SEEKING THE UNIVERSAL GOD: THEOS HYPSISTOS CULT IN BLACK SEA AND ANATOLIAN CITIES

Yıl 2018, Sayı: 21, 1 - 20, 20.12.2018

Onur Sadık Karakuş

Öz

Theos Hypsistos known as The Supreme God has attracted attention as a cult since the time of the first researches until now. In conclusion to the curiosity for the Ancient Civilizations, inscriptions, starting at 19th Century, about that cult are found and according to those inscriptions it has been said that there were a unique religious system which had a tendency to monotheism. Those monotheist elements held in the system, not being able to answer the questions about the society and its origin and most importantly being worshipped in lots of different region caused that the cult to be chosen as a research topic. According to that, places which have the examples of the cult in an intense way like the cities in Anatolia and the West and North Black Sea region seen as an Roman state and protectorate in the Roman Sovereignty are taken as a center to the research. Main subject of this study is that the cult Theos Hypsistos can be divided as both cultural and regional parts. To be easily understood, details about the Theos Hypsistos cult which are in the cities that is in this study are compared.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Theos Hypsistos, Black Sea, Anatolia, Monotheism, Roman Empire

Karadeniz ve Anadolu Kentlerinde Theos Hypsistos Kültü

Öz

Theos Hypsistos yani En Yüce Tanrı, ilk araştırmalardan günümüze
kadar üzerinde pek çok tartışmanın yapıldığı bir kült olarak dikkat
çekmektedir. Antikçağ uygarlıklarına duyulan merak sonucu, 19.yüzyıldan
başlayarak söz konusu külte dair yazıtlar Doğu Akdeniz ve Karadeniz’deki pek çok
bölgede ele geçirilmiş ve bunlardan hareketle Antikçağ dünyasında monoteist
eğilimler gösteren, özgün bir dini yapının var olduğu dile getirilmiştir. İçinde
barındırdığı monoteist unsurlar, kökeni ve tapınımına ilişkin pek çok sorunun
cevaplanamamış olması ve en önemlisi onlarca farklı bölgede tapınım görmesi söz
konusu kültün araştırma konusu olarak seçilmesine neden olmuştur. Bu bağlamda külte
dair örnekleri en yoğun şekilde barındıran, Roma eyaleti veya bağlaşığı olarak
Roma Egemenlik sahasında kalan Batı ve Kuzey Karadeniz bölgesi ile Anadolu’daki
çeşitli kentler çalışmanın merkezine alınmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Theos Hypsistos, Karadeniz, Anadolu, Monoteizm, Roma İmparatorluğu, Din, Anadolu, Monoteizm, Roma İmparatorluğu

Kaynakça

• Bean, G.E. 1971 “Journeys in Northern Lycia 1965-67”. Denkschrift der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Phil.-hist. Klasse 104
• Belayche, N. 2011 “Hypsistos A Way of Exalting the Gods in Graeco–Roman Polytheism”, J.A. North, S.R.F. Price (eds.), The Religious History of the Roman Empire. Pagans, Jews and Christians, Oxford UP: 139-174.
• Chaniotis, A. 2009 “The dynamics of rituals in the Roman Empire”. Ritual Dynamics and Religious Change in the Roman Empire. O. Hekster - S. Schmidt-Hofner - C. Witschel (eds.). Brill University Press, Boston: 3-29.
• Collar, A. 2013 Religious Networks in the Roman Empire – The Spread of New Ideas. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
• Cumont, F. 1914 “Hypsistos”. RE IX, 1: 444-450.
• Epiphanius Haer. The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis, Book II and III. De Fide, F.Williams (çev.), Brill University Press, Leiden, Boston, 2013.
• Goodenough, E.R. 1957 “The Bosporus Inscriptions to the Most High God”. The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series 47.3: 221-244.
• Hall, A.S. 1978 “The Klarian Oracle at Oenoanda” ZPE 32: 263-268
• IJO II Kleinasien Ameling, W., Inscriptiones Judaicae Orientis, II Kleinasien, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen.
• IK 22.1 Şahin, M.Ç., Die Inschriften von Stratonikeia: Lagina, Stratonikeia und Umgebung, Teil I, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Rheinisch-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn, 1982.
• IK 39 Corsten, T., Die Inschriften von Prusa ad Olympum, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Rheinisch-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Dr.Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn, 1991.
• Lanckau, J. 2011 “Hypsistos: Cultural Translation of Jewish Monotheism in the Hellenistic Period”, Asiatische Studien / Études Asiatiques, 65(4): 861-882.
• Levinskaya, I. 1996 The Book of Acts in its Diaspora Setting. Grand Rapids, W. B. Eerdmans, Michigan.
• LSJ H.Liddell – R.Scott – H.S.Jones (eds.) A Greek-English lexicon. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1996.
• Mitchell, S. 1999 “The Cult of Theos Hypsistos Between Pagans, Jews and Christians”. Pagan Monotheism in Late Antiquity. Ed. P. Athanassiadi and M. Frede. Clarendon Press, New York: 81-148.
• Mitchell, S. 2010 “Further Thoughts on the Cult of Theos Hypsistos”. One God : Pagan Monotheism in the Roman Empire. S. Mitchell and P. Van Nuffelen (eds.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 167-219.
• Mueller, M. 2014 Hypsistos Cults in the Greek World, Ontario, McMaster University, Yayınlanmamış Yüksek Lisans Tezi.
• Önder, S. 2013 Karia’da Zeus Kültü ve Epithetleri, İstanbul, İstanbul Üniversitesi, Yayınlanmamış Yüksek Lisans Tezi.
• Roberts, C. 1936 “The Gild of Zeus Hypsistos”, The Harvard Theological Review 29, 1: 39-88
• Sayar, M.H. – E. Rizos 2015 "Urban Dynamics in the Bosphorus region during late Antiquity", New Cities in Late antiquity, Rizos, E., (ed.), Oxford, Oxford: 214-228
• Sayar, M.H. 1998 Perinthos-Herakleia (Marmara Ereğlisi) und Umgebung, Geschichte, Testimonien, griechische und lateinische Inschriften, Wien.
• Schürer, E. 1897 Die Juden im Bosporanischen Reiche und Die Genossenchaften der σεβόμενοι θεόν Ὑψίστοv ebendaselbst, Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin.
• Sharankov, N. 2014 “Nadpis za stroyej na hram at Nikopolis ad İstrum”. Archelogiya, C.I-II, Bulgarska Akademiya na Naukite Natsionalen Arheologiçeski Institus i Muzey: 28-48.
• Sheppard, A.R.R. 1981 “Pagan Cults of Angels in Roman Asia Minor”, Talanta 13/14: 77-102.
• TAM II E.Kalinka (ed.), Tituli Asiae Minoris, Vol.II, Fasc. III, Vienna, 1944.
• Tevrat-İncil Kutsal Kitap (Tevrat-Zebur-İncil), Kitab-ı Mukaddes Yayınları: Ankara, 2016
• Trebilco, P.R. 1991 Jewish Communities in Asia Minor, Camridge University Press, Cambridge. Ustinova, Y. 1999 The Supreme Gods of the Bosporan Kingdom: Celestial Aphrodite and the Most High God. Brill Academic Publishers, Boston.
• Ustinova, Y. 2000 “The Bosporan Kingdom in Late Antiquity: Ethnic and Religious Transforations”, Ethnicity and Culture in Late Antiquity, S. Mitchell - G. Greatrex (eds.), Duckworth and the Classical Press of Wales, Swansea: 151-172
• Ustionova, Y. 1991 The “Thiasoi” of Theos Hypsistos and Tanais, History of Religion 31 (2): 150-180.
• Wallraff, M. 2003 “Pagan Monotheism in Late Antiquity Remarks on a Recent Publications”, Mediterraneo Antica 6: 531-536