Early Christianity

of early Christianity. Private letters show the development of
Christian sayings such as ‘God knows’, ‘if God wills it’, and so
forth. There are also official documents relating to periods when
Christians fell under the scrutiny of the imperial government, such
as certificates from the reign of Decius (249–51) proving that
sacrifice had been made to the pagan gods, and an inventory of
church property made during the persecution under Diocletian
(see chapter 6).
However slight the material evidence for pre-Constantinian
Christianity may be, it is still instructive. From the Dura Europos
building and the catacombs we gain glimpses of places for meet-
ings and burial; from inscriptions and papyri, the development of
popular (as opposed to literary) modes of expressing Christian
identity. Concentrations of data from specific geographical areas
(such as the inscriptions of the Tembris valley or caches of papyri
from certain parts of Egypt) permit insights into the development
of Christianity in particular regions. Yet the material evidence
needs to be interpreted with care. There are often problems of
chronology: some inscriptions and papyri contain precise dates,
but other artefacts have to be dated according to more subjective
criteria, such as the style of letter-forms or painting. Above all,
the archaeology should not be used merely to flesh out pictures
derived from literary sources, or to push certain theological
agendas. Less than a hundred years ago, it could be argued: ‘The
study of Christian archaeology, which is subsidiary to that of
Church history and theology completes, with its monuments, what
we can learn from documents about the events of the primitive
Church, and confirms what theology teachesabout the dogmas of
Christianity’ (Marucchi 1929: v, emphasis added). It is to be
hoped that we have come a long way since then.

Using the sources

How are we to use this astonishing array of sources? Some sug-
gestions have been made above, and the next three chapters will
provide examples of interpretation, but it is perhaps appropriate
here to state some basic principles.

SOURCES AND THEIR INTERPRETATION

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