Abstract
In this age and time when we are seeing an increase in study Bibles and the inclusion of relevant sociocultural, archeological, and geographical information even in standard Bible translations, this learned tome from Ulrich Huttner is worth the investment for a section of the translation guild. Very often the translator or the translation consultant does not have the time to dig deeper into any specialist area of research beyond his or her own field. However, for those interested, this is a laudable example of sound ethno-archeological investigation, where past research and the latest information (as of 2013) on the ancient Christian communities in the Lycus Valley are brought together in one readable book. The information is still pertinent and the book is still considered to be one of the great contributions in the field.
The Lycus valley in Asia Minor (present-day Turkey) remains of great interest to NT scholars and archeologists because of its link to the first three chapters of Revelation, and the Epistles to Philemon and the Colossians. Later on in church history, the same region would play an important role in Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History. Actually it is possible to cautiously reconstruct the history of Christianity in that region from the first to the fifth century. Our interest as Bible translators is, of course, the link to the canonical texts of the New Testament and the possibility of reconstructing an integrated vision of geographical, cultural, archeological, and textual elements into possible interpretative matrixes that would help to elucidate the texts of the Bible. Moreover, this type of scholarship offers a deeper and wider outlook on plausible interpretative scenarios of Christianity in situ, from which emerge writings like the book of Revelation, the Letters of Paul to Philemon and the Colossians, and the world of the Acts of the Apostles.
There is a strong church tradition that links the church at Laodicea to Philemon as its founder and the church at Hierapolis to the apostle Philip and his daughters. And, of course, there is a link between Colossae and Paul’s companion Epaphras, while Laodicea was the place where many locate the writing of the (deutero-)Pauline Letter to the Colossians. And mention should be made also of the enigmas surrounding the “Letter to Laodicea,” mentioned at the end of Colossians. The fascination with this lost or maybe reworked letter of the Pauline school throughout the history of the church is attested by the pseudepigraphical work in Latin, Epistola ad Laodicenses, which to this day continues to appear in recent editions of the Vulgate. Beyond immediate NT relevance is the fact that the first martyr-bishop, Sagaris, was killed in Laodicea, and it gains prominence as the locality where the first council of some Asian churches was held, in which the Quartodeciman issue was addressed. Another city in the region, Hierapolis, gains prominence in the second century, as it is linked to the legendary bishops Papias and Claudius Apolinarius.
Since Huttner covers the wide range of the first to the fifth century, for Bible translators, at first glance at least, chapters 1–5 would seem to be of more imminent relevance. In chapter 1, “Introduction,” Huttner discusses his methodological framework and use of sources. This chapter offers an excellent summary of how a historian, using an ethno-archeological approach, brings together different academic fields like, for example, geography, economics, technology, urban vs. agricultural archeology, epigraphy, text criticism, and literary analysis to produce a cogent image of the world from which the different writings we translate arise, while providing a wealth of more general information on the life and times of Christian believers in the Lycus Valley.
What makes Huttner’s approach even more attractive is his modesty and his honest take on what is possible and what lies beyond the realm of certainty. This is not the work of a dogmatist but of a conscientious historian who is always aware of competing interpretations, and at the same time attempts to present a useful, practical framework that relies on facts and sound interpretation.
The historian must approach early Christianity in the Lycus Valley with very modest goals: not only has the source material been reduced to a few vestiges, as is generally true in the history of antiquity, it is also characterized by a special “grammar” shaped by Christianity, accessible to the classically trained historian only with difficulty. A further problem is presented by the one-sided perspective of what little evidence itself is part of Christian culture. To compensate for this imbalance and illuminate the context in which the Christian communities emerged, interpretation of the relevant pagan evidence in this investigation represents a special challenge. The inscriptions in particular make an important contribution to a better understanding of the Christian sources, because they clarify factual connections and complexes of meaning, and because they uncover analogous connections and complexes. (1)
The writer offers an insightful synopsis of decades of archeological research in the valley and the ancient literature linked to it, while providing important information which will help translation work on specific passages and the composition of specific study notes on the culture of communities of faith in antiquity. Macro and micro perspectives are given of the realities of the geopolitical, economic, and historical infrastructure of the most relevant cities in the area, like Hierapolis, Laodicea, and Colossae. Chapter 2, “Historical Background,” offers a well-researched analysis of the indigenous and Greek cults in that region which will certainly increase one’s understanding of the book of Acts, the Pauline Letters, and the book of Revelation. It is worthwhile reading for those seriously interested in this area of research; the information has been digested and “percolated” in forms and ways that are accessible to the translation community and the church at large.
In chapter 3, “Pauline Influence: Philemon and Colossians,” we are invited to delve into a very detailed analysis of the Pauline influence through the Letter to Philemon and the Letter to the Colossians. The latter’s allegedly deuteropauline nature is amply discussed. The author correctly moves beyond the issues surrounding its pseudepigraphical nature and shows that it can still be rightly interpreted in the local interpretative matrix of Lycus Valley research, independent of where one locates its authorship—an authorship that, Huttner claims, surely attests to Pauline influence in any case; in other words, it belongs to the Pauline school. Indeed, it is clear that the writing is based on knowledge of the geography of the Lycus valley and there are various links with Lycus Valley movements and word use in other ancient documents. Among the different examples that Huttner discusses we will only mention one. In the list of vices (Col 3.8), the term αἰσχρολογία (filthy language) is a hapax legomenon that is rarely used before the era of the church fathers. Interestingly enough, one writer who uses it frequently happens to be Epictetus from Hierapolis, one of the important cities of the Lycus Valley. As Huttner convincingly states, “We cannot rule out the possibility that αἰσχρολογία (and βλασφημία along with it) was a deplorable habit endemic in the Lycus Valley and correspondingly abominated by the moral authorities of the region” (132).
The link between Philemon and Colossians is well known and the writer explores this to the maximum in showing that the shared prosopographical (introductory personal-relational) material of the two letters helps to place them in the network of the Pauline churches and mission. Indeed the two epistles do share an impressive list of names (Timothy, Archippus, Onesimus, Epaphras, Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke). And both letters are clearly addressed to the church in Colossae. The link with the cities of Hierapolis and Laodicea through Epaphras receives lengthy discussion. The details cannot be summarized here but suffice it to say that for study of the book of Philemon, Huttner offers a wealth of information and insights. In our postcolonial hermeneutical era, this letter has ascended in status when compared to the traditional hermeneutical agenda of the Western church. The status of Onesimus as a slave is carefully analyzed by the author; from archeological and epigraphic evidence of the Lycus valley and beyond, he concludes that Onesimus was a freedman who had obligations to his master, as was the custom in the Greco-Roman manumission system.
In chapter 4, “The Letter in the Apocalypse of John,” the author shows, from different noncanonical sources like the Acts of John and the Acts of Andrew interwoven with other material, that there was a foundational link between the Laodicean believers and John the Seer. Furthermore, the author gives us an extensive discussion of the first three chapters of the book of Revelation, where the seven churches are mentioned. He shows how different metaphoric uses in this prologue are related to the wealth of the Lycus Valley, especially as it is related to the economics of the thriving textile and dye industry. There is also considerable discussion of the letter to the church of Laodicea, where the importance of warm water and cold water springs comes to the fore in Jesus’ condemnation, through the mediation of the Seer, of this church community. This refers, of course, to the well-known “you are neither cold nor warm but lukewarm” metaphor. Huttner reiterates the notion that cold and hot both were pleasant and necessary temperatures for the well-being of urban people in the Lycus Valley and beyond, but that lukewarm was a detestable quality. This is attested by a plethora of ancient writings from and about the region, especially the city of Laodicea. However, the jury is still out on the exact interpretation of the metaphor and the writer gives other plausible explanations, for example, where cold and hot are seen as medical principles of nature, lukewarm being inert and powerless.
Also in this chapter, the technicalities of the art and science of dying textiles are discussed in detail, as well as the sociocultural role this enterprise played in the lives of the peoples of the Lycus Valley in general. Many of the metaphors in the book of Revelation with special reference to white clothing (not dyed but bleached) are very much part of the shared sociocultural cognitive environment. Different cultural objects like the use of gold, eye salve, banquet traditions, and other matters are touched upon in this chapter in a balanced and enlightening manner. Huttner’s stance is that the writer of the Apocalypse tried to relativize the wealth of the Lycus Valley, which was partially based on its textile and mining industry, a rich animal and agricultural husbandry, and its natural and manmade infrastructures: The author of the Apocalypse did not close his eyes to regional traditions and conditions; despite all distancing, central elements of an economic and technological potential typical of the Lycus Valley are visible, providing further evidence that the Christians there did not isolate themselves in their churches, at least not to the extent that the author of the message directed to them would have liked to see. (182)
This chapter offers worthwhile material for Bible dictionaries, study notes, and translation handbooks.
Chapter 5, “Philip and His Daughters,” provides the reader with a less well-known link between the Lycus Valley and the New Testament: Philip the apostle and his daughters. Through the work of Eusebius, the historian, we are introduced to the centuries-old tradition that the prophetess daughters of Philip and Philip himself were buried in Laodicea. Indeed, Papias, who served as bishop of Hierapolis in the first half of the second century, is the first writer to indicate this relationship. There is thus an interesting link in the tradition between the Lukan account of Philip and his daughters, in Acts, and the early tradition in the Lycus Valley, which we will not elaborate on further in this brief review. The rich folkloric traditions surrounding the prophetic ministry of the daughters is less interesting for the Bible translator, but of course offers to the (church) historian a wealth of material worth investigating.
The subsequent chapters of this magnificent opus provide important and seminal information on the role of the Lycus Valley communities in the subsequent development of Christianity. Chapter 6 deals with “Papias and Apollinarius: Bishops in Hierapolis.” Chapter 7 considers “Bishop Apollinarius: Conflict Resolution through Communication.” And after chapter 8, “Persecution and Legends,” this learned tome is brought to a close with an excellent concluding chapter 9, “Conclusions: Communication and the Search for a Standpoint.” Each chapter has a brief summary of its content which is a very useful aid in processing this abundance of material. The book has handy indexes of Persons, Subjects, Passages, and a combined index of Clergy and Functionaries (Prosopographic Index), which makes it much more user-friendly. There are an abundant footnote apparatus and a 55-page bibliography that attest to the thorough research from primary sources and the writer’s constant interaction with the relevant scholarly literature on the topic.
In the concluding chapter, Huttner returns to two important queries of his research: What was the process of socialization and communication in the Lycus Valley Christianity through the centuries? And, what is the standpoint of the community, that is, their self-identity? The answers to these questions are to be found in an organic evolutionary development starting from the primitive church to the fifth century. Huttner confirms the start of Pauline Christianity as a less structured charismatic reality at the beginning, which becomes more institutionalized as time goes by. But he states that kernels of institutionalization are already present during Paul’s time. The networking among churches and their leaders is an important dynamic that would establish Christianity and preserve it in the Valley as time progressed. As to the self-identity of the churches and the communities of faith, Huttner offers an important caveat: The different relationships among Jewish culture and religious tradition, the emergent Christian tradition and culture, and the Gentile religious traditions and cultures, were all influencing each other and were part of a dynamic cultural mosaic. A person’s or a group’s identity could have different cultural, religious, and ethnic layers that a historian cannot easily dissect. Furthermore, there is the issue of the rhetorical nature of the written texts, which at times make strategic theoretical distinctions between seemingly homogeneous groups of people and religious groups, for example, Christians against Jews against Gentiles. But this rhetorical device has to be understood within a wider integrated matrix where there is a reality that is more fluid, with overlapping cultural identities, based on continual mutual influence. Acceptance and rejection of parts or aspects of one of these three segments of society and life in the Valley should not be absolutized, and each case and source should be explored cautiously within the context of a wider perspective.
The writing style and purpose of this book is clearly for the academic guild more than the lay person or the typical translator in many contexts of our Bible translation ministry and work. Moreover, the price of the volume can be particularly prohibitive for many a potential user. However, it is important for the Bible translation community to remain in touch with this kind of specialized research, which offers a more global, integrated cultural panorama of the lands, culture, and life of specific regions of the NT world, in this case. This will help us to fine-tune the information flow to translators, churches, and others, through more nuanced approaches, based on up-to-date expert investigation, thus avoiding well-meaning but simplistic generalizations and even the use of erroneous data. Often it is not so much a matter of certainty in any case, but rather of what is a more plausible interpretation, based on more recent research and the right interpretative grid. I reiterate that the grid offered by Huttner is an integrated approach where archeology, sociocultural studies, textual discussions, and historical interpretations are brought together. One should not expect revolutionary conclusions from this book and author based on wild speculation, but there are gems of knowledge, facts, and interpretation to be found for the patient and industrious reader. As a matter of fact, the reviewer himself hopes to implement some of Huttner’s insights in his continuing research on the Letter to Philemon and study Bible and Scripture engagement material.