The Stones of St. Theodore: Disfiguring the Pagan Past in Christian Gerasa

This paper argues that the Christians of Gerasa (Jerash, Jordan) viewed the remains of pagan inscriptions as meaningful traces of a defeated past. This is apparent not only by the selective placement of the epigraphic spolia, but also when these spolia are read in conjunction with the newly inscribed verse inscriptions that dedicate one of the earliest Christian churches in the city to St. Theodore. For these Christians the past is conceived in two senses. They saw the victory of the saint over the pagan associations of the city in mythical terms, part of the continuum of religious history since the beginning of time. By dating the inscriptions and by placing epigraphic spolia in visible locations, the Christians of Gerasa likewise created a historically-based rupture with the pagan past. This triumphal attitude is typical of fifth-century laws, hagiography, and historiography.