Christian Women in Turkey - A History: A Survey of Notable Christian Women in Asia Minor and Anatolia from 33CE to 2021

By Rosamund Wilkinson

Turkey is the other Holy Land - a country that has been host to Christians since 33CE when the Christian Church was born in Jerusalem. Turkey was referred to as Asia Minor. There were people from the Roman provinces of Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia in Jerusalem when the Church was born. Within twenty years the Ap

• Language: English
• Publisher: Egeria Press
• Release date: Mar 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781399904636

Rosamund Wilkinson

Rosamund Wilkinson is a retired teacher who has lived for 25 years in Turkey, she first went to live in Turkey in 1972 to work as a Maths teacher. Rosamund is an Anglican priest with an MA in Theology and another in Literature and Spirituality. This book contains snapshots of over fifty Christian women who have lived down the ages in what is now Turkey.

Book preview

Preface

I first arrived in Turkey in 1972 to work as a mathematics teacher at a leading girls' school and Turkey has been my home for twenty-five years. Over the decades I have travelled extensively in Turkey, learnt Turkish and studied the history of Turkey. In 2015 I attended a course organised by the Anglican Centre in Rome about women in leadership. This experience helped me value Turkey’s own rich history of Christian women who have had important roles in the Christian Church from the first century to the present day.

The Christian Church was born in Jerusalem at the first Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection in 33CE. The New Testament states that there were people from ‘Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia...Phrygia and Pamphylia,’¹ Roman Provinces in Asia Minor, or what is now modern-day Turkey, who experienced the birth of the Church at that time. At that time the land now called Turkey was part of the Eastern Roman Empire which would in time become the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Empire was conquered by the Ottoman Turks and became part of the Ottoman Empire. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the Ottoman Empire broke up and in 1923 the modern Republic of Turkey was formed. Throughout those historic changes Christian women played their part in their communities.

This book is an attempt to compile a history of some of those Christian women who have lived down the centuries in what is now modern-day Turkey. Turkey can be referred to as the ‘Other Holy Land’ since the Church was established in Turkey in New Testament times and is still here in the present day.

Each chapter will focus on Christian women of a particular era. The women written about may be either obscure or well-known, but this book is not an exhaustive catalogue of all the women in their era. This is not a definitive Church History but an attempt to bring to life some of the Christian women who lived during the last 2000 years, writing their mini-biographies in the hope of being both meaningful and inspirational.

Writing is a lonely task and I appreciate the help of all those who encouraged me as I wrote this book. Thank you especially to my excellent life coach! Thank you to those who asked, Is it ready yet? Thank you to those who listened as I talked about the women I met during the writing process. Thank you to all who made suggestions and contributed in any way. I acknowledge the help of my editor and of Alan Prior who drew the maps for this publication. Any mistakes are my own!

I dedicate this book to the Christian women of Turkey and to all the Christian women and men who became role models, giving encouragement to me as I followed Christ over the past six decades. Without their encouragement I wouldn’t be the person I am now. In writing this book, I am conscious that I am writing about women who are part of the ‘...great cloud of witnesses surrounding us,’ about women who are part of the Church Triumphant, those who have gone before us, cheering us on and saying ‘Let’s fix our eyes on Jesus’² I trust that you will find this book interesting, encouraging, challenging and growthful. Thank you for doing me the honour of reading my offering!

Introduction.

This book tells the stories of some but not all of the Christian Women who lived and worked in what is now the modern Republic of Turkey. Before the establishment of Turkey, the area was known as Asia Minor. Asia Minor was part of the Roman Empire when the Christian Church was established after the death and resurrection of Christ in 33CE³

The second chapter will look at the New Testament teaching about women in relationship to Jesus and to their role in the church.

The third chapter about the New Testament Era (c33-113) will look at the women who were active in the New Testament Church. The birth of this Church took place in Jerusalem during the Jewish festival of Pentecost. At the first Pentecost (c 33CE) after Jesus’ resurrection there were people from ‘Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia...Phrygia and Pamphylia,’⁴ who were witnesses to the Church being birthed in Jerusalem. These people were probably Jews, or converts to Judaism, who may well have returned to their homes telling others about their experience in Jerusalem and bringing the gospel to their localities of Thrace, Bithynia, Pontus, Cappadocia, Galatia, Asia Minor, Lycia, Pamphylia, Cilicia and part of Antiochia, all then Roman provinces of Asia Minor in what is now modern-day Turkey. The name ‘Christian’ was first given to followers of Jesus at Antioch,⁵ today in south-east Turkey.

The Acts of the Apostles relate how the Apostle Paul, who was born in south-east Turkey, travelled throughout Turkey and established churches in Konya (Iconium), Antalya (Attalia) and other ancient cities. The Apostle Paul acknowledged women as leaders and important contributors to the life of these churches. He worked with women such as Priscilla⁶ who with her husband, Aquila, lived in Ephesus,⁷ then a busy port on the west coast of Asia Minor. The Apostle Paul wrote epistles to the churches in Galatia, Ephesus, and Colossae as well as personal epistles to Timothy and Philemon. He specifically mentions the women named Nympha, Apphia, Lois and Eunice in his epistles and Priscilla is mentioned in Acts as a teacher and leader.

The Apostle John⁸ in Revelation, the last book of the Bible, addresses the seven churches⁹ of Asia Minor today located in Turkey. John¹⁰, the Apostle that Jesus loved, is reputed to have come to live in Ephesus, bringing with him Mary the Mother of Jesus, and possibly Mary Magdalene.¹¹ The Apostle Peter, another of Jesus’ disciples, addresses his first letter to Christians living in ‘...the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia’¹². In The New Testament Era the Apostles were active in teaching and establishing churches in these places.

After the Apostolic era¹³ the church continued to grow and develop in Turkey, its congregations firm in their desire to follow the Apostles’ teaching. Polycarp’s (c69-156) martyrdom brought to an end those people who had personally known the Apostles.

As the church continued to grow, among those martyred for their faith were Christian women who lived in the Anti-Nicene Era (113-313). Such women who are still celebrated today include St Barbara, who lived in Nicomedia,¹⁴ and St Euphemia who lived in Chalcedon.¹⁵

After Emperor Constantine had a vision of the Chi Rho in 312CE, he became increasingly sympathetic towards Christianity, in 311 he issued the Edict of Toleration and in 313 the Edict of Milan which recognised Christianity as an accepted religion. This meant that Christians were no longer persecuted for their faith.

Prior to 324CE Nicomedia¹⁶ in Bithynia was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. Bithynia was also the birthplace of Emperor Constantine the Great’s mother, St Helena. In 324 Constantine (324-337), Emperor of the Roman Empire, moved the capital from Nicomedia to Byzantium and renamed it Constantinople.¹⁷ Constantinople became a Christian city with churches and freedom to worship in them. The Roman Empire also became known as the Byzantine Empire and lasted from 324 to 1453.

During these centuries we meet, among others, the mothers and sisters of the Cappadocian fathers living in 4th century Cappadocia and known for their commitment to the Nicene Creed. Important Church Councils were held in Turkey during this time: the Council of Nicaea¹⁸ (325), the Second Ecumenical Council held in Constantinople (381), the Council of Ephesus (431), and the Council of Chalcedon (451).

In 1453 the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror conquered Constantinople and established it as the capital of the Ottoman Empire. This empire continued until 1923 when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk founded the Turkish Republic as a secular state, still in existence today.

During the Ottoman and Republican eras Christians continued to live in Turkey. Today the Armenian and Greek Orthodox, Eastern and Western Catholics all have churches in Turkey as does the Church of England.¹⁹ Since the 1960s the growth and establishment of a Turkish-speaking Protestant Church has led to new churches being established throughout Turkey. Its members are Muslim converts to Christianity or men and women from ethnic Christian backgrounds who choose to worship in Turkish rather than Greek, Syriac, Armenian or other languages.

Each era will have its own chapter with a record of some Christian women who lived during those years. Some women are little known, whereas others have whole books written about them. I write this survey in an attempt to bring to life some of the Christian women who have lived in Turkey during the last 2000 years. My hope is that these life stories will inspire and encourage readers in their pilgrimage through life.

Finally, the Afterword will look at how the Church of England, the Anglican Church, has sought to bring women into church leadership, ordaining women as deacons, priests, and bishops. This chapter will give a possible model for change as the twenty-first century Turkish Protestant Church considers the role of women in Church leadership.

The nature of Christian Belief

During the writing process the author has endeavoured to understand what it meant to be a Christian in each historical era in which these women lived. Although the women all lived in the same geographical area their experience as Christians varied and needs to be understood in its historical context. The first Christian women of the New Testament Era learned about Christ from the Apostles or those they inspired who passed on what they learned to those who came after them.

Being a Christian is about being known by Jesus (and presumably the Father and the Holy Spirit too!). Luke 6:46 and Luke 13:26–27 echo Matthew’s record of this conversation between Jesus and his disciples.

Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you?⁴⁷ I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them.²⁰

Jesus warned the disciples that all those who say ‘Lord, Lord’²¹ may not be sure of a place in heaven. He then gives some criteria for belief that will lead us to enter and hopefully remain in the Kingdom of God.

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’

A true disciple or Christian is one who comes to Jesus, hears his words and acts on them. Jesus also talks about the wise man who built his house on rock and how the house then weathers the storm, whereas the house built on sand falls when the storm comes along. Having faith in Christ should help us weather the storms of life and help us to change into more of a likeness to Christ.

In this book I look at women who attest to being Christian. They may have been members of an overtly Christian society such as the Byzantine women mentioned, or martyrs who died for their faith because they lived in a hostile environment that did not value people who lived as Christians. Some of these women may not articulate their faith in ways that we, as readers in the 21st century, might expect. If these women were asked ‘Are you a Christian?’ they might well have answered, Of course I’m a Christian! And then they might have turned round and challenged their interrogators by asking whether they were believers in the Nicene creed or were they Monophosites or even Aryans. Their questions would ask about belief in the incarnate Christ – whether Christ had two natures, that is both human and divine, or just the one nature – the divine. After the formulation of the Nicene Creed in 325, that was the yardstick by which belief would have been gauged.

There is an understanding in Christian circles that every generation must be won for Christ; we cannot expect anyone to be Christian by birth into a Christian family but rather to become Christian because of personal belief formed of knowledge and experience. Not all the women we will meet in this book would articulate their faith in the same way as we do in the twenty-first century, but they would all assert they a were Christian – even if they might today doubt our claim to be Christian because we weren’t part of their particular form of Christianity. In the Byzantine era orthodox Christianity would have been the prevailing religious experience of its citizens.

When researching the lives of the women in this book, there were questions that I, as a twenty-first century Christian, wanted to ask. A twenty-first century Christian book would give a lot of details about the personal experiences of the author or the subjects in the book. This is a book written in the twenty-first century but within the constraints of history. The intimate details of these women’s lives which need to be understood in the context of the time are not always apparent.

Most of the chapters will include biographical sketches of Christian women in their own era. The length of each biography depends on the information available. The hope is that these sketches – whether short or long – will give a glimpse of how Christian women of the past lived. Above all, the writer hopes these women will help twenty-first century Christians to understand their place in the history of the Christian Church and live out their vocation as Christians to the honour and glory of God.

Chapter 1 – Women in the Old Testament.

There are many notable women in the Old Testament such as Sarah²² the wife of Abraham, Deborah²³ the prophet, Abigail²⁴ who became King David’s wife, Ruth²⁵ the Moabite who was an ancestor of King David. Over the centuries Christian women would have looked back at the women of the Hebrew Scriptures as role models, and examples of lives well lived as they stepped out in faith in their own context. We will not look at these women as our remit is the lives of Christian women who have lived in what is now modern-day Turkey. This chapter will start by looking at the creation story in Genesis then look two examples of the use of female imagery in the book of Proverbs and in the book of the prophet Isaiah.

The Bible is a collection of books written over the centuries and divided into two parts – the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament and the Christian Scriptures or New Testament. The Hebrew Scriptures chart the development of God’s relationship with the Children of Israel. The New Testament follows on from the Hebrew Scriptures and describes the life of Jesus Christ and the development of the early church. Jesus was a Jew born in first-century Palestine, which was under Roman occupation. After the birth, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, the Christian Church was born, and membership of the Church was not limited to a small Middle Eastern nation but developed into a global organisation with many strands. Faith in the Trinitarian God and salvation through faith in Christ are the hallmarks of those who are Christians and belong to the Church.

For Christians, the Bible is the source text for understanding an individual’s relationship to God and God’s relationship to the world and the people of this world. The Bible starts with a description of the creation²⁶ of Adam and Eve, a man and a woman, and ends with the book of Revelation which describes the end of the world, of the new creation and the invitation to attend the ‘marriage supper of the lamb’²⁷ where the Church will be the ‘bride of Christ’²⁸. Men and women together figure in the stories of this epic relationship between God and humanity.

Genesis – the creation story.

Genesis²⁹, the first book of the Bible, starts with an account of the creation of the world. The opening verses say: ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.’³⁰ The text describes God creating³¹ light and dark³², the sky, land, sea plant life, sun, moon and stars, birds and sea creatures, creatures who lived on the land and, finally, humankind³³.

The Book of Genesis summarises the creation of humankind as follows: ‘God created humanity in God’s own image, in the divine image God created them, male and female God created them.’³⁴

Using Hebrew poetry, Genesis describes what can be considered the crowning glory of God’s creative work. Hebrew poetry does not use rhyme or rhythm of sounds but the rhythm of parallel ideas.

One thought echoes the proceeding, enriching it from a different perspective, embellishing it with synonyms. In this poem ... the first line emphasizes the image of God; the second line builds on that, saying this image was true for all humanity; then the third line crescendos, saying that humanity³⁵ was created as male and female.³⁶

In these verses there is an emphasis on creating both male and female and that both are created in the image of God. There is no differential between them at this stage. Both are of equal value in this initial act of creation.

At the end of each phase of creation described in Genesis Chapter one the narrator comments that ‘God saw that it was good’³⁷. According to the creation account in Genesis chapter two, God ‘...formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.’³⁸ After the creation of the first man, the narrator says: Then the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.³⁹ In Genesis Chapter Two the creation⁴⁰ story describes the creation of Eve, Adam’s wife.

After the creation of the animals and then man the narrator comments that ‘for Adam no suitable helper was found.⁴¹’ The narrator then describes how Adam is put to sleep, a rib is taken from him and formed into a woman. When Adam sees this woman, he exclaims: This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man. ’⁴²

Adam has met the one who will be his life partner. In naming her ‘woman’ Adam owns that she is created from his rib rather than from dust as the animals and Adam himself were. Adam and Eve are connected in a way that Adam was not connected with any of the animals that God has previously⁴³ created. In this unique creative act there is no suggestion that one gender is superior to the other. Adam and Eve are both created in the image of God⁴⁴, and God⁴⁵ blesses them both.

Genesis is not telling the reader ‘the how’ of creation but ‘the why’, giving the philosophical and religious raison d’être so that the reader can understand the value and purpose of humanity in God’s eyes. There was wisdom in not creating Adam and Eve, the prototypes of men and women from two different types of soil which might have caused them to reject the other, saying one was not made from as valuable a piece of dust as the other, or claim that one gender was superior in being formed from a better type of soil. Because Eve was created from Adam’s body, she inherited his genetical and biological features. If God had used dust or soil, as was used to create the animals, then would not Eve have been just another species of animal rather than, as Adam declared, ‘bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh’⁴⁶? God created Eve to be a ‘helper’ suitable for Adam⁴⁷.

In the Old Testament the word ‘helper’⁴⁸ is used nineteen times and fifteen of those apply to God. For instance, King David says of God ‘you have been my helper’⁴⁹ and the nation of Israel confesses ‘The Lord is with me; he is my helper’⁵⁰. Derek and Dianne Tidball state that:

To call Eve Adam’s helper carries no overtones of her being the weaker partner in the relationship. Indeed it implies she is every bit his equal in the role. Her equality is further underlined by the use of the adjective ‘suitable’⁵¹, which describes the kind of helper God is going to create. ...In a very real sense, Eve is going to be the counterpart, complement, companion and partner to Adam.⁵²

How then does Eve fulfil the role of ‘suitable helper’ to Adam? After God creates humankind, in his own image, he then blesses them and commands them to live in the world created for them:

God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.

Then God said, I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food. And it was so.⁵³

In these initial chapters of Genesis, we do not see every detail of how Eve’s role as a ‘suitable helper’ to Adam is worked out in their everyday life together. There is no template for a woman being a ‘helper’ or helpmate⁵⁴’ to their husband. In the following chapters we get some glimpses of Eve being a helper to Adam as they ‘become one flesh⁵⁵’, have children and experience family life. In the ensuing books of the Bible we observe women being helpmates. One notable example of a helpmate is when Abigail⁵⁶, the wife of Nabal makes peace with David, the King of Israel, and averts a disaster falling upon her husband and his farm. Nabal dies of natural causes, but the rest of the farmworkers and family survive what could have been a fatal attack by David who was rebuffed in a very unpleasant way by Nabal. Abigail was an Old Testament woman who would have been a role model to the women who heard her story whether Jewish or Christian. Eve was created to be a ‘suitable helper’ for Adam. This is the role that wives are called to fulfil in a unique way that reflects their circumstances.

Humankind, as epitomised by Adam and Eve was given a mandate to live in the world, to work with creation, to eat plants and to steward the animals, ‘Be fruitful and multiply’⁵⁷. They are given specific boundaries as to what they could and could not eat: You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.⁵⁸ It was the fruit of this tree that was to cause conflict and lead to a new, unexpected chapter in the human story.

One of the main themes of the Bible is the force of evil at work in our world epitomised in the spiritual battle between God and Satan. We are all part of this spiritual battle. Genesis Chapters One and Two describe God’s initiative in creating a world and inviting humankind, represented by Adam and Eve, to live in fellowship and union with God their Creator. Because Adam and Eve were created as individuals who could choose how they would navigate through life, they were not puppets who automatically did God’s bidding, but people who would make choices. During their lives of fellowship with God they could expect their relationship with God to be tried and tested. Their first big test is the focus of Genesis Chapter Three.

Genesis Chapter three is divided into four sections:

Verses 1-7 Satan seduces Adam and Eve

Verses 8-13 God takes stock of what has happened

Verses 14-19 God curses the serpent, the woman, and the man.

Verses 21-24 God’s remedy is to make garments of animal skin and to banish Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.

In Genesis, the snake (or the serpent) that sidles up to Eve is an anthropomorphic manifestation of Satan. Satan questions God’s command that the man and the woman should not eat the fruit of a certain tree in the Garden of Eden. He calls into question what God has said. Satan denies that they will die if they eat the forbidden fruit but rather suggests they will be like God, knowing good and evil. The woman is seduced; she takes some fruit, tries it, and also gives some to her husband. It should be noted that the serpent’s use of the plural form of you⁵⁹ seems to imply that Adam as well as Eve is present during this conversation. They eventually BOTH try the fruit, and BOTH know they are naked⁶⁰. Hence Adam is probably present during the conversation but from the text of Genesis he does not seem to have corrected Eve or challenged the Serpent.

Adam and Eve’s sense of shame because of their nakedness not only affects their relationship with each other but also their relationship with God. After eating the fruit and feeling shame because they are naked, they do not want to appear before God.⁶¹

In the second stage of this dialogue, God asks how they know they are naked. There are two possibilities – either that someone had told them or that they had eaten the forbidden fruit. The next stage in this part of the conversation is ‘the blame game’ – the man says The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.⁶² And the woman follows suit by saying The serpent tricked me, and I ate.⁶³ Eve’s response is true – she had been lured and enticed by the Serpent’s re-interpretation of God’s command; she had been tricked, but she and Adam should have understood what was going on and corrected the mis-representation of God’s commands to them. This was the responsibility of both Adam and Eve, not Eve’s alone.

Because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God’s instructions, they and the Serpent were cursed and lost the fellowship and intimacy that God had wanted to have with his creation – whether human or animal.

Because Satan, personified as the serpent, was the one who caused the human couple to disobey God , God curses the serpent first:

"And I will put enmity

between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and hers;

he will crush your head,

and you will strike his heel."⁶⁴

The woman’s offspring referred to is understood to be the crucified, risen Christ who would deal a deathblow to the power of Satan. God, in his curse also gives hope to humanity.

Secondly God turns his attention to Eve and promises: I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labour you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.⁶⁵

The pain of childbirth and being ruled over by her husband were not part of God’s original plan but the result of Adam and Eve’s fall from grace. Derek and Dianne Tidball assert that "...it is here that the element of hierarchy and headship comes into play for the first time, as part of the consequence of the fall, rather than being part of God’s original intention at creation!⁶⁶

Thirdly Adam, who was looking on while Satan was leading Eve astray, was to experience increased difficulties in his working life. Adam was told:

Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it, cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.⁶⁷

Adam and Eve were held equally responsible and accountable. God’s last action was to make Adam and Eve clothes of animal skins and then banish them from the Garden of Eden because The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever.⁶⁸

The table below summarises⁶⁹ how the intentions of Genesis Chapter Two are reversed in Genesis Chapter Three.

Eve and Adam’s disobedience destroys God’s intended plan for relationship between men and women. The ideal that God created had been corrupted and even though men and women are able to relate together harmoniously and recapture the intended purposes of God there are times where there is tension, arrogance and even abuse between the genders. This is a far cry from God’s intended relationship between them.

Adam and Eve then started their life outside the Garden of Eden, outside of Paradise. Even though they had both been punished by God for their part in disobeying God’s command not to eat of the