buildings which may have survived the earthquake in 1872 and therefore probably date back to the period after the great earthquake in 1822. Unfortunately, many of these buildings are in a state of extreme neglect. Subsidies have been given to have some of the old houses along the street called Kurtuluş Caddesi (formerly the Colonnaded Street) renovated. It looks however as if just the facades have got a face-lift, and nothing more.

  

 

 

People in modern Antakya, and especially the housewives, are less than interested in moving into an old house where bathroom and kitchen are across the yard. In other cases, an old building has been left to heirs who cannot agree about what to do with it. In some cases, no doubt, listed buildings are wilfully left to decay so that a modern monster in concrete can erected on the spot.

  

  

  

One solution may have been to allow foreign purchasers with special interest to buy the old buildings and have them renovated. Unfortunately, a decision made by the Cabinet in Ankara has put a stop to that. There it has been decided that foreigners cannot buy real estate in the province of Hatay, where Antakya is located. While it is understandable that a government may put certain restriction on the sale of real estate to foreigners, it is difficult to understand why people with a residence permit in Turkey should not be able to buy the house they live in – especially if they pay for the renovation of the place. This, at least, would be of benefit for the old part of Antakya, which, in turn, would attract more tourists.

  

  

 
   

It is hoped that somebody eventually will "see the light" and permit people to contribute to the embellishment of Antakya.

  

 
 
_________________________

1. F. A. Neale, Evenings at Antioch; with Sketches of a Syrian Life (London: Eyre and Williams, 1854) xxvi, xxvii.

2. F. A. Neale, Eight Years in Syria, Palestine, and Asia Minor from 1842 to 1850, Volume II  (London: Colburn and Co., Publishers, 1852) 11, 12.
  
  

An old Antakya house

    After more than four years in a modern house of concrete, we managed to move into one of the old houses in the central quarter of Antakya. The house is located between what used to be the Colonnaded Street and the Orontes inside the area that used to be within the first Seleucid wall. In fact, it may even be located at the spot of Bottia, the small town at the bank of the Orontes at the time of Alexander the Great.
    It is uncertain how old the house is. One thing is sure: it can be found on a photo of Antioch taken from an airplane by the French in 1932. Consequently, it very likely dates back to the big earthquake on April 3, 1872 that counted VII-VIII in Antakya.[1]
    But it may in fact be older. Part of the house is made of big stones while another part is evidently built later. If part of the house is older than 1872, it may have been built after the earthquake  on August 13, 1822 that destroyed most of the city (estimated as VIII).[2]
    Originally it was one of the classical houses in this area with a big courtyard with trees and a well surrounded by buildings, all of them with their doors opening towards the courtyard. The house where we are living used to be part of such a complex but was later divided up in two plots.
    In the part of the old courtyard that belongs to us whe had the concrete that covered the yard removed so that the original pavement was seen. However, in the middle of it a hollow was found. Modern Antiochenes told us that it in Arabic was called a jurn, a place where women used to grind wheat and make purée of tomatoes and pepper. We placed a big flower pot with a palm tree in it so that people would not fall into it. In fact, some of our workers did.

    Later we found out that water collected in the jurn, so we had a hole drilled in its bottom and realised that there was a well underneath it.
    The toilet and the kitchen were in a separate building with access from the yard. We kept it like that. Removing the plaster from the kitchen wall, the workers found a fireplace in the wall. Although we do not need a fireplace there, we kept it as it used to be.

    There was no bathroom, but we found out why.
    The floor of the living room is elevated about 40 cm over ground level; but when entering the room, there is an area of marble on about two square meters at ground level where you can leave your shoes before stepping up into the living room.

   
    By the locals we were told this was where people used to take a bath with a bucket of hot water at their side.
    The floor of the living room was covered with concrete as was the yard. We had it removed and had tiles of original pattern put on the floor. When the concrete was removed, the workes found a small hole made of stone in the floor.

  

    It showed up the be a primitive way of heating. In old times the hole was filled with glowing charcoal and people sat around it, probably covering the their legs and the charcoal with a wool or goat hair blanket.
    The walls of the living room are filled with build-in cupboards. We have kept them in their original colour.

    The windows are tall with internal shudders.

    To the right in the wall towards the part of the house that has been added later (perhaps after the earthquake in 1872), there is a clear evidence that the originally was a door towards the outside.

    The newer part of the house is less interesting. It is shown on the French aireal photograph from 1931, so we may assume that it was added after the earthquake in 1872. We use it as a studio.

    It has been an interesting experience to move into an old Antakya house. Although it in many respects is different from the houses in ancient Antioch, it has some of the same flavour. The centre of Antakya has many houses of the same sort, many of the a lot larger than ours. Unfortunately they are left to decay.

An Antakya house from about 1850 [3]

 
  
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1.  Mohamed Reda Sbeinati, Ryad Darawcheh & Mikhail Mouty, "The historical earthquakes of Syria: an analysis of large and moderate earthquakes from 1365 B.C to 1900 A.D." Annals of Geophysics, Volume 48, N. June 2005, 414
2.  Ibid. 413, 414
3. F. A. Neale, Evenings at Antioch (London: Eyre and Williams, 1954)

The table of content of the book Antioch on the Orontes

CONTENTS

Introduction

 

A History

      1.   The beginning

      2.   The Seleucids

      3.   The Romans

      4.   The Byzantines

      5.   The Muslims

      6.   The Crusaders

      7.   The Norman Principality of Antioch

      8.   The Mamelukes

      9.   The Ottomans

      10. After World War I

 

A Guide

11.  Seven tours

12.  The religions

13.  Myths and legends

14.  Modern Antakya

 

Appendices

A.    Lord, god and logos

B.     Monarchianism

C.     The School of Antioch

D.    The Church of St. Peter

E.     Topography

F.      Languages

  

   

  

Antioch on the Orontes - A History and a Guide

   

My book Antioch on the Orontes - A History and a Guide is finished and can be ordered:

   

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Antioch-Orontes-A-History-Guide/dp/0761858636

  

 

 

 

The Cherubim Gate and the carob trees

  

In second century Antioch there was a gate at the southwest extreme of the Colonnaded Street called the Cherubim Gate.^[1] Outside this gate was the settlement of Kerateion and after this the settlement of Rhodion on the eastern side of the torrent Phyrminus.

 

 

 

A map of old Antakya. The location of the Cherubim Gate is marked with an x. Ouard is the Arabic name for rose, So we maintain that this quarter is what was called Rhodion. Today it is called Güllü Bahçe (Ros Garden). Kerateion was very like identical with Mahsan.

 

The story goes that the Roman general Titus after destroying Jerusalem in 70 CE put up representation of cherubs (angelic beings) taken from the temple in Jerusalem at this gate to annoy the Jews living in this neighbourhood. The cherubs are thought to have been similar to those who had been placed on the Ark of the Covenant in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. However, at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, this room was empty. Consequently, it is uncertain what the cherubs at the gate were supposed to have been.

We have this story from the Byzantine chronicler Ioannes Malalas who died in 578, about five hundred years after the destruction of Jerusalem. He writes:

Titus, having celebrated a triumph for his victory, departed for Rome; and Vespasian from the Jewish spoils built in Antioch the Great the so-called Cherubim before the gate of the city. For there he fixed the bronze Cherubim which he found fixed in the Temple of Solomon; and when he destroyed the Temple he took them thence and carried them to Antioch with the Seraphim, celebrating the triumph for the victory over the Jews which had taken place in his reign, setting up above a bronze statue in honour of the Moon with four bulls facing Jerusalem, for he had taken it at night when the moon was shining.^[2]

The trouble with Malalas, though, is that he has a tendency to mix hearsay into his writings. Thus, Jerusalem was not taken by night as claimed in the quotation. This, of course, would not exclude that Titus set up statues of some sort at the gate.

The gate is also mentioned by a biographer of Symeon Stylites the Younger in connection with a plague that hit the city in the sixth century:

The destroyer went toward the gate at the south, which issues towards Daphne, and there rose from the so-called Cherubim, and as far as Rhodion, in all the quarter called Kerateion, a great cry and mourning and much lamentation.^[4]

According to this, the quarter called Kerateion was situated outside the Cherubim Gate, between the gate and the quarter of Rhodion.

On the other hand, Procopius gives us the following information about the situation of Kerateion (or Cerataeum):

So, then, after the city had been destroyed, the church was left solitary, thanks to the activity and foresight of the Persians to whom this work was assigned. And there were also left about the so-called Cerataeum many houses, not because of the foresight of any man, but, since they were situated at the extremity of the city, and not connected with any other building, the fire failed entirely to reach them.^[5]

According to these two quotations, Kerateion was situated outside the Cherubim gate with sufficient distance to be unharmed by the fire inside Antioch. It should be mentioned, though, that the wind in Antakya is mostly in the west. If this was the case when the Persians burnt the city, flames and sparks would blow in the opposite direction of Kerateion. The space between the city inside the Cherubim Gate and Kerateion may not have been extremely wide.

It also seems that there was a quarter called Cherubim in ancient Antioch.^[6] Naturally, this could have been a quarter inside the gates, or it could have been between the Cherubim Gate and Kerateion.

However, the quotation from the biography of Symeon Stylites the Younger seems to indicate that the quarter of Cherubim was outside the gate. And Procopius' story about the fire leaves us with in impression that there was no other quarter between Kerateion and the city. This seems reasonable as the distance between the old site of the Cherubim Gate and the quarter called Rhodion (today Ward [rose] in Arabic and Güllü Bahçe [rose garden] in Turkish) can be walked in less than five minutes.

 

  

 

The area south of the Cherubim Gate in modern Antakya.

The gate does not exist anymore.

  

 

There is another explanation, although it admittedly is based on abduction.

Here in the Middle East mythopoeia is a common phenomenon. Over the Cave Church of St. Peter, for example, you find the rock-hewn bust of Charon, the character that, according to Greek mythology, took the souls of the diseased over the River Styx. Locals will tell you that originally it is the Virgin Mary. To them Charon looks like a woman and he is carved into the rock over the church, so why not?

  

 

 

But back to the Cherubim Gate.

As mentioned above the word cherub is a Hebrew word (כרוב: kerûb). The plural of this word is kerûbîm. The Greeks in Antioch would write is as χερουβιμ while the Arameans would either use the Hebrew form above or their own kerûbîn.

Now the word kerûb is pronounced nearly as the word for carob in Hebrew and Aramaic (חרוב, cherub or kherûb).^[7]

In the Hebrew translation of Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son in the Gospel of Luke chapter 15, the Greek word for carobs in verse 16 has been translated by the word cherûb in plural (חרובים).^[8] In the original Greek text the word is κεράτιον (keration). According to a Greek dictionary, κερατωνια (keratwnia) and κερατεα (keratea) are names of the carob tree. Please notice how close these words for carobs are to the name of the quarter of Kerateion between the Cherubim Gate and the quarter of Rhodion.

 

Consequently I suggest that we dismiss the story of Malalas about cherubs set up by Titus at the south-western gate of Antioch.

 

Indeed, there may have been statues or similar objects at the gate, and they may even have been placed there by Titus. But as people did not know what they represented - or they knew, but later generations forgot it - the Aramaic and Hebrew name of the quarter between the gate and the quarter of Rhodion, the Quarter of Carobs, was believed to mean the Quarter of Cherubs (Cherubim), and the gate was named accordingly. This process would be similar to the one that has happened to Charonion, by some believed to represent the Virgin Mary.

The Greek speaking populace, however, continued to call the quarter by its original name Kerateion ([the quarter of] carobs) while they started to use the Hebrew name on the gate.

In this connection it should be remembered that the Jewish quarter was situated at the gate, probably outside it, in the quarter of Kerateion (between the Jewish synagogue and the point where streets Oğuzlar Caddesi and Kurtuluş Caddesi today meet). It is therefore natural that it was the Hebrew version (cherûbîm) and not the Aramaic version (cherûbîn) that became common.

 

_______

POSTSCRIPTUM

 

The fruit of the carob tree is often associated with John the Baptist. In German it is called Johannisbrot, in Danish johannesbrød, in Swedish johannesbröd, in Dutch Johannesbrood, in Finnish johanneksenleipäpuu.

The story goes that the Medieval ascetics did not like the idea that John the Baptist used to grashoppers. He was not supposed to eat meat, they thought. Consequently they insisted that the grashoppers mention in the New Testament account were in fact carobs.^[9]

Now, inside the Cherubim Gate there was a church dedicated to John the Baptist. Symeon Stylites the Younger, who was living in the quarter of Cherubim, was baptised in this church. Consequently the Church of John the Baptist and the quarter of Cherubim cannot have been far apart.

Today this church is the Habib-i Neccar Mosque, and inside the mosque, a few steps from the former quarter of Kerateia, there is a room with a sarcophagus claimed to contain the bones of John the Baptist (called Yahya in Turkish and Arabic).

 

_________

[1] Cherûbîm is the Hebrew word in plural.

[2] Ioannes Malalas, Chronographia (Bonn: Impensis Ed. Weberi, 1831), 260-61. The translation has been taken from Christopher Ecclestone, "The Cherubim Gate," Antiochepedia, December 16, 2008, accessed August 28, 2012, http://libaniusredux.blogspot.com/2008/12/cherubim-gate.html.

[3] Glanville Downey, A History of Antioch in Syria (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961) 206 fn 25.

[4] Quoted by Glanville Downey. Ibid., 614.

[5] Procopius, History of the Wars, Book I and II (London: William Heinemann; New York: The Macmillan Co. 1914), 345.

[6] Downey, A History of Antioch in Syria, 614.

[7] Please compare: "Carob," Balashon – Hebrew Language Detective (accessed August 29, 2012, http://www.balashon.com/2006/07/carob.html), Genesis 3:24 in the Septuagint version, and the Gospel of Luke 15:16 in a Hebrew translation.

[8] Torah, N^ebî'îm, K^etûbîm, B^erîth H^adashah (Jerusalem: Hôtsi'ath Qeren Achawah Mashîchîth).

[9] Sebastian Brock, St John the Baptist's diet – according to some early Christian sources (Greek and Syriac), accessed September 1, 2012, http://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/3763/John-the-Baptists-Diet.pdf.download.