This paper focuses on the implications of Paul of Samosata’s
condemnation (264-272) for a reconstruction of the institutional profile
of third-century Syrian Christianity, in particular connection with the
ongoing attempts on the part of segments of the Antiochene Church to
negotiate their position on the atlas of imperial Christianity.
Scholarship concerning this episode has mostly investigated Paul’s
intriguing connection with the Palmyrene queen Zenobia; focused on the
theological issues at stakes in the debate; and explored the
significance of Paul’s opponents’ appeal to the emperor for the history
of the relationships between Christianity and the Roman empire. My paper
centers instead on the net of regional and trans-regional connections
woven on the occasion of Paul’s affair, through which Antioch made for
the first time—prospectively speaking—the headlines of Church Histories.
The bishops from Syria and other Eastern regions that promoted the
campaign against Paul obtained the support of such important figures as
Dionysius of Alexandria and Firmilianus of Caesarea in Cappadocia.
Likewise, the condemnation synod of 268-269 saw the participation of
Origenist bishops from Syria, Asia Minor, Palestine, Arabia, and Egypt,
and addressed an encyclical letter to bishops including Dionysius of
Rome and Maximus of Alexandria. The paper shows that the attempts on the
part of the Antiochene ecclesiastical leadership to craft alliances
with other dioceses in the Eastern Roman empire and promote the
involvement of the Alexandrian and Roman clergy were a conscious
geo-ecclesiological move, through which the Syrian Church aimed to hog
the limelight of the imperial ecclesiastical stage.
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