Hypsistarians, i.e. worshippers of the Hypsistos (Greek, Modern (1453-);: Ὕψιστος, the "Most High" God), and similar variations of the term first appear in the writings of Gregory of Nazianzus (Orat. xviii, 5) and Gregory of Nyssa (Contra Eunom. ii), about AD 374. The term has been linked to a body of inscriptions that date from around 100 AD to around 400 AD,[1] mostly small votive offerings, but also including altars and stelae, dedicated to Theos Hypsistos, or sometimes simply Hypsistos, mainly found in Asia Minor (Cappadocia, Bithynia and Pontus) and the Black Sea coasts that are today part of Russia.
Some modern scholars identify the group, or groups, with God-fearers mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, non-Jewish (gentile) sympathizers with Second Temple Judaism.[2] [3]
A late 3rd century CE[4] shrine in a wall of the ancient city of Oenoanda provides the strongest archaeological evidence for this cult.[5] It is adorned with an inscription adapting a declaration of the Apollonian oracle in Didyma,[6] describing the god as, "Self-begotten, un-taught, un-mothered, undisturbed, not permitting a name, many-named, dwelling in fire." Another inscription below the first dedicates a lantern to the Most High God. Another proof for the existence of the Hypsistarians is also found in the city of Oenoanda in the form of another epigraph close to the location of the shrine: the epigraph, dedicated by Chromatis, involves a vow to the Most High God and illustrates a practice of prayer at dawn, which aligns with the oracle's description and possibly suggesting a form of henotheistic worship practice.[7]
More archaeological findings may be related to the presence of Hypsistarians. In what is now North Macedonia, the evidence for the presence of Hypsistarians includes three inscriptions from the Valley of the River Vardar, dated to the 2nd century AD.[8] Here there are two altars with reliefs of eagles and a statuette of an eagle, which have not been previously connected to the cult but are considered indicative. Out of twenty-five inscriptions in the region, nineteen are devoted to Zeus Hypsistos (another name for the Hypsistarian God) and six to Theos Hypsistos, showing the local significance and development of the cult. In Phrygia, numerous small rural altars decorated with agricultural motifs, such as ears of wheat and grapes, indicate local worship practices. In the Bosporan Kingdom, several inscriptions and enrollment lists from Tanais and manumission inscriptions in Gorgippia and Panticapaeum demonstrate the existence of Jewish and syncretic pagan cults. In Athens, around 20 votive plaques and altars dedicated to Zeus Hypsistos found on the Pnyx hill highlight a healing cult associated with Hypsistos, with most dedications made by women.[9] Throughout Anatolia, a great number of votive tablets and other inscriptions are evidence that referring to one or more gods as Most High (Hypsistos, often as Theos Hypsistos 'god most high', or as Zeus or Attis, but frequently unnamed) was widespread.
However, it is not certain that all of these inscriptions are actually related to the Hypsistarians. Indeed, calling a divinity "the highest" may just have been a form of emphasising how unique that divinity is, without excluding the possibility that other divinities are unique in their way, too.[10]
The name Hypsistarioi first occurs in Gregory of Nazianzus (Orat., xviii, 5) and the name Hypsistianoi in Gregory of Nyssa (Contra Eunom., II), about 374 CE.
Gregory of Nazianzus describes a syncretic Jewish-pagan group that does not worship idols, reveres lamps and fire, and worships the Almighty (Pantokrator). They keep Sabbath and adhere to dietary restrictions, but they do not circumcise. Gregory of Nazianzus' description of this cult occurs in his eulogy for his father, who was a Hypsistarian before his conversion to Christianity:[11]
Gregory of Nyssa gives the following information:[12]
Persius (34-62) may have had Hypsistarians in view when he ridiculed such hybrid religionists in Satire v, 179–84:[13]
Tertullian (c. 160 – c. 225 AD) seems to refer to them in Ad nationes, I, xiii:[14]
Hypsistarians are probably referred to under the name Coelicoloe in a decree of the Emperors Honorius and Theodosius II (AD 408).
Not all of the above-described evidence may actually relate to the cult of Theos Hypsistos as practiced by the Hypsistarians.[10]
The oracle text at Oenoanda is plausibly related to the Theos Hypsistos cult, but the concepts in it are also familiar from Orphism.[10]
Some modern scholars identify the group, or groups, with God-fearers mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, non-Jewish (gentile) sympathizers with Second Temple Judaism.[2] [3]
The main argument in favour of this hypothesis is that the evidence yields very similar descriptions for these two groups, both in terms of space and time, and in terms of their beliefs and practices (worship of a "most high" god without images, rituals with fire and lamplight, observation of some Jewish laws such as the Sabbath or dietary regulations).[15] Critics have argued that the similarities are too unspecific,[15] or that either the Hypsistos worshippers[15] or the God-fearers[16] were not a coherent group.
Contemporary Hellenistic use of hypsistos as a religious term appears to be derived from and compatible with the term as appears in the Septuagint, from a much earlier date. (Greek Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ὕψιστος (hypsistos) translates Hebrew (elyon), meaning "highest". This term occurs more than fifty times as a substitution for the Tetragrammaton (the name of God) or in direct relation to God (most often in the Psalms, Daniel, and Sirach).
This cult may have formed as the native Cappadocian cult of Zeus Sabazios integrated with the cult of Jahve Sabaoth[17] practiced by the numerous Jewish colonies.
The existence of Hypsistarians may have contributed to the astounding swiftness of the spread of Christianity in Asia Minor; yet not all of them accepted the new faith, and small communities of monotheists, neither Christians nor Jews, continued to exist, especially in Cappadocia.
A decree of the Emperors Honorius and Theodosius II (AD 408) transfers the places of worship of the Coelicoloe, which may be the same as the Hypsistarians, to the Christians.
The claim that Hypsistarians continued to exist until the ninth century relies on a mistaken interpretation of Nicephorus Const., "Antirhet. adv. Const. Copr.", I, in Migne, PG, col. 209.
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