Introduction

In this chapter I will examine the evidence for ‘God-worshippers’ in Asia Minor. They are to be understood as a group of pagans who attended the synagogue regularly and adopted some Jewish customs such as Sabbath observance and food laws but who were not circumcised and so were not full members of the Jewish community in the way that proselytes were. In 1877 Bernays suggested that three expressions found in a range of literature (and in the case of the last term also in inscriptions) – σεβóμενοι τòν εóν, φοβούμενοι τòν εóν and metuens – were ‘technical terms’ denoting Gentiles on the fringe of Judaism. Other scholars adopted Bernays' view and added a fourth ‘technical term’ – εοσεβής. The concept of a God-worshipper was built up as a montage of these four terms. Thus, the meaning of any one term has often been regarded as the sum total of the four.

Lake and Feldman both cast doubt on this interpretation and showed that the most natural meaning of the terms was simply ‘religious’ or ‘devout’ and that they could be applied to people of any belief. Whilst they could denote Gentile God-worshippers, the terms were normally applied to Jews; the meaning of the terms in each instance was to be discovered from the context.