{"id":80,"date":"2009-02-24T19:30:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-24T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2009\/02\/uncovering-a-christian-empire--the-yenikapi-dig.html"},"modified":"2009-02-24T19:30:00","modified_gmt":"2009-02-24T19:30:00","slug":"uncovering-a-christian-empire-the-yenikapi-dig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/02\/uncovering-a-christian-empire-the-yenikapi-dig.html","title":{"rendered":"UNCOVERING A CHRISTIAN EMPIRE– THE YENIKAPI DIG"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It is both true and fair to say that Constantine changed the world when he legalized Christianity, and allowed it to thrive. By the end of the 4th century A.D. when Theodosius was the Emperor (and in fact the last Emperor to preside over both the eastern and western halves of the Church), Constantinople (from which the name Istanbul probably is derived) was the center of a booming world economy which among other things was creating a rapidly expanding Christian Byzantine culture. <\/p>\n

The Yenkapi dig, besides being hugely important in revealing the mercantile and seagoing character of that culture and Empire, open’s a window on how Christianity spread so rapidly in that era. Here is the link to the full story about this dig (kindly sent by my friend Meltem Chiftchi).<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.saudiaramcoworld.com\/issue\/200901\/uncovering.yenikapi.htm<\/p>\n

It is not beyond the realm of possibility that Constantine’s Palace will one day be found, and with it, many, many early Christian manuscripts which could revolutionize text critical studies of the NT. It is a consummation devoutly to be wished.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is both true and fair to say that Constantine changed the world when he legalized Christianity, and allowed it to thrive. By the end of the 4th century A.D. when Theodosius was the Emperor (and in fact the last Emperor to preside over both the eastern and western halves of the Church), Constantinople (from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nUNCOVERING A CHRISTIAN EMPIRE- THE YENIKAPI DIG - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/02\/uncovering-a-christian-empire-the-yenikapi-dig.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UNCOVERING A CHRISTIAN EMPIRE- THE YENIKAPI DIG - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is both true and fair to say that Constantine changed the world when he legalized Christianity, and allowed it to thrive. 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A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. 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