The spread of Christianity in Transjordan
The memories of Jesus’ passage and the tragic end of John the Baptist were not lost in the region. From the first centuries we find that Christianity was deeply rooted in the jewish and arab population. Arabs were present amongst the crowd of people present in Jerusalem at Pentecost, who were converted by Peter’s speech (Ac 2, 11). Saint Paul spent years of isolation in the land of Arabia prior to the start of his apostleship amongst the gentiles of the empire (Ga 1, 17). For a time, during the first jewish insurrection against the romans, the christian community of Jerusalem found shelter in the pleasant valley of Pella, one of the cities of the Decapolis. Eusebius of Caesarea writes: “The people of the church of Jerusalem, having received warnings through their leaders, had been advised to leave the city before the outbreak of the battle. They were advised to make for Pella in Peraea. In fact, having abandoned Jerusalem, the faithful of Christ took refuge in the indicated city. Thus the Capital City of Judea and all of the region were deserted and left with no saints”. (HE, III, 5, 3-4; PG, XX, 222).

In the second half of the IV century, Epiphanius Bishop of Salamina in Cyprus recalls the presence of various jewish-christian sects which had increased in Transjordan. This had caused Theodoretus Bishop in Syria to write the famous phrase “Arabia Haeresum Ferax”, Arabia rich in heretics.

The officer Zenone together with his servant Zena were beheaded in Amman, because they were christians, during the persecution by Emperor Diocletian. The same fate was shared by Elianus a weaver who had his workshop close to the Gerasa Gate of the city, Theodorus and five companions of his hailing from the Madaba region, and the deacon Zaccheus from Gadara (modern Umm Qays). During the same persecution, many christians from Palestine and Egypt were deported to the copper mines of Feinan which is situated in the depression of the valley of the Arabah close to Petra.

“Amongst the martyrs of Palestine,” writes Eusebius from Caesarea, “Silvanus bishop of the churches in Gaza, was beheaded in the copper mines of Feno together with another 39 martyrs. In those days, the companions of Silvanus gave witness of much generous perseverance in their faith. So much so that they were condemned to forced labour in the copper mines by the governor himself. They suffered this even after having the articulation joints in their legs burnt with a red hot iron”.

The egyptian bishops, Peleo and Nilo, together with others, were burnt at the stake, in the same locality. Amongst them there was Panfilo, Eusebius’ mentor. Eusebius, who lived the events, writes thus: “After this, the mutilated men were despatched by him to the mines of the province (of Palestine), to lead a miserable existence full of fatigue and suffering. At the copper mines of Palestine there was a sizable number of confessors, who enjoyed great liberty as to enable them to build churches. The cruel and wicked governor of the province, having stayed for some time in these localities, saw for himself the behaviour of those who lived there. He sent a slanderous report to inform the emperor of the situation. Later came the mines superintendent, who as though he was carrying out an imperial command, segregated the confessors from the rest of the people…He then chose four of the confessors, whom he thought to be their leaders and sent them to the area’s military commander. These were Peleo and Nilo bishops from Egypt, Patermuzio and Silvanus bishop of Gaza. The military commander asked them to renounce their religious faith. Having had no success, he condemned them to die by fire”.

The ruins of the churches that can still be seen standing at Feinan not far away from the mines, and the extensive cemetery, profaned and plundered by unscrupulous modern day grave-robbers, are a witness to the considerable numbers of the christian community implanted in this desert bathed by the blood of martyrs.

The Onomasticon of biblical locations, a geographic text written by Eusebius towards the end of the III century AD mentions that in the Madaba region, upon the moabite plateau, the village of Qoraiata (modern al-Qurayat) on the road leading to Machaerus, was inhabited only by christians (Onomasticon 113, 14).

As far back as the first decades of the IV century, we have evidence that an embryonic ecclesiastical organisation existed in the region. The bishops of Philadelphia-Amman, Esbos (Hesban, north of Madaba) and of Zoara (Ghor al-Safy), took part, together with the other bishops of the empire, in the Council of Nicea held in 325 AD which had been convened by the Emperor Constantine.

The Places of worship
At the height of christian expansion we have, what is today the territory of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan divided into 19 episcopal seats depending on the metropolitan bishops at Bostra (seats in the Provincia Arabia), Petra (seats of Palaestina Tertia), Nysa-Scythopolis-Beisan (seats of Palaestina Secunda) and Caesarea on the Sea (seats of Palaestina Prima). Having been initially dependent on the Patriarch of Antioch, the bishops of the three provinces of Palaestina became dependent on the Patriarch of Jerusalem, set up by the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD.

The literary sources regarding the christian communities in the byzantine epoch are sparse and generic. The only documentation available consists of the name of bishops who participated in ecclesiastical Councils, regional or general and a few sporadic mentions in the historical and geographic texts of the era.

The information available to us today regarding the christian communities in Transjordan in the first centuries AD has mostly been supplied to us by the inscriptions in the churches which have been brought to light during the archaeological excavations held in the last few decades of this century.

The christians were proud of their faith. A beautiful inscription carved on the lintel of the outer door of the Church of Saint Theodore at Gerasa, which is built right next to the temple of the city’s main deity Artemis, witnesses to this faith as opposed to the pagan world and the cruel sacrifices that were offered to the pagan gods: “I am the wonder and admiration of passers-by, because all traces of disorder have disappeared from here. In place of the dirt of the olden days, the grace of God has surrounded me on all sides. Once, animals tortured by sufferings were thrown here and gave out an unpleasant odour. Often the passer-by covered his nose, held his breath and escaped the nasty smell. Now, those who pass near this sweet-smelling place raise the right hand to their forehead and trace the sign of the worshippers of the cross.”

The sign of the cross which the christians then, as they still do now, loved sculpting and painting everywhere, be it in churches as well as homes, on sacred as well as common furnishings and ornaments, on tombstones and watch towers erected for the defence of the cities

As a result of the declarations by bishop Epiphanius regarding the existence, in Transjordan of several judeo-christian sects in the first centuries, modern authors suppose that similar unorthodox sects and movements flourished also in this period of tremendous growth of the christian faith. This is an historical hypothesis which would explain the considerable number of churches discovered by the archaeologists in the cities as well as in the villages. It would also lend ideological support to the phenomenon of iconoclastism which is present in almost all of the mosaics discovered to date, in the churches in Jordan.

The inscriptions that accompany the floor mosaics in the churches testify to the orthodoxy of the christian communities in Transjordan. Here God is master of all things, who created heaven and earth, a Holy consubstantial Trinity, with whose help and grace, and through whose will and providence are brought to end all good deeds undertaken.

The Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the only God, God and our Saviour, enjoys the same divine attributes. He is King, Creator, the Sofia of God, Lord God of Saint Mary and all the saints, pride of the christians which are often referred to as the lovers of Christ.

These christians nourish a great devotion towards Saint Mary, to whom are dedicated the churches at Madaba, on Mount Nebo and in the village of Rihab of the Banu Hasan to the north of the region, shrines at Gerasa and at Rabbat Moba-Areopolis. The Mother of Jesus is the Virgin Theothokos, holy and immaculate queen towards whom one must look with purified soul and actions; as can be read in the central medallion found in the Church of the Virgin in Madaba: “If you want to look at Mary, virginal Mother of God, and to Christ whom she generated, Universal King, only Son of the only God, purify (your) mind, flesh and works! That you may purify with (your) prayer the people of God.”

A special devotion is reserved to John the Forerunner, after whom many christians of the region are named and to the Holy Apostles, in particular, “The outstanding Apostles Peter and Paul to whom power was given”, as can be read in the church dedicated to them in Gerasa. There then follow the Prophets, the glorious Martyrs and saints Stephen, Theodore, Basil, Kyriakos, Procopius, George, Sergius and Bacchus, Cosmas and Damianus, Menas and the martyr Varo. On a lintel in the Church of the martyr Saint Theodore we can still read, “I am the resplendent abode of the victor, Theodore immortal martyr, divine man, whose glory has flown upon the earth and in the deep abyss of the oceans. His body has been returned to the earth but his soul, in the immense heavens, shares forever the life of the angelic choirs. He is an everlasting bastion, an invincible defence for the city and its present and future inhabitants.” Yet again in Gerasa we read, in the mosaic found in the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damianus, who were doctors: “Pray now, while venerating the beautiful pair of victors. In truth, they are saints who own the art of allaying sufferings. From now on those who make offerings will benefit through the elimination of misadventure in their lives”.

At Aila-Aqaba we find the names of the soldier saints Theodore and Longinus sculptured on two column capitals for the protection of the city. In the same way as we find the names of the archangels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel inscribed on each side of the tower in the barracks at Umm al-Jimal.

The name Emanuel, used to refer to Jesus as the one who fulfills the prophecies of the Prophet Elijah, as reported in the Hebrew transcription or from the translation in Greek (God is with us), becomes a wish and an assurance of protection. In the same way as does the salvific cross in a church in Shuneh al Janubiyyah and on the tower at Umm al-Jimal.

The mosaicists who created the mosaic floors in the churches, remind us of the new era of peace brought about by Christ-Emanuel by representing a lion facing an ox. The composition is explained by the textual quotation from the prophet Isiah: “and the lion will eat straw like the ox.” (Is 11, 7b)

The same messianic peace, of which the christian community felt part of through Christ is to be understood in the chapel of Saint Theodore in Madaba with the personifications of the rivers of Paradise: Ghion, Phison, Euphrates and Tigris. Peace which the martyr possessed in full.

I believe that this vision of a world at peace with itself, hoped for by the prophets and realised by Christ is to be connected with the representation of Mother Earth, the Sea, the Four Seasons, the Months, as well as human activity such as sheep-breeding, harvesting, hunting, fishing and the tilling of the fields which we find in the mosaic floors. These are iconographic themes borrowed from the pagan hellenistic-roman art but re-used in the churches with a new meaning. Which meaning is inspired by the biblical texts read, by the christian community, in the light of its faith in Christ.

It is in this christian vision of continuity and completeness with the Old Testament, which was, for the communities in Transjordan, not only theological but a geographical reality, that the Map of Madaba was carried out.

The famous mosaic that once decorated the floor of a church in Madaba is more than a geographic text of the byzantine era. It is principally an updated re-reading of the Story of Salvation, as narrated in the Bible in its geographic context. The Holy City of Jerusalem is placed at the centre of the redeemed ecumene. The principal building found therein is the constantine complex of the Holy Sepulcher, constructed on the Rock of Calvary, thought as being the centre of the world.

© Michele Piccirillo
SBF