Clivedurdle

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...nt-greece.html

Is it possible as the pubs and brothels were missed, so have religious buildings?

mountainman

Dear Clivedurdle,

This reminds me of homes in the remote parts of Nepal (at least in the mid 70's when I was there). You see, where there are no roads everyone must move from A to B on foot, using foot-trails. Every second house displayed "the flag of the home fire" -- a piece of cloth tied to a high point or attached to a large pole or stick. This signified to the (foot) traveller that the house was able to provide some rice and veges, some drinking water, a place to sleep near a fire. A small pittance was charged for this service, and it was a standard practice, both on the foot-trails all over the eastern and western parts of Nepal. I dont see why this practice was not followed in antiquity, for the service of travellers from A to B on foot. Grass roots accomodation and food may have included wine, etc. Thus rather than being "churches" (although each house may well have been adorned by any number of ornaments and shrines, etc, etc) a certain set of houses may have also served as "way stations" to service people travelling in antiquity by foot, to enhance income via passing travellers. Just a thought. Thanks for the thread.

Best wishes,


Pete

Chili

I am sure they never had a Chambers of Commerce to create boobie traps and pittfalls to snare travellers but why must it be assumed that all people are a slave to their sex, and does sex not have to be a forbidden fruit before it can be traded?

Maybe someone should tell these girls to get their mind out of the gutter and get a grip on life itself so they would not have to look for evidence to explain their plays. Closer to home, why can we not find the temple that "The Spire" was all about?

DCHindley

Simply Google for {"house churches" "early christians"} (make sure to use the plural "christians" rather than the singular, as you will get better results). This has been a standard assumption for some years, based partly on evidence from the NT (Acts & Pauline epistles), partly on archeology.

It is related to the question of where those gentiles predisposed to Christian beliefs came into contact with Jewish Jesus followers in the first place. There is plenty of literary mention of Synagogues, but very scant archeological evidence before the 2nd century. There is archeological evidence that these Synagogues had gentile patrons, but would this have still been the case if the assemblies occurred in private homes? It might if a home was owned by a Gentile. The Jews may have been slaves in the gentile's household, or Jewish clients of the head of the household. Individual Gentiles' tolerance of Judaism varied widely. Geeks and Romans were really big on networking, and many of them, if able, acted as patrons for others such as artisans and slaves, in return for favors (furnishings, crafts, personal services, etc).

The reverse of this might be wealthy Jewish households (there were hundreds of Herodian princes all over the Mediterranean) who could act as patrons for their gentile slaves and client retainers dependant upon them, allowing them to form informal private associations that would meet in one of their homes (and functioning as burial societies, regular common meals, manumission education - you serve me faithfully and fulfil X conditions and I will elevate you to freedman status - etc). This might be the model for Pauline churches. If the same households also sponsored synagogue assemplies for other Jews, we might see other ways Jews and gentiles could end up in contact, and showing a little mutual respect if only for networking purposes.

DCH