Although the lines describing Augustus as a saviour (so ̄ ter) have
been restored by the editors of the inscription, their presence
in the text seems likely. Not only are many other emperors (and
before them Hellenistic kings and generals of the Roman
Republic) called so ̄ ter, but the inscription also expresses the
Asians’ hopes for their ‘salvation’ (so ̄ teria). There is no such
ambiguity about the use of the term euangelia, which appears not
only here but also elsewhere in the inscription.
The extent to which this inscription echoes with ideas
similar to those found in early Christianity is brought home
to me every year when I present it to my students (by sheer
serendipity, the lecture in question takes place only weeks before
Christmas). They are struck by how the description of the emperor
correlates closely with statements about Jesus from the New
Testament. The parallels go further. Augustus proclaimed himself,
and was recorded in countless inscriptions, as ‘the son of a god’,
meaning the deified Julius Caesar. For his followers of course,
Jesus was theson of theone true God. And just as Roman
emperors claimed authority over the whole of the earth, so too
New Testament texts proclaimed that Jesus’ message will be heard
to the ends of the earth.
To what extent could Paul and other early Christian authors
have been aware that their use of such language mimicked terms
that were central to emperor worship? An indication that they
might have done is suggested by their use by Paul’s older contem-
porary, the Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria (c. 15 BC–c.AD50).
In his Embassy to Gaiushe twice used the verb euangelizesthai
to describe the arrival of news at Alexandria of Gaius’ accession
to the throne in 37 (Embassy to Gaius99, 231); he also described
Gaius as ‘a saviour (so ̄ ter) and benefactor’ who would bring
blessings to Asia and Europe (Embassy to Gaius22), that is effec-
tively to the whole world. If the Jew Philo could use language
associated with emperor worship in ways that look self-conscious,
why not also Paul and the early Christians?
This possibility has been explored by a number of scholars
working on the New Testament. The harbinger of this approach
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