Ferment in Byzantine Studies

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For more than 50 years, Dumbarton Oaks, the prestigious Byzantine study center in Washington, D.C. run by Harvard University, has held an annual conference of Byzantine scholars from all over the world. This year’s conference,^a for the first time in more than a decade, focused primarily on the archaeology of Palestine and Transjordan in the early Byzantine period.

The Byzantine period is usually considered to have begun in about 324, when Constantine, the first Christian emperor, became sole ruler of the entire Roman empire, and to have ended with the Ottoman destruction of Constantinople in 1453. In the east, however, the Byzantine period ended with the Arab conquest of Jerusalem in 638. That is why the conference defined itself as focusing on the early Byzantine period. This is also the period when Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism developed doctrines and institutions that have survived to this day.

In the past, Byzantine studies usually meant Christian studies; the Byzantine period is, after all, a Christian period, a time when Christianity was the dominant religion. My sense, listening to the erudite papers at this conference, is that we are witnessing a dramatic change. Byzantinists are becoming increasingly aware that, at least in the east, the situation was much more complex.

In addition to Christians, substantial numbers of Jews, Samaritans, Hellenes (or pagans, as outsiders sometimes call them), Arabs and Saracens lived in Palestine and Transjordan. Indeed, Christians did not become a majority in Palestine until the sixth century, according to Glen Bowersock of the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton, who delivered a paper at the symposium.

The conference’s symposiarch (a wonderful word, new to me, meaning one who invites scholars to give papers at a symposium), Professor Jean-Pierre Sodini of the University of Paris, showed a map of the Byzantine-period churches and synagogues that have been discovered in Palestine. They did not appear to be geographically isolated from one another, suggesting that Christians and Jews often lived peaceably side by side at this time. Another speaker, Yoram Tsafrir of Hebrew University, noted that in his own study he had counted 390 churches and a 118 synagogues within Byzantine Palestine. A three-to-one ratio seems quite small, considering the supposed Christian dominance at this time. What inferences can be drawn from this?

Typically, Byzantinists have concentrated mostly on texts or well-known ancient monuments. But, certainly in Palestine, archaeologists have recently unearthed a wealth of new material that simply cannot be ignored. (One speaker graciously admitted from the podium that his own archaeological work of 10 years ago was already outdated.) The conference was treated to an overview of the new material from Israel by one of her leading young Byzantine archaeologists, Yizhar Hirschfeld.^b It was a stunning performance, which was greeted both with delight and with some despair. Here was all this new material that many of the senior scholars in the room were barely familiar with, material they would have to incorporate into their own thinking regardless of the issues they were working on. I spoke with one senior American scholar, who was a specialist in this time and place, who confessed that he had not been to Israel in more than a decade. He insisted he kept up with the archaeological literature, but was this enough? What a new dimension is added by walking the site and handling the materials!

Hirschfeld noted that most of the sites were small—villages, hamlets, farms—quite unlike the major urban centers of the west. But a few cities, which were the subject of separate papers, also thrived. Beth-Shean was described by Tsafrir, who co-directs one of the expeditions there. Caesarea was discussed by Kenneth Holum of the University of Maryland, who co-directs one of the excavations at Caesarea. For all of Beth-Shean’s Hellenistic splendor, two synagogues have also been found at the site, one of which may be a Samaritan synagogue. The material finds at Beth-Shean also make clear how thoroughly Christians admired and adopted elements of the pagan classical tradition.

At least one synagogue was also functioning at Caesarea. Evidence of a Jewish presence, as well as a pagan presence, has been found at urban centers like Sepphoris and Tiberias.^c All of this is providing an exciting new picture of life in the Byzantine period in Palestine.

The Negev, despite minimal rainfall, was also sprinkled, if not showered, with settlements that archaeologists have newly discovered, as described in considerable detail by Dennis Groh of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. (A map of the Negev displayed by Hirschfeld showed 90 sites in the Negev with Byzantine pottery.) Groh’s talk was especially absorbing because he gracefully abandoned his script for a more informal presentation.

One speaker accounted for the abundance of Negev sites, in contrast to the paucity of sites in Jordan east of the Wadi Aravah, by the presence of Christian pilgrims who came to the Negev in search of holy places. Thomas Parker of North Carolina State University, who has done extensive work in Jordan, countered with a better explanation: The sites are there in Jordan, too; they simply haven’t yet been discovered. In contrast, southern Israel has been the subject of several intensive archaeological surveys, identifying thousands of ancient sites that have left their mark on the ground.

Which brings to mind another lacuna in the conference—there were no Jordanian 068participants, even though Transjordan was a major focus of the conference. Modern Jordan is rapidly developing a significant cadre of competent archaeologists who, in the future, can be expected to add a new dimension to conferences like this. Several speakers referred with happy anticipation to the expected results of future collaboration between scholars working in Israel and in Jordan. In his talk, Bowersock noted that Yizhar Hirschfeld had just got his hair cut in Amman. What will be next?

If Byzantine studies are becoming international, so were Byzantine traders. Indeed, we have evidence that silk was being imported from China, according to David Graf of the University of Miami, at least as early as the time of Jesus.

A charming paper by Irfan Shahid, of Georgetown University, explained how Transjordan gradually came to be considered part of the Holy Land. The epithet “the Holy Land” is itself a Christian creation. Jews call it simply Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel. Shahid noted that the concept of a Holy Land ran counter to Christian scripture. Indeed, two books of the New Testament speak of the non-territoriality of holiness. In John 4:21, Jesus states that “the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.” Similarly, Revelation 21:1–2 speaks of “a new heaven and a new earth”; the old earth will pass away; then there will be a new Jerusalem, a heavenly Jerusalem. Nevertheless, the concept of the Holy Land grew and developed in Christian thought. Although its boundaries had no scriptural support, the Holy Land became identified with the Byzantine province of Palestine. Transjordan, east of the river, was excluded. Gradually, however, Transjordan’s self-image successfully pressed the case for its inclusion: So many Biblical events had occurred there. Although we don’t know the precise site, it is clear that Moses himself was buried there. The famous Madaba mosaic map on the sixth-century floor of a church in Madaba, Jordan, clearly includes Transjordan within the confines of the Holy Land.

In 630 the Byzantine emperor Heraclius successfully wrested Jerusalem from the Persians who had captured and destroyed much of it 16 years earlier. On a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Heraclius united Palestine and Transjordan, thereby assuring the latter’s affiliation to the Holy Land. The southern part of the confederation retained the name Palestine, but the northern was given the name Jordan.

What may be more surprising than the fact that Transjordan came to be considered part of the Holy Land, the Byzantine empire was held together culturally and physically, according to Glen Bowersock, by emperor worship. That continued for several generations of Christian rule. Bowersock sought to understand the centuries-long period of peace and stability beginning with the Roman suppression of the Second Jewish Revolt in 135 A.D., despite the extraordinary variety of ethnic elements in the empire. Even before 135 A.D. things were relatively quiet; the Jews were a special case; they were always revolting against foreign rule. Bowersock’s answer is that the Roman empire was held together by emperor worship, a common bond that all groups (except the Jews) shared. But stability and peace followed for some time in the Byzantine period as well. What could account for this? Bowersock concluded that the same answer applied: Early Christian emperors in the Byzantine empire continued to be deified and worshiped. Things are never as simple as they seem!

Islamicist Oleg Grabar of the Institute for Advanced Study described Jerusalem on the eve of the Arab takeover: Jerusalem existed on the three levels, he said: (1) the Jerusalem of reality; (2) the Jerusalem of myth, where Adam was buried, where both Christ and later Mohammed ascended to heaven, where Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Isaac (or, in Islamic tradition, Ishmael) on Mt. Moriah; and (3) the Jerusalem of the vision, the Jerusalem of the hereafter at the end of days. A fitting conclusion to an intellectually stimulating day of lectures.

For more than 50 years, Dumbarton Oaks, the prestigious Byzantine study center in Washington, D.C. run by Harvard University, has held an annual conference of Byzantine scholars from all over the world. This year’s conference,a for the first time in more than a decade, focused primarily on the archaeology of Palestine and Transjordan in the early Byzantine period. The Byzantine period is usually considered to have begun in about 324, when Constantine, the first Christian emperor, became sole ruler of the entire Roman empire, and to have ended with the Ottoman destruction of Constantinople in 1453. In the east, […]