Exploring the role of houses in understanding early
Christian literature
Type the term 'temple' in the search engine of the Utrecht
university library and you immediately find several articles in the field of
Biblical studies. The same applies to synagogue. When you type 'house' however,
the first results refer to the American journal for architecture or the
Burlington magazine for connoisseurs.
Perhaps this typifies some of the problems when looking at the spatial influence
of houses in the texts of the New Testament. In the minds of the authors of the
New Testament there was only one temple that mattered. Several of them indicate
a familiarity with synagogues, though their relation to these synagogue often
seem strained (Joh. 9:22, Rev. 2:9). Houses however are mentioned, not as some
great architectural achievements, neither as centres of religious or ethnic
identity. Houses are just houses. Or are they?
In one of the more recent discussions of the role of
the house church in the Early Church, Roger Gehring remarks that though
Christians met almost exclusively in private houses built for domestic use for
the first three hundred years, little attention has been paid to the role of
households or house churches.[1] In this
paper I want to explore the significance of houses for a better understanding
of early Christian literature, especially in the book of Acts.
Oἶκος and οἰκία
Though there is a difference of opinion on the exact
distinctions between οἶκος and οἰκία,
Gehring follows Klauck in rather determining the exact meaning of the words
from the context instead of assuming οἶκος to refer to the architectural and οἰκία to the sociological meaning. Oἶκος and οἰκία could thus refer to (a) a house in the sense of living
quarters, an inhabited building or (b) an extended family, though the concept
of family would still be quite different from the modern sense.[2] Perhaps
the ambiguity of the term show the close connection between the space and its
social implications which would at least in part explain the significance of
the place of the house in early Christian literature.
Significance
Filson listed five areas in which a study of house churches could
further an understanding of the apostolic church: (1) a distinctively Christian
worship, (2) the great amount of attention paid to family life, (3) a tendency
to party strife, (4) the social status of early Christians and (5) the
development of church polity.[3] To a
certain degree all of these, except perhaps the third point touch on the
passage from Acts 20:7-12 which I would like to examine in my next paper.
Several attempts have been made to explain the origin
of the early house churches in terms of different models present in the ancient
world. Gehring follows White in ascribing the overlap in comparisons of early
house churches with the models of philosophical schools, associations,
synagogues and household not so much to early Christianity's dependence on
either of these, but rather because their organizational schemes overlap in the
use of private, often domestic settings and their dependence on patronage.[4]
Gehring rejects the notion that the prominent
references to houses in the gospels purely reflect the Post-Easter interests of
the early church. Convincingly he argues that the historical Jesus used houses,
especially that of Peter in Capernaum, as bases for his itinerant mission to
surrounding villages and instructed his disciples to apply a similar model.
Gehring envisions groups that would not be too large. They would have to be
accommodated in houses of which the living rooms would mostly be about five
meters square if one would follow indications in rabbinical writings (m.Ber.
8:12c; 3:6d; Gen. Rab. 31:11) and archaeological evidence which also show
courtyards as an integral part of most houses.[5] Characteristic of the Jesus movement are
people giving up their house, both those who do so to as itinerant preachers as
well as those who provide housing for the new groups of believers, creating a
new spiritual based family.[6]
Gehring sees the continuation of a similar pattern in
the Post-Easter use of houses as a base for the Jerusalem church where meetings
in the houses of wealthy patrons function parallel to meetings in the temple.[7] He
demonstrates how several gatherings in houses exist at the same time in larger
cities like Jerusalem, Corinth and Rome.[8] In some
cases like that of Mary in Jerusalem
(Acts 12:12-17) and Philemon, the houses in which believers gathered seemed to be
owned by people of reasonable wealth.[9] As Campbell rightly remarks, Gehring's
identification of other patrons like Pricilla and Aquilla as wealthy, is less
convincing, though plausible. If they rented something like the excavated shops
in Corinth with an area of approximately 27m2, we could imagine a
gathering of about twenty believers.[10] More
recent discussions seriously questioned the tendency to locate the gatherings
of early Christians in affluent villa's like that excavated at Anaploga.
Horrell might therefore be right in saying:
'NT studies should pay more attention to the varieties of domestic space in
the urban setting of Corinth and other cities of the Roman empire, and consider
these as possible settings for early Christian meetings.'[11]
Different shapes and sizes
Not too much is known about the character of many residential areas in
the Roman Empire since excavations like that in Corinth largely focus on forum
areas, temples and villa's. This is partly due to the fact that poorer housing
tend to be constructed from poorer materials and leave less evidence. More
humane reasons also play a role as
Horrel illustrates by quoting Ramsay MacMullen saying: ‘no
one has sought fame through the excavation of a slum'.[12] One
region where we have a broader picture of both urban and rural housing is that
of the Levant.
Yzhar Hirschfeld combined research on rural dwellings
in the Hebron Hills and references in rabbinical sources with information about
archaeological finds to get a clearer picture of the Palestinian Dwellings in
Roman-Byzantine times. Though he recognizes that identical houses are rarely
found, he divides the dwellings into four categories: a) simple houses
measuring between 20 m2 and 220 m2, mostly found in rural
parts with a courtyard on the side; b) 'courtyard houses' found mostly in
cities, measuring between 200-300m2 with a simple inner courtyard
without columns; c) spacious 'peristyle houses' characterized by an inner
courtyard surrounded by columns; d) complex houses, mostly in cities with a
combination of several units around a courtyard. Many of these houses were two
storied, the lower often used for domestic and workshop activities and the
upper story as living quarters, sometimes including a triclinium used for
social events.[13]
There is even mention of three and five stories in rabbinical sources.[14] Access
to roofs and upper stories were by means of wooden or stone staircases.[15] Though
windows were often small, the so-called Tyrian windows were large with a
rectangular frame.[16]
Though Hirschfeld's analysis could be supplemented by
a more accurate classification of the different types of houses like that
provided by Richardson[17], and we
could imagine regional variations including more insulae in places like Corinth
and Troas where the influence of Roman building styles seem larger[18], a
greater awareness of the different styles of houses and the way in which such
spaces could be utilized in various ways, might at least rid us of the images
of an early house church having a cosy bible study in a living room while having
a cup of tea on the night of Paul's visit to the church in Troas. It is
important that in each case a range op optional settings need to be considered.
.
Bibliography
Campbell. A. R., & Gehring, R. W.
(January 01, 2007). House Church and Mission: The Importance of Household
Structures in Early Christianity. By Roger W. Gehring. Journal of
Theological Studies, 58, 2, 666-671.
Clarke,
A. D. (January 01, 2008). Roger W. Gehring House Church and Mission: The
Importance of Household Structures in Early Christianity The Evangelical
Quarterly, 80, 4, 367.
Gehring, R. W. (2004). House church and
mission: The importance of household structures in early Christianity.
Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson Publishers.
Filson, F. V. (June 01, 1939). The Significance of the
Early House Churches. Journal of Biblical Literature, 58, 2, 105-112.
Horrell, D.. G. (July 01, 1999). Domestic Space and
Christian Meetings at Corinth: Imagining New Contexts and the Buildings East of
the Theatre. New Testament Studies, 50, 3, 349-369.
Hirschfeld, Y. (1995). The Palestinian dwelling in
the Roman-Byzantine period. Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press.
Richardson, P. (January 01, 2004). Towards a Typology
of Levantine/Palestinian Houses. Journal for the Study of
the New Testament, 27, 47-68.
[1] With the exception of a few
books and landmark articles like that of Filson after the discovery of a house
church in Dura Europos in 1939, not much has been written about the role of
houses in the New Testament until the 1980's when interest in the role of the
house church in the New Testament increased dramatically with publications by
authors like D. Von Allmen, R. Banks, J.H. Elliot, D.C. Verner, H.J. Klauck and
L.M. White and B.B. Blue. Gehring,
R. W. (2004). House church and mission: The importance of household
structures in early Christianity. Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson Publishers. p.
5-17.
[2] Gehring, R. W. (2004).
p. 8.
[3] Filson, F. V. (June 01,
1939). The Significance of the Early House Churches. Journal of Biblical
Literature, 58, 2, 109-112.
[4] Gehring, R. W. (2004).
p. 22-23.
[5] Gehring, R. W. (2004). p. 28-61.
[6] Gehring, R. W. (2004). p. 61.
[7] Gehring, R. W. (2004). p. 117.
[8] Gehring, R. W. (2004). p.
71-75,142, 145.
[9]
The house of Mary has a gateway πυλών and
accomadate a large number ἱκανός of
believers, praying. Also see Gehring's discussion on Philemon p. 154. Gehring, R. W. (2004). House
church and mission: The importance of household structures in early
Christianity. Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson Publishers. p. 73.
[10] Campbell.
A. R., & Gehring, R. W. (January 01, 2007). House Church and Mission: The
Importance of Household Structures in Early Christianity. By Roger W. Gehring. Journal
of Theological Studies, 58, 2, p. 669. Gehring, R. W. (2004). p. 135-136.
[11] Horrel, D. G. (July 01,
1999). Domestic Space and Christian Meetings at Corinth: Imagining New Contexts
and the Buildings East of the Theatre. New Testament Studies, 50, 3. p.
369.
[12] Horrel, D. G. (July 01,
1999). p. 360.
[13] Hirschfeld, Y. (1995). The
Palestinian dwelling in the Roman-Byzantine period. Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press.p.102.
[14] Hirschfield refers to T.
Eruvin 8:3 , P.T. Baba Bathra 1,13a and M. Baba Bathra 1:5. Hirschfeld, Y. (1995). p.264,
286.
[15] Hirschfeld, Y. (1995).
p.245-246.
[16] Hirschfeld, Y. (1995). p.256.
[17] Richardson,
P. (January 01, 2004). Towards a Typology of Levantine/Palestinian Houses. Journal
for the Study of the New Testament, 27, 56-58.
[18] Richardson, P. (January
01, 2004). 27, 61.
