9 hours ago
6
Borges, Jason. Christian Life in the Greco-Roman City: The Civic and Architectural Contexts of Early Christianity. Foreword by David A. deSilva. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2026. xix+225 pp. Pb. $27.99 Link to Baker Academic
Jason Borges (PhD, Durham University) is associate director of the Asia Minor Research Center in Antalya, Turkey. He published his dissertation as Travel among Early Christians: A Socio-theological Analysis of Pauline and Ignatian Communities (Brill, 2025). Borges has lived in Turkey since 2017 and often leads tours for Tutku Tours. He also contributes to Biblical Turkey and Cappadocia History.
This new book focuses on seven aspects of an ancient Greco-Roman city. Borges describes the infrastructure and architecture in general, then uses a particular archaeological site as an illustration. He then offers examples of how this background helps understand specific New Testament passages and how early Christians interacted with their cities. The book includes five maps and numerous black-and-white photographs (often taken by the author).
In his introductory chapter, Borges describes the importance of a Greco-Roman city for students of the New Testament. Each of the seven elements of the city in this book is critically important to the missions of Jesus and Paul and to the development of the early church. In this introduction, he outlines the basics of civic life in the Greco-Roman world and typical Roman city planning.
In chapter 2, Borges introduces the agora. The Greek agora and the Roman forum were central to the life of the city. The agora was a commercial marketplace, but also a social hub, political center, and even a religious space. Borges uses the Athenian Agora as an example, then examines several gospel texts in which Jesus teaches in an agora. So too, Paul is frequently associated with the agora. He was brought before Gallio face charges in the agora (Acts 18:1-8). Borges includes a short section on the “judgment seat” (bema), a common feature of a Greco-Roman agora. He illustrates this from the archaeology of Corinth (Acts 18) and demonstrates the importance of the concept for understanding 2 Corinthians 5:10.
Temples were the centers of religious activity in ancient cities. Chapter 3 begins by outlining the architecture of a typical sanctuary. Borges then illustrates this with the archaeology of the imperial temple of Augustus in Pisidian Antioch. Although some readers might have expected a discussion of Herod the Great’s Temple in Jerusalem, he does not discuss it because it is not a Greco-Roman temple. With this background set, he demonstrates the importance of temples to the early Christian concept of the body of Christ as a temple. John 2:21-22 anticipates Jesus replacing the temple in the future, and Paul makes several references to the church as a temple (1 Cor 6:19; 12:27; Eph 2:19-22). The first readers would have understood these metaphors clearly because of the ubiquity of temples in their cities. The chapter concludes with sections on the struggle Christians faced with pagan sacrifice and the fate of pagan temples after Constantine.
Although rarely mentioned in the New Testament, every Greco-Roman city included a bath complex. Chapter 4, therefore, describes public baths as central to a civilized city. They were often entertainment in educational centers, but they were also noisy, crowded places which could be dangerous (not to mention unhygienic since the water was unfiltered). He uses the Baths of Caracalla in Rome as his illustration. As important as baths were to Roman culture, there is no example in the New Testament of early Christians going to the baths. Although Paul does not preach the gospel at a Roman bath in Ephesus, he may have used the baths because everyone used them. The Book of Acts never describes the use of public toilets, either. These sorts of common practices do not need to be described in a narrative. Although there may be a few allusions to bathing (Borges suggests John 13:10), some early Christians did, in fact, use baths. Irenaeus reports the story of the apostle John encountering the heretic Cerinthus in the baths (Against Heresy, 3.3.4).
In chapter 5, Borges deals with prisons. He surveys the reasons for incarceration in the ancient world and the typical conditions of a prison. He uses the Mamertine Prison in Rome as an example, then focuses the rest of the chapter on Paul, who is in prison several times in the Book of Acts. Despite the location marked as “Paul’s prison” in Phillipi, Paul was not in a dark, dank hole. As a Roman citizen under house arrest, Paul would have had much better conditions than this in most of his imprisonments. Later Christians were known for visiting prisoners and caring for their needs, based on Jesus’s words in Matthew 25:36, 43.
Theaters were the Greco-Roman entertainment centers. In chapter 6, Borges distinguishes between a theater, an amphitheater, a stadium, and a circus. He demonstrates the features of a theater with the theater at Ephesus, the largest and most impressive example in the ancient world. This is the theater mentioned in Acts 19 as the site of the pro-Artemis riot that erupted in the city in response to Paul’s successful ministry. He then examines biblical illusions to athletics (many are found in Paul’s letters). Early Christians used similar language to describe martyrs, who competed in a public arena and received a crown.
Chapter 7 describes the importance of libraries in an ancient Greco-Roman city. The chapter includes early Hellenistic libraries such as the library of Alexandria and the private libraries of the Roman elite. He examines what is known about the library at Pergamum. Although there are no direct mentions of libraries in the New Testament, early Christians wrote and shared books (scrolls), and the New Testament contains many references to books. Borges discusses Luke’s prologue, dedicating his two books to Theophilus.
Every city has a cemetery, so chapter 8 describes the necropolis (literally, city of the dead). This chapter begins with the death and burial practices of ancient Greeks and Romans, including what a sarcophagus communicated about the deceased’s life and achievements. Borges illustrates burial practices with the tomb of Philip the Apostle in Hierapolis. Discovered in 2011, the tomb is about forty yards from the ruins of the church dedicated to Philip’s martyrdom. Borges traces the development of the earliest simple tomb to a Christian monument. A better illustration of burial practices is the necropolis at Hierapolis, mentioned briefly in this chapter. If you visit Hierapolis, be sure to walk through this massive collection of tombs and sarcophagi. The chapter concludes with a description of early Christian burial practices, including Christian iconography and the use of distinctive Christian names by AD 200.
The final chapter is a reflection on the Christianization of Greco-Roman cities. Temples were replaced with churches, and other key aspects of a Greco-Roman city were abandoned altogether. Borges concludes the book with a reflection on how the idea of a heavenly city planted the classic Greek polis.
Conclusion. Borges’s Christian Life in the Greco-Roman City is an excellent introduction to the important features of an ancient city. The book is written at a popular level and will appeal to a non-academic audience. Footnotes point interested readers to relevant academic literature. While this book lacks the detail found in John Ma’s Polis: A New History of the Ancient Greek City-State from the Early Iron Age to the End of Antiquity (Princeton, 2024), that kind of comprehensiveness is not Borges’s goal.
I would highly recommend this book for people traveling to Türkiye, whether for a “Seven Churches” tour or a Pauline Missionary Journey tour. Even though the focus is on first-century Roman cities, reading the book will help prepare for a tour in Israel.
NB: Thanks to Baker Academic for kindly providing me with a review copy of this book. This did not influence my thoughts regarding the work
English (US) · 