Creating and Maintaining Hellenic Places in Antioch

Abstract

chapter 7 explores how Julian clears the contaminating Christian contagion from the Antiochene landscape in order to facilitate Hellenic worship of the gods. The Christian cult of the martyrs and Christian daytime burial practices contaminated Hellenic worshippers who came into contact with the dead. To alleviate the growing threat, Julian employs a type of exegesis common in the city of Antioch that reads scripture in its historical context, employing grammatical acumen he learned in school to alter Christian perceptions of their martyrs. This is the only instance in which Jews are offered as a negative example for Hellenes. Julian also alludes to the recent Christian cult of the Maccabean martyrs changing the wording of Porphyry’s implied praise of the Maccabean martyrs for keeping their Jewish dietary laws to the words of the Apostolic Decree to remind Christians that these were Jews who died for their laws, laws that Peter insisted all Christians keep. By changing perceptions of the Christian cult of the martyrs, Julian redefined martyrdom as dying for one’s ancestral laws rather than belief in a “corpse.” His goal was to clear space for Hellenes to reach their temples in a state of purity and carry out efficacious sacrifice.