On the Dangers of Getting too Close to the Nile

About the Dosithean sub-sect in Alexandria. Don’t believe the guesses about any name resembling Iulianus for the leader till I have looked at the mss. properly. At the moment, this seems to be a guess by Vilmar, and no more. As for what wiped them out, the answer is easier to find if you bear in mind that when A. F. (that is, the report he copied) talks about a whole sect being wiped out, the number of people is no more than thirty. Think specially of the ones killed when the roof fell in, while they were all together. As I have said many times, Origen had read a second-hand version of the same report used by A. F., though he quotes different bits. Origen or the secondhand report misunderstood the report. Think of the stupid bit about what the Dositheans did or didn’t do on the Sabbath. Well, another bit misunderstood can be seen in Origen’s statement that there were only thirty Dositheans. The original report talks about the wiping out of various sets of leaders of groups. Right. What killed the ones in Alexandria? The translations say they moved to the edge of the sea. The Nile is the only river called The Sea in Arabic. As it says they moved to somewhere remote, I suppose it was the Nile delta but not in a town. The translations tell you Bustanos came from the sea and killed them all. That means the dozen or so leaders. Forget the stupid guess that A. F. meant Poseidon!!! The correct reading in the mss. is botanos. The word is Aramaic. (Why do people think all the names and technical terms are Arabic just because they are written in Arabic letters. It says a hippopotamus came up out of the Nile and killed them all. I suppose they were about to immerse themselves.

I have really honed my knowledge of the Jewish settlement in the eastern portion of Alexandria, just outside the wall, east of the Rosetta Gate, south of the Canopic Way and near the Sea called 'Delta' district but also Boucolia.

I was responding to a stupid comment from a Yahoo Group and clearly defined for the first time why and what the 'Boucolia' was. The original message from the idiot was:

And why put a church in a cow pasture? This looks like another substantiating
detail; Mark suspired there -- after being dragged through the streets by the
pagan mob shouting, "Drag the bull to the Boucalia!" -- and for this reason the
site became precious in the sight of the surviving Christians; the church there
served a double-purpose as a sort of shrine, or marturidion, in honor of St.
Mark.

This wasn't 'a cow pasture' but a name given generally to the Delta region
generally stretching from just beyond the eastern walls of Alexandria likely to
the region where Joseph and the Israelites were said to have tended the herds of
Pharoah (Gen. xlvii. 6, 27). "Their cattle grazed in the fields ; and, when the
inundation was rising, great care was required lest, being too long, a sudden
increase of the water might endanger their safety, particularly in the low lands
and in the Delta. This last afforded the chief grazing country long before a
part of it, "the land of Goshen," was mentioned as the best place for cattle ;
as it did when that district received the later name of Bucolia ; and as it does
at the present day." (Egyptians at the time of the Pharoahs)


The annual flooding of the Nile made this a perfect place to raise cattle. It
was also a lawless region home to many bandits as we see from Heliodorus:

The whole district is called Bucolia by the Egyptians. In it there is a valley,
which receives the overflow of the Nile and becomes a lake, very deep in the
middle, while its shores are shallow and marshy for the waters of lakes, like
those of the sea, diminish in depth the nearer they are to the land. This spot
is as it, were the republic of all the brigands of Egypt. Some dwell in huts
which they have built upon rising ground above the level of the water while
others live in boats, which they use both for habitation and purposes of
transport; it is here that their wives spin, and are brought to bed.

Haas notes that these lawless herdsmen were aligned with the Arians in the
fourth century, assisting in attacks against the Orthodox.

The point is that the Serapeum was ON THE OTHER SIDE of the walls of Alexandria
in the main Greek city. The description of devotees to Serapis crossing the
eastern gate (the Rosetta Gate) and into the lawless region to kill St. Mark
makes very little sense AS DOES THE WHOLE EPISODE INVOLVING THE EXISTENCE OF AN
ESTABLISHED CHURCH IN THIS REGION AS EARLY AS THE FIRST CENTURY. You can't just
take the story at face value. This was a Jewish neighborhood at the time Mark
was said to be active here. His 'church' was undoubtedly a synagogue (if it
existed at all). Indeed I have argued in my article that the location of the
Church is consistent with Philo's synagogue in Flaccus for whatever that's
worth.

The more likely scenario in my mind is that the narrative reflects the realities
of late fourth century Alexandria (when in fact the narrative is first
reported). The Jewish characteristic of the region is completely absent. The
reference to 'devotees of Serapis' serves as a justification of Theophilus'
actions in the period. The manner in which Mark is lassooed is reminiscent of
herdsmen rather than anything related to a religious sacrifice of any kind.

Rory, the point of all of this is that the description of the Dosithean (or heretical Samaritan sect) in AF confirms for the first time that the Samaritans in Alexandria lived in the Boucolia. The Nile Delta was just to the east of Alexandria in the Boucolia where Hippopotami would be found.