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Churches, pilgrims and a Jewish minority

Date

350CE

fourth century CE to seventh-century conquestsapproximate date

With Constantine and his mother, Helena, Palestine filled with churches and pilgrims; Jews went on building synagogues but became a minority.

Religious historyPolitical history31.7772°N 35.2350°E
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From Temple to Talmud: each bar is an event of the period; this one is in coral.

Sourced narrative

Each block is a verifiable statement. The number opens the cited page; amber or coral blocks flag tradition or contested interpretation.

6 statements

Christianity inherited from Judaism a veneration for the Holy Land but gave it another meaning. Early Christians thought of it metaphorically or of the heavenly Jerusalem; over time, however, physical geography gained importance. In the third century, Caesarea, on the Palestinian coast, was already a hub of Christian activity, and even before the fourth century many Christians went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where they placed the crucifixion and resurrection. The fourth century was the turning point. After his mother, Helena, traveled to Jerusalem and uncovered relics believed to be of Jesus's cross, Constantine began building at the site the church that became known as the Holy Sepulchre. By the fifth century there were churches elsewhere in Jerusalem and at places linked with Jesus, such as Galilee, attracting more pilgrims and immigrants.

02And the Jews?

Jews did not leave the region and may even have prospered: they built or refurbished impressive synagogues in over a hundred places, and the arrival of Christian pilgrims and immigrants may have helped their economy even as it outnumbered them. Christianity nonetheless came to dominate: there were churches everywhere, monasteries even in the Judean desert, and Jews became a minority. Christians would remain dominant there until the seventh century, when first the Sasanians and then the Muslims conquered the land.

03The Madaba map

The so-called Madaba map was part of the mosaic floor of a Byzantine church at Madaba, Jordan, and came to light in the nineteenth century. Made in the sixth century, it shows the Holy Land already Christianized, centered on Jerusalem, and Christian shrines can be made out in it, such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre beside the Cardo, the colonnaded avenue.

Context

The major turning point came with Constantine the Great (324 to 337), founder of Constantinople. After a divine vision on the eve of a battle, he and nearly all his successors used legislation and the state to support Christianity and reduce the influence of the Jews. With the exception of Julian (361 to 363), Christianity would have imperial backing from the fourth century on. Many other sages emigrated to Babylonia, probably because life in Palestine was growing harder: sages martyred in the Bar Kochba Revolt, a 'de-Judaized' Judea, the economic downturn of the third century and Christianization, which produced a Christian majority by the fifth century.

§ 01Geography

Where it happened

Gazetteer coordinates (Pleiades for ancient places; Natural Earth and Wikidata for modern ones) over modern physical geography (Natural Earth). Coastlines and the Dead Sea have changed since antiquity.
▮ loading geography

§ 02Museum

Objects and images

Each item states whether it is an ancient object, a modern photograph or a later artistic interpretation.

§ 04Network

Connections

§ 05Bibliography

Further reading

  • Hershel Shanks, ed., Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism: A Parallel History of Their Origins and Development (Washington, DC: Biblical Archaeology Society, 1992).

    Christianity and rabbinic Judaism as a parallel history · recommended in Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 153

§ 06Apparatus

Sources on this page

  1. 01Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 126; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 126inspect
  2. 02Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 126; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 126inspect
  3. 03Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 126inspect
  4. 04Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 126inspect
  5. 05Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 124; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 124; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 520inspect
  6. 06Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 141; Efron, Lehmann and Weitzman, p. 141inspect
  • Documented evidenceAttested by contemporary evidence: texts, inscriptions, coins, papyri or archaeology.
  • Scholarly reconstructionHistorians' inference from indirect evidence.
  • Tradition or narrativeA literary, traditional or religious account; significant in itself, but not independently verified.
  • Contested interpretationScholars explicitly disagree; see the positions in the debate.
  • Illustrative reconstructionA hypothesis or visual scheme to guide reading; not a historical claim.