Early Christianity in Pisidia: assessing some problematic evidence

Abstract

Most people interested in Christian Pisidia study the New Testament and early Christian origins. The visit of Paul and Barnabas to Antioch near Pisidia ('Acta Apostolorum' 13) is examined, but often research goes no further. After all, it was a remote province in which ancient writers took little interest, a region from which none of the great Fathers of the Church emerged. No major Church Councils were held here. No distinctive developments took place comparable to Phrygia's Montanism (Gibson 1978; Heine 1989; Tabbernee 1997; Tabbernee & Lampe 2008). Yet the story goes considerably further than the mid-1st century for the development of Christianity in Pisidia. So we shall consider the first five centuries to see what archaeological evidence (broadly defined) throws light on Church history in this part of Asia Minor down to the beginnings of the Byzantine period.