PALESTINE, EARLY CHURCH IN

Since the time of Diocletian, it was customary to distinguish (1) Palestina prima, or the middle section of West Jordania, with Caesarea as capital; (2) Palestina secunda, or Galilee and Peraea, with its capital at Scythopolis; (3) Palestina tertia, or salutaris, the southern part of Judaea and Peraea, with capital at Petra.

Early Palestinian Christianity. With the Palestinian revolt against Rome in 66, the Christian community left Jerusalem for Pella in Transjordan. Their bishop was Simeon, relative of Jesus and successor of James. By this gesture the Jewish Christians separated themselves from the Temple, which was destroyed in 70 by Titus. Some Christians returned from Pella, and Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History 4.5) states that 15 bishops succeeded one another at Jerusalem up to the revolt under Hadrian, all of Hebrew descent. This large number probably includes the presbyteroi, one of whom was chosen as bishop. The Christians of Jerusalem adhered to Jewish practices, and the Epistle of Jude and the Apocryphal Gospel of James seem to come from this group. They were not favored by the Jews, and bar kokhba persecuted them during his revolt of 132 to 135. Suppressed by Hadrian, Jerusalem was rebuilt as Aelia Capitolina, and only a few Christians returned. Others migrated to Kokaba in Transjordania, to Nazareth, and to Aleppo. In Jerusalem itself, pagan statues were erected on the site of the Temple, and on Golgotha, the mount of the Crucifixion, a temple was erected to the Capitoline Triad.

Palestinian Bishoprics. Christian missionaries were sent from Palestine to the churches of Egypt, Osrhoene, and Adiabene. Though it was the land where Christianity originated, Palestine was not the scene of its most rapid diffusion and remained considerably behind the Greek-speaking cities of Syria. Palestinian towns with bishops before 325 were, besides Jerusalem and Caesarea (which had a bishop c. 190), Maximianopolis; Scythopolis; Sebaste; Flavia Neapolis; Ascalon; Diospolis, or Lydda; Nicopolis; Gadara; Azotus; Ascalon; Eleutheropolis; Jericho; Capitolias; Aila; and Gaza. Jaffa became an episcopal see after the time of Constantine. Pella seems to have become a permanent episcopal see only in the 5th century.

As early as the reign of Domitian, Gnostic tendencies appeared among the Palestinian Christians. As Vespasian before him, Domitian sought out relatives of Jesus, fearing a renewed Messianism. When Christians were martyred under Trajan, Simeon, bishop of Jerusalem and son of Cleophas, was among them. Lucian's satire in his Life of Peregrinus gives a garbled picture of a Palestinian community of the 2d century. When synods were held under Pope Victor concerning the date of Easter, the assembled bishops of Palestine (c. 190) wrote a letter acknowledging agreement with the Western usage. Two Palestinian bishops are known to have attended this synod: Theophilus of Caesarea and Narcissus of Jerusalem. Bishops of Syria also were present, a fact that indicates that they did not belong to distinct ecclesiastical provinces at this time. Under Marcus Aurelius, Jerusalem had bishops of gentile descent, e.g., Narcissus and Alexander. Little by little, this community adapted itself to the universal Church, while a minority tended to sectarianism. Virginity was highly honored, and there are indications of a renewed Christian messianism, contemporary with a similar Jewish movement that inspired Septimius Severus, during a journey through Palestine in 202, to forbid further proselytism.

Origen at Caesarea. In 231, Theoctistus, bishop of Caesarea, ordained origen a priest, and made him head of the school which achieved considerable renown. Origen was active as lecturer and preacher, so that the city became an intellectual center for the Christians. The persecution of Valerian produced martyrs in Palestine in 257 to 258, but in spite of the emperor's hostility the majority of the region had been Christianized by the end of the 3d century.

As early as 260, Theotecnus, a student of Origen, was bishop of Caesarea, and under his successor the school was directed by pamphilus who continued the tradition established by Origen and developed the famous library, which contained many Christian texts, including the Hexapla. Its intellectual direction reflected Alexandrian rather than Antiochene thought. When Arius was condemned, however, he took refuge with eusebius of caesarea and was declared innocent by a local council in Palestine, even though the bishop of Jerusalem, Macarius, opposed him. A certain number of Palestinian bishops, including Maximus and Saint cyril of jerusalem, agreed with the condemnation of Arius at Nicaea, but Eusebius of Caesarea led the attack against the Nicaean bishops that culminated in the council of Tyre-Jerusalem of 335. This assembly deposed Athanasius and repudiated the term homoousios. The successor of Eusebius, Acacius of Caesarea, became the head of the homoean faction and with imperial help in 360 reversed ecclesiastical power in the East. But even the support of the Emperor Valens (364–78) could not prevent the victory of orthodoxy. In 379, 153 Eastern bishops expressed their agreement with Rome.

Palestinian Monasticism. Monasticism began in Palestine during the first years of the 4th century with Hilarion of Gaza, who settled near Maiuma and whose fame attracted disciples. The Laura of Pharan on the Dead Sea was founded by Saint Chariton of Iconium about 320, and the coenobitic form of monastic life flourished. Other foundations were those of Saint epiphanius of constantia (c. 335) at Besanduk near Eleutheropolis; of Saints euthymius and Theoctistus near Jericho; of Saint gerasimus on the Jordan; and of Saint theodosius near Bethlehem. Particularly important and lasting to our own times is the Great Laura founded near Jerusalem by Saint Sabas (d. 532). Latin monks were located at Bethlehem under Saint jerome (386), while nuns dwelt nearby under Paula. melania the elder and rufinus of aquileia founded a double monastery on Mount Olivet in Jerusalem (c. 376). melania the younger took up her abode there early in the 5th century and erected two monasteries, as she had previously done at Tagaste in Africa.

In the 4th century Jerusalem entered into dispute with Caesarea over possession of the metropolitan see. The Council of Nicaea (c. 7) admitted a special position of honor for Jerusalem. But its bishops, particularly John (386–417) desired metropolitan status, and in 451 the Council of chalcedon declared Juvenal (421–458) patriarch and head of the three provinces of Palestine at the expense of Antioch.

Jerusalem further owed its growing importance to pilgrimages, which became progressively popular in the 4th century. constantine i and helena erected several magnificent buildings in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. The liturgy of Jerusalem, described by Aetheria, exercised a great influence in the whole church, by reason of the pilgrims who witnessed it (see itineraria).

Monophysitism and Origenism. Palestine had a strong anti-Chalcedonian party, though weaker than in Syria and Egypt. Juvenal, the patriarch, was ejected and replaced by an opponent of the council of Chalcedon and was not restored until the Byzantine army had defeated hordes of fanatical monks in 453. Though the monks generally favored orthodoxy, especially under Euthymius and Sabas, the Monophysite leaders, and particularly the intruder Theodosius, installed anti-Chalcedonians in many sees, and the opposition was kept alive especially from the monastery of Maiuma. In 513 the monk Severus succeeded in having Elias, the patriarch of Jerusalem, exiled, even though he was defended by the great abbots, Theodosius and Sabas. The Patriarch John (d. 524) was hostile to the Monophysites, so that Jerusalem was the only patriarchate not in the hands of the Monophysites when Justin became emperor in 519. Since Jerusalem relied upon the powerful patriarchate of Constantinople for protection against its rivals, Antioch and Alexandria, it was involved on the side of this see in the acacianschism. In the 6th century, it was considered to hold fourth place among the patriarchates of the East, after Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch. pelagianism was dealt with by a provincial council at Diospolis (or Lydda) in 415, which was misinformed by Pelagius and declared him innocent. A dispute over Origenism lead to a heated controversy at the end of the 4th century between Bishop John of Jerusalem and Rufinus on the one side, and Saints Jerome and Epiphanius on the other. The problem became acute in the 6th century when the monks of the New Laura of Thecue defended Origen's orthodoxy, whereas the outstanding monk of Palestine, Saint Sabas, head of the old or Great Laura, led his opponents. When two Origenist monks, Domitian and theodore ascidas, were named bishops by Justinian and enlisted the support of theodora in their cause, a strong anti-Origenist movement was begun by the Patriarch Peter of Jerusalem. This led to a Synod at Gaza (539) and an edict of Justinian in 542, condemning nine propositions of Origen. Several Palestinian monks, headed by Theodore Ascidas, in the desire to avenge themselves and to avoid further persecution, persuaded Justinian to devote himself to another problem, that of the three chapters.

In addition to the earliest Judeo-Christian writers of Palestine, several early apologists and propagandists are considered Palestinian by birth or activity: Ariston of Pella, justin martyr, julius africanus, Pamphilus and Eusebius of Caesarea, Cyril of Jerusalem, Epiphanius of Constantia, and cyril of scythopolis. The end of the 6th and the beginning of the 7th centuries constituted a period of prosperity, but the Persian invasion of 614 proved catastrophic: thousands of Christians were slaughtered, many churches and monasteries were destroyed or damaged, and the patriarch Zacharias was exiled. At this time the true cross was captured. Even though the victory of the Emperor heraclius forced the Persians to restore the cross, the dispute over monothelitism brought new troubles, and the Patriarch Saint sophronius (634–38) sharply attacked this heresy. But he was forced to arrange the surrender of Jerusalem to the Arabs under the Caliph Omar in 637; and although Christianity survived under Muslim rule, the distrust of the Arabs for the orthodox patriarchs made it impossible to give him a successor for 68 years.

Bibliography: m. le quien, Oriens Christianus, 3 v. (Paris 1740; rpre. Graz 1958). f. m. abel, Histoire de la Palestine, 2 v. (Paris 1952). a. von harnack, The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries, tr. and ed. j. moffatt, 2v. (2d ed. New York 1908). h. jedin, Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte, 6 v. (Freiburg 1962–): v. 1., k. baus, ed., Von der Urgemeinde zur frühchristlichen Grosskirche, with "Einleitung zur Kirchengeschichte" by h. jedin. j. daniÉlou and h. i. marrou, The First Six Hundred Years, tr. v. cronin, v. 1 of The Christian Centuries (New York 1964–). j. a. fitzmeyer, "The Bar Cochba Period," in The Bible in Current Catholic Thought, ed. j. l. mckenzie (New York 1962) 133–68. f. van der meer and c. mohrmann, Altas of the Early Christian World, ed. and tr. m. f. hedlund andh. h. rowley (New York 1958). l. duchesne, L'Église au VI ^e siècle (Paris 1925). a. flichem and v. martin, eds., Histoire de l'église depuis les origines jusqu'à nos jours (Paris 1935–) v. 1–4. e. stein, Histoire du Bas-Empire, tr. j. r. palanque, 2 v. in 3 (Paris 1949–59) v. 1–2.

[j. j. gavigan]