The earliest evidence of Christianity in northern Italy was recently uncovered by archaeologists, who call the discovery one of the “most important pieces of evidence of early Christianity.”
The artifact, unveiled last week by the Frankfurt Archaeological Museum, is called the Frankfurt Silver Inscription. The inscription was discovered in 2018, underwent years of analysis and research, and was finally unveiled to the public this month.
The Frankfurt Silver Inscription is a silver leaf engraving consisting of 18 lines written in Latin. It dates back to between 230 and 260 AD and was found wrapped in a small silver amulet.
In a press release translated from German, the museum said the artifacts were discovered in a third-century tomb in the German state of Hesse, in the former Roman city of Nida. The inscription begins: “In the name of Saint Titus, holy, holy, holy! In the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God!”
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Experts recently deciphered and published the oldest evidence of Christianity found in a third-century tomb north of the Alps. (Frankfurt Archaeological Museum)
St. Titus was a first-century Christian missionary and disciple of the Apostle Paul. The inscription also states that this amulet protects “those who give the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to their will.”
The text concludes with, “Every tongue confesses (Jesus Christ), of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth.”
The inscription was written in Latin and took several weeks to decipher due to its poor condition. Archaeologists had to “digitally unroll” the silver leaf, which had been crumpled for about 1,800 years.
Using computed tomography and cutting-edge technical equipment, the text was finally deciphered in May. It was then translated over a long period of time.
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Early Christian inscriptions were written in Latin, which was unusual for the time. (Frankfurt Archaeological Museum)
Markus Scholz, a professor at Goethe University, said of the translation process: “It sometimes took weeks, even months, to come up with the next idea.” “I invited experts in the history of theology and other fields to work together on the text little by little, and eventually deciphered it.”
Scholz added that the inscription was “very sophisticated” and called its author a “sophisticated writer.”
“It's unusual for an inscription to be completely in Latin,” Scholz said. “This is unusual for this time. Such inscriptions were usually written on amulets in Greek or Hebrew.”
This inscription is even more unique because it is not written in Hebrew, does not mention Judaism at all, and does not contain any pagan elements.
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The silver leaf was “digitally developed” and translated by experts. (Frankfurt Archaeological Museum)
“It is unusual that the inscription does not mention any faith other than Christianity,” the museum's press release added. “Typically up until the 5th century, you would always expect to see a mix of different faiths in these kinds of precious metal amulets, often still with Jewish and pagan influences.”
“However, this amulet does not mention the Almighty God of Judaism, Yahweh, nor the archangels Raphael, Gabriel, Michael, or Suriel, nor are the ancestors of Israel such as Isaac and Jacob mentioned. , there are no demonic pagan elements either. This amulet is purely Christian.”
A press release calls the artifact “one of the most important pieces of evidence of early Christianity in the world.”
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“So far, there is no early authentic evidence of pure Christianity north of the Alps,” the statement said. “all [other] Those found are at least about 50 years younger. ”
Silver leaf was discovered in a 3rd century tomb. (Frankfurt Archaeological Museum)
“There are references in historiography to the first Christian groups in Gaul, and possibly also in Upper Germania in the late 2nd century,” the statement added. “However, specific evidence of Christian life in the northern Alpine region of the Roman Empire generally dates only to the fourth century AD.”
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“Experts agree that these 18 lines will greatly enrich previous studies of the spread of Christianity and the late period of Roman rule on the right bank of the Rhine.”
