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The Cult of Theos Hypsistos in Roman Thessalonica

and the First Christian Community of the City

Ekaterini G. Tsalampouni
Lecturer of the NT, School of Pastoral & Social Theology
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GR

Abstract
The cult of the so- alled Theos Hypsistos the Most High God has een an intriguing and
much debated religious phenomenon of the Graeco-Roman world because of its henotheistic
trends and of its possible Hellenistic philosophical background and Jewish associations. In the
present paper the archaeological and epigraphic data of this cult in Thessalonica of the second
half of the 1st AD will be presented. These monuments will be compared to similar artifacts
from the Eastern part of the Roman Empire and their possible connection to the Jewish presence
in the city as well as the nature of the cult in Thessalonica and the identity (ethnic and social) of
its members will be discussed. Finally, the results of this analysis will be used in order to
reconstruct a fascinating part of the religious and social background of the first Christian
community in Thessaloniki.

Introduction
The cult of the so- alled Theos H psistos the Most High God has ee a i trigui g a d
much debated religious phenomenon of the Graeco-Roman world because of its henotheistic
trends and of its possible Hellenistic philosophical background and Jewish associations. The
worshippers of this deity have also been associated or identified with the god-fearers
( ο ο μενο , ε μενο ὸν ε ν) of the Acts thus creating links – both ideological and
terminological in some cases e.g. in Black Sea – between this cult and the spread of Christianity
in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire.

It is certainly beyond the scope and the time limits of this paper to present the total of the ever-
growing evidence of this intriguing cult or discuss in full detail and on a theoretical basis the
pros and cons of the possible association of this cult with the Jewish Diaspora communities,

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with the gentile sympathizers that frequented the Jewish communities in the cities of Asia
Minor and Greece or even with the early Christian communities of these cities. For practical and
methodological reasons that will be subsequently explained a different path will be followed
here: the evidence of the cult of Theos Hypsistos from a particular city, namely that of
Thessaloniki, will be presented and discussed and the validity of the hypothesis of the probable
association of the Theos Hypsistos cult to the Jewish or early Christian community of the city
will be tested. The purpose, therefore, of this paper is threefold: a) to present the evidence
regarding the cult of Theos Hypsistos in a particular local community, b) to contribute to the
long lasting debate on the origins and nature of the cult and c) to use this evidence in order to
reconstruct a small but perhaps significant aspect of the cultural and religious environment of
the first Christian community of Thessaloniki.

Some preliminary remarks

The major reason for preferring a particular instance of the Theos Hypsistos cult is the fact
admitted by all scholars who dealt with this religious phenomenon and even by those who tried
to construct an overarching pattern and fit all Hypsistos evidence in it – e.g. S. Mitchell – that
despite some common elements among the various manifestations of this cult – in cult
terminology and possibly cult content, vocabulary or monument typology – the cult of Theos
Hypsistos remains clearly localized and displays, therefore, particular and sometimes unique
and locally defined features. Developing this argument further one could remark that this local
variation and differentiation may betray connections to particular local deities or more radically
that in the minds of its local worshippers the deity behind the abstract designation of the
Highest God ight ha e ee a parti ular deit – different in each case. The local colour of
the cult need not of course lead to the easy dismissal of the existence of a common ideological
background or of a possible influence by or interaction with other religious realities or a more
general philosophical ambiance of this period. It could, however, call for caution against
oversimplified generalizations that usually rest on fixed and ideologically dictated presumptions
that cannot be supported by the material evidence (both archaeological and epigraphic).

The selection of Thessaloniki as a test case rests on two main facts. First, the Hypsistos-
evidence from this Macedonian city has not yet been discussed in its length by scholars. For
example Richard Ascough in his ook o Paul s Ma edo ia asso iatio s pu lished i
mentions only briefly the existence of it and devotes five at least pages in discussing the
material evidence of a Zeus Hypsistos cult known from other Macedonian cities and its possible
relation to the Jewish presence on Macedonian soil. Even Christoph Steimle in his recently

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published study on the Thessalonian cults in the Roman period discusses the existence of this
cult very shortly and deals actually only with the possibility of its being connected to that of the
Egyptian cults in the city. Second, all evidence from the city comes from the period when
according to the Acts Paul visited Thessaloniki (i.e. mid of the 1st c.) and found a thriving Jewish
community and many Greek godfearers in its synagogue who became members of the first
Christian community there. Accordingly, the case of Thessaloniki may provide a good
opportunity for testing the assumption of an interaction between or overlapping of the Jewish
and pagan realities on the grounds of the Theos Hypsistos cult.

Presentation of evidence
The major bulk of evidence from Thessaloniki is epigraphic. Eight inscriptions have already
come to light all bearing dedications to Theos Hypsistos. The first seven were published by
Charles Edson in Inscriptiones Graecum in 1972. The last one has recently (in 2009) been
discussed in detail by Pantelis Nigdelis, Prof. of Ancient Greek and Roman Epigraphy at the
Univ. of Thessaloniki, in his edition of newly discovered or re-discovered inscriptions from
Thessaloniki. Nigdelis also corrected the misreadings of the original publication of the
inscription by Misailidou-Despotidou that were repeated by Sara Camperini in her paper in ZPE
(2007) and addressed its possible connection to the Jewish community. It should also be noted
that a now lost inscription bearing a dedication to Zeus Hypsistos and Nemesis dated to 2 nd or
3rd c. CE has been found in the city; for various reasons (the chronology, the iconography and
the type of the monument) this monument should not, however, be connected to those of the
Thessalonian Theos Hypsistos.

Provenance and date

A ordi g to Charles Edso si of the i s riptio s ere fou d prope “erapeu i.e. near the
temple of the Egyptian deities), i.e. in the SW part of the town district known today as
Dioiketerio where in antiquity all major sanctuaries of the city were located. The inscription
published by Nigdelis was found according to the museum inventory in the Ancient Agora, but it
is assumed that it came from the same archaeological site as the previous ones. All of the
monuments are dated from the 2nd half up to the end of the 1st c. CE. The oldest of them –
dated in 66/67 CE - seems to have been the dedication made by Herennia Procla of four
olu s, their apitals a d ases, a d the doorposts , since most of the other inscriptions –
with the exception of two - were carved on these columns. It also offers some hints regarding
the chronological span of the cult in the city. The formulation of the text here seems to suggest
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that the association of the worshippers of Theos Hypsistos – eari g the a e of s klitai ,
i.e. people who shared a common meal – must have existed for some time before their
assembly building has been erected. It is also highly probable that the flourishing of the cult and
the increasing number of people attracted to it and attested by the two catalogues of the
Hypsistos worshippers led to the erection of that assembly building. The beginnings of the cult
could therefore been placed sometime before the year 66/67. It is also very interesting that
almost all inscriptions were found near the Serapeum and in the sacred area of the city where
most of all the other sacred buildings of the city were located. This can also be an indication of
the public character of the cult.

Type and content of the monuments

Most of the inscriptions were inscribed on the various architectural parts – mostly on the
columns – that belonged to one or more buildings, more probably to the assembly building
erected by Herennia Procla (handout, nr. 1).

It is also very interesting and it conforms to the general trend regarding the monuments of
Theos Hypsistos in the Graeco-Roman world that the Thessalonian monuments bear no images
of the deity or of any symbolic attributes. This generally attested aniconic character of the
Hypsistos monuments is very interesting and cannot be regarded as accidental; it rather results
from a more or less abstract and in some respects transcendent perception of Theos Hypsistos.
Furthermore, his very name betrays a tendency towards establishing a hierarchy and placing a
deit a o e all others that ere a aila le o the religious arket of the Gre o-Roman world.
However, Theos Hypsistos was not the only expression of this metaphysical quest and should a)
be placed within a wider philosophical framework of conceiving divinity during this period and
b) be associated with the cult of other abstract ideas (like Hosion and Dikaion) of this period.
Through their presentation in an anonymous and abstract form various local deities would
acquire according to O. Wischmeyer (2005: 156) the potential of an ecumenical deity and
transform from local gods and goddesses to all embracing and universal deities.

Two of the inscriptions in Thessaloniki are lists of the names of the members of the Theos
Hypsistos cult association (see nr. 5). The rest are dedications to the deity, erected mostly by
people expressing their gratitude for the deit s help. One of them has been erected by a man
who had been rescued at the sea by Hypsistos (nr. 2); the function of the deity as a savior from
great dangers at sea is also attested by other monuments in different parts of the Roman
world. On the same inscription it is mentioned that Theos Hypsistos saved his thankful

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orshipper gi i g hi a di i e ar i g in a dream ( μ εί φ ὄνε ον). Τhis

expression, that is also attested in other Hypsistos inscriptions of Thessaloniki as well seems to
suggest a personal relationship between the deity and its devotees and also to imply the
existence of an oracle that perhaps was related to the cult.

Some of these inscriptions also mention priests (e.g. nr. 1 or 2); it remains, however, very
unclear whether there has been a temple or chapel of the deity and it cannot be established
whether the priests on these monuments were priests of Theos Hypsistos.

On the other hand, the two lists of the association members provide us with interesting
information regarding the organization of the cult group of Theos Hypsistos. As far as I know,
these are the only examples of association lists of the deity found so far in the whole region of
Asia Mi or a d Gree e. The e ers of the asso iatio are alled s klitai , that is those ho
share a common meal or participate in a symposium and their leader is labeled as
trikli ar hes , i.e. the a ho is respo si le for the s posiu . A ordi g to Edso the fi ed
position of the names of some of the synklitai in both lists seem to indicate some kind of a
hierarchy; however, no other office is mentioned. The Nigdelis inscription, though, bears
it ess for the e iste e of a additio al title, that of the gra ateus se retar of the
association, a title which is also attested in other associations of the city. All three inscriptions
see to i di ate that the ajor e pressio of the asso iatio s life a d ult as a o o
meal, a symposium, a feature also known from other associations in Thessaloniki or in other
parts of the Graeco-Roman world. This feature is of particular interest, since it was also the
central event in early Christian and especially Pauline communities and as it was the case in the
pagan associations it established the solidarity between the members and expressed their
community with god.

The prosopographical analysis of the names of the Hypsistos worshippers in Thessaloniki can
provide us with some very useful information regarding their origin and social status and could
also contribute to the discussion of the possible connection between the Hypsistos cult and the
Jewish or Christian presence in the city. In the inscriptions 64 names of people – men or women
– connected somehow to the Hypsistos cult are preserved. The majority of them belong to the
Roman type (i.e. tria nomina), an indication of the Roman status of their bearers. With the
exception of one, the rest belong to the Greek two-name system, an indication of their free
status. Regarding the group of the Roman names they could be subdivided in three categories:
a) names containing the gentilicium of a Roman emperor of the Julioclaudian or Flavian
dynasty, b) gentilicia of people who served as Roman officials in the province of Macedonia,

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and c) gentilicia of Italian families that have been attested to have been active as bankers or
merchants in the Eastern part of the Roman empire from the 1st c. BCE and up to the 2nd c. CE.
The cognomina, i.e. the third part of these Roman-type names, provide us also with useful
information. The majority of them are not Roman an indication that the people who bore them
were not Roman by birth but a) were free Greek citizens who acquired the Roman citizenship
by an emperor or an important Roman, and b) were freedmen or descendants of freedmen of
Italian families of merchants and bankers. On the other hand the Greek type names can also be
very helpful. With the exception of one – that stands without the name of the father – all
indicate the free status of their bearers. Four of them mention the name of the mother instead
of that of the father, an indication that they were children of mixed marriages and belonged to
a lower social stratum. There is no indication that any of these Hypsistos adherents was a Jew.
In two cases the place of origin is mentioned: a person coming from Thessaloniki and one
coming from Corinth. This brief analysis of the prosopographical data of the Hypsistos
inscriptions leads to the conclusion that the participant of the Theos Hypsistos cult do not
belong to a particular ethnic or social group. An egalitarian tendency should also be detected
here; there does t see to ha e e isted a hierar hi al differe tiatio ased o their so ial
status, but Roman citizens, freedmen, children of mixed marriages and Greeks are listed with
no discrimination. Their names can also denote their social and geographical mobility, a factor
that played an important role in the diffusion of Christianity, too. The fact, as well, that they are
Roman citizens or free Greeks in the majority is an indication that they belonged to a more or
less middle social layer of the Thessalonian society, from which according to the Acts the first
Christian originated.

Jewish associations?
One of the major issues regarding the cult of Theos Hypsistos is its probable association with
other deities or it probable Jewish origins. In the case of Thessaloniki there has been the
suggestion that the god should be connected to the Egyptian deities. One of the major
arguments of this hypothesis is the fact that most of the monuments of Theos Hypsistos were
fou d prope “erapeu . “i e the precinct of the Serapeum seems to have been larger than
the one regarded earlier as such, it has been suggested that the cult of Theos Hypsistos may
have been hosted in one of the edifices of the temple complex, a common practice in the
ancient world, especially in the context of the cult of the Egyptian deities who often displayed
henotheistic tendencies. The archaeological evidence from Thessalonica bears witness to the
identification of Isis, Anubis and Horus with local deities. There is also some indication that the

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cults of various deities were housed in the buildings of the Serapeum. It is therefore possible
that Theos Hypsistos, whose cult demonstrated henotheistic or even monotheistic trends,
shared as s aoi a building with one or more Egyptian deities or even conflated with one of
them. Furthermore, like Theos Hypsistos, Isis and Serapis were often associated with the sea
and delivered their adherents from perils of sea travels. Although this hypothesis is tantalizing,
there is no explicit evidence of any connection between Hypsistos and any of the gods of Egypt.
In spite of their noteworthy place in the religious life of the city, none of the Egyptian deities
as as ri ed the attri ute of h psistos i a of the te ts fou d i Thessalo i a so far. Finally,
contrary to the aniconic character of the Hypsistos monuments, the various relief and statue
representations of Isis and her Egyptian companions from the Thessalonian Serapeum betray a
quite different strand of tradition and conception of the deity.

Of course one of the most intriguing theories about the identity of Theos Hypsistos associates
him with the God of the Jews. This h pothesis as first proposed E il “ hürer i and
has been the subject of scholarly debate since then. The major arguments of this view are that:
a) Yahwe is also called h psistos in the Septuagint and other Jewish texts, b) some of the
Hypsistos-inscriptions are definitely Jewish, c) monuments referring to Theos Hypsistos were
often found in regions where the presence of a Jewish Diaspora community is also attested,
and finally d) the monotheistic tendency displayed by the Hypsistos-cult had many similarities
to the monotheism of the Jewish God. This theory actually regards the inscriptions of Theos
Hypsistos found in various regions of the Greco-Roman world as a unified whole and concludes
that the ult although oloured paga tou hes as arked Je ish i flue e.
Furthermore it proposes the equation of the adherent to Theos Hypsistos with the sebomenoi,
foboumenoi or theosebeis, i.e. the God-fearers mentioned in various ancient sources.
However a careful investigation of the epigraphic and other sources shows that in the case of
Theos Hypsistos one cannot speak of a single god and a unified cult of Pagan-Jewish pedigree.
The picture that results from the comparison of the facts derived from these sources is that of
local diversity ranging from the definitely pagan usage of the epithet Hypsistos to that within a
Jewish context; one has to decide about the possible association with the Jewish religion in
each case separately.
I the ase of Thessalo i a the deit eari g the a e Theos H psistos has ofte
been identified with the God of the Jews and the monuments of this cult have been regarded as
the obvious evidence of the Jewish presence in the city. Although Philo mentions the existence
of Jewish communities in Macedonia, the only direct testimony of a Jewish Diaspora

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community in Thessalonica during the 1st century ce is that of the Acts. On the other hand the
inscriptional evidence of Jewish presence in the city is from the late 2 nd or the 3rd c. ce and even
later. One of the earliest inscriptions however is of particular interest since it mentions the
existence of more than one synagogues in the city, which probably implies the presence of a
considerable Jewish population in Thessalonica.
In spite of the scarce archaeological evidence and the lack of any information regarding the
beginnings of the Jewish community in the city, the testimony of the literary sources should be
taken into account and the Jewish presence in Thessalonica in the Hellenistic and Roman times
should not be doubted. The location of Thessalonica, a significant Macedonian urban centre, at
the crossroad of major trade routes, the evidence of Jewish mobility in the Eastern and
Western part of the Mediterranean during the Hellenistic period, and the epigraphic evidence
of organized Jewish Diaspora communities in various cities of Macedonia are some of the
arguments in support of this view.

What however should be seriously called into question is the possible connection of the cult of
Theos Hypsistos in Thessalonica with the Jewish community there and its synagogue. The
inscriptions of Thessalonica include none of the criteria that are decisive for the identification of
an inscription as Jewish. The only exception has been a fragmentary dedication now lost where
the worn out letters IOUES could be read. These letters were thought to be a corrupted form of
Iao, the name of the Jewish God usually found in magical papyri, and as a matter of course the
inscription was considered to indicate the Jewish identity of the deity. An alternative reading of
the text however seems more plausible; these letters could be parts of the name of the
dedicator, a restoration that is consistent with the usual phrasing of the dedicatory inscriptions
from Thessalonica and elsewhere in the Greco-Roman world (name of the deity in dative and
the name of the dedicator in nominative) and with the fact that Jews avoided writing or
pronouncing the sacred name of their god.

While on the one hand there is no indication of a Jewish influence on the Thessalonian
monuments of Theos Hypsistos, on the other hand these monuments bear many similarities to
the other dedications found in the city. It is therefore more likely that the cult of this deity was
an expression of the metaphysical quest of the gentile inhabitants of the Macedonian city, a
religious tendency detected in other parts of the Greco-Roman world as well. What seems
more significant than tracing the probable background of this local cult, a rather impossible task
as it has turned out, is the fact that this idea of a Most High God, which was shared by Jews,
Christians and even some pagans, was familiar to the gentile audience of Paul in Thessalonica,

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too. It could be regarded as a common ground where these three parts – Jews, gentiles and
Christians- could meet. To the same direction seem to lead the other common features shared
between the Theos Hypsistos association of the city and the first Christian congregation (like
the feature of the common meal, the organization of the groups on the pattern of an
association, the social provenance of the members in both groups etc). Instead of trying to
establish direct and generic links between the two groups it is much safer and more aware of
the evidence provided by the inscriptions to discern the ideological and practical overlaps
between the two groups. The same could be argued about the God-fearers. Instead of
advocating the identification of them with the adherents of Theos Hypsistos in Thessaloniki one
could understand them as two aspects of the same phenomenon, of the religious quest of a
pagan world that sought answers to its existential questions. This of course could not mean that
there could not have been some kind of encounter or overlap between the two groups. Both of
them seem to have been inclusive and not exclusive. However, a modification of the well-
established position that it was the Jewish diaspora the catalyst who made possible the
encounter of the Christian gospel and the pagan world thanks to the God-fearers who acted as
the bridge between them is also possible and could open new perspectives in the
understanding of the world in New Testament times. The Jewish synagogue with its
monotheistic cult was not the only factor that prepared the pagan world for the acceptance of
the Christian message; the pagan world itself had got the potential, too, to grasp such ideas and
incorporate them in a creative way in its own religious traditions. One such example is the cult
of Theos Hypsistos and its worshippers who could also function as a potential bridge between
the Gentiles and the Jewish or Christian communities. The case of the Theos Hypsistos cult of
Thessaloniki seems to point to this direction, too.

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