Jerusalem, 22 October, 2026 (TPS-IL) — A University of Haifa study of 10,795 ancient Greek inscriptions has found that references to religious vows became increasingly common over more than a millennium, with marked differences across regions and among worshippers of different deities.
The findings suggest that changes in how people recorded their religious devotion began centuries before Christianity became dominant in the Roman Empire. Regional differences also point to the role of cultural interaction in shaping religious practices across the ancient Mediterranean.
The research, led by Professor Moshe Blidstein, head of the University of Haifa’s Department of General History, examined inscriptions dating from the sixth century BCE to the seventh century CE. The inscriptions were drawn from a digital database containing more than 217,000 Greek inscriptions.
In the sixth century BCE, fewer than 9 percent of dedicatory inscriptions mentioned a vow. By the fifth and sixth centuries CE, when most surviving inscriptions were Christian, the proportion had risen to more than 60 percent.
Across the ancient Mediterranean, pagans, Jews and Christians offered gifts to deities, including altars, lamps and figurines. Some inscriptions accompanying these offerings recorded the fulfillment of an earlier vow, perhaps made in exchange for recovery from illness, a safe journey or protection for one’s family. Others expressed broader hopes for health and prosperity.
Blidstein suggests that worshippers increasingly emphasized the relationship between a promise and its fulfillment. However, the inscriptions cannot establish whether people made more vows over time or simply became more likely to record them.
The practice also varied geographically. References to vows appeared more frequently in inscriptions from Asia Minor, a region encompassing much of modern-day Turkey, as well as Syria and the Land of Israel. They were less common across much of mainland Greece and the Aegean islands.
The regions with higher rates of recorded vows were cultural crossroads where Greek traditions interacted with those of other peoples, including Jews and Phoenicians. Many people in these communities adopted Greek for written communication, providing a shared language in which religious practices could be recorded. The findings suggest that local customs and cultural exchange may have influenced how people expressed their devotion in Greek inscriptions.
The study challenges the assumption that Christianity initiated the shift toward recording religious vows more frequently. The increase began well before Christianity spread across the Roman Empire, although the prevalence of Christian inscriptions in later centuries makes it difficult to separate broader cultural changes from the influence of the new religion.
The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE.
