Could the Original Church of St. Mark Have Been the 'Double Stoa' of Alexandria' Rededicated to Christ? [Part One]

Yes, this is a stupid question because it can't be proved either way. Nevertheless it is what I like to do nowadays. Past stupid activities of mine have included wanting to be hockey player (I am Canadian after all), being a Casanova (I'm not Latin so it is no wonder that failed) and being a successful author (still working on that one).

So now that we have just cited Birger Pearson's ABSOLUTELY REASONABLE arguments that demonstrate the likelihood that the Martyrium of St. Mark in the Passio Petri Sancti (which describes events in 311 CE) is the same church associated with the evangelist in the Acts of Mark which in turn was located in the exact same geographical area described in Philo of Alexandria's Flaccus, the nature question now before us is whether the same synagogue mentioned in the last text might have been rededicated as not just a Christian church but THE ONLY Christian church in all of Egypt.

Again, it is impossible to prove and I should throw out there one fact which would argue AGAINST the idea that the massive synagogue managed to survive into the second century.

There was a massive revolt throughout Egypt and north Africa. The assumption of many scholars is that nothing from before the revolt could have survived into the period after the revolt. They point to the statement of Eusebius that Hadrian 'rebuilt Alexandria ruined by the Jews.' The Chronicle of Jerome reads "Hadrian restored Alexandria, which had been sacked by the Romans, from public funds."

At first glance these reports seem to suggest that the Jewish synagogue in the Boucolia couldn't have survived the destruction. Yet we are forgetting one important thing. The synagogue would have been located OUTSIDE the walls of the city. All our reports suggest that it was the Romans who finally settled the revolt. They came by ship and unloaded soldiers and horse and as Jerome suggests, laid siege to cities like Alexandria.

It would have only natural for the Jews, who used to live principally OUTSIDE the city walls to have taken shelter against the impending Roman assault by taking refuge within the same fortifications.

Now IF the synagogue continued to function as a Jewish house of worship it would certainly NOT have survived the revolt. The Greeks of the city would certainly have razed it to the ground as retribution for Jewish assaults on pagan buildings in the city.

However IF the synagogue was rededicated to the Christianity of St. Mark BEFORE the revolt then a whole different set of possibilities arises.

Our historical sources indicate that Jews from Cyrenaica came over to Egypt to continue the destruction they wrought in their native land. What would have happened when these Jews alongside native Alexandrian Jews came upon this former synagogue now re-dedicated to Christ? It is impossible to say, but my guess is that they wouldn't have destroyed the building but rather take it over again and turn it back to its original function as a Jewish house of worship.

Of course we don't know anything about what happened before, during or after the revolt. Yet one piece of evidence is decisive I think that suggests that the original synagogue was still a functioning place of worship in the early second century. Rabbi Judah b Ilai, a Galilean who flourished in the early second century, is cited as praising the greatness of this structure - "whoever has not seen the double stoa of Alexandria has never in his life seen the glory of Israel. It is a kind of large basilica, a stoa within a stoa, holding at times, twice the number of those who left Egypt."

There can be no doubt that Judah b Ilai was connected somehow to the Alexandrian tradition. He seems to have a great deal of information also about the Septuagint, the temple of Onias and other things. While it is certainly possible that the Jewish building did not survive the revolt of the Trajanic period, it is also possible that it did.

Yet before we get into all of that I hope the reader allows me to go off on a little tangent and use Judah b Ilai to ask an even more shocking question - could the 'double stoa' of Alexandria have been the survival of the replica temple established by Onias at the beginning of the Ptolemaic period?

Of course the surviving texts of Josephus says no - that building was established near modern Cairo. Yet this never made any sense to me. The logical place for that building would have been exactly where R. Judah b Ilai says it is - just outside the city of Alexandria. After all this is where most of the Jewish (and Samaritan) population was living at the turn of the common era.

Once again, all of scholarship naturally takes for granted the fact that because our existing texts of Josephus say that the replica temple was established at Leontopolis (Cairo). Yet the entire rabbinic tradition and the medieval chroniclers ALL agree that the building was actually located in Alexandria.

This isn't the first time that I have taken on the establishment. The entire basis to my Real Messiah was the fact that the rabbinic tradition PROPERLY remembered that there was only one Marcus Julius Agrippa rather than two as the texts of Josephus maintain.

why do I think that Josephus consistently gets it wrong? The answer is simple - I think that a Christian editor (or editors) 'corrected' the obvious connections between St. Mark and Marcus Julius Agrippa.

In the case of the location of the Jewish temple of Egypt this is taken one step further. If I am right than the ONE CHURCH in all of Egypt for its first three hundred years had its special significance because it was the re-dedicated temple of Judaism.

This would also explain all of Clement's statements about the high priest and the function of the temple AS A PRECURSOR for the establishment of the Christian church.

Oh, and I will give my readers one clue of what is coming in my next post. Just as we saw in R. Judah b Ilai's account the specific term 'synagogue' is never applied to this structure. If you look carefully at Philo's Flaccus, there are five references to 'synagogues' in the text. The massive building that is at the center of the revolt is never once identified as a 'synagogue.'

Hmmmm ....