While I welcome the original scraps of scripture and later letters that are found, I am confident that we already have a completely reliable source of information on early Christianity.
Perhaps you might find this intriguing.
Got to love it. And they were probably overtaxed back then, too.
41 The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.”
42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, `I have come down from heaven’?”
43 Jesus answered them, “Do not murmur among yourselves.
44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
45 It is written in the prophets, `And they shall all be taught by God.’ Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.
46 Not that any one has seen the Father except him who is from God; he has seen the Father.
47 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.
48 I am the bread of life.
49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die.
51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; (John (RSV) 6)
The papyrus was found in Christianized Egypt before the founding of Islam.
Christians wearing amulets, "magic charms?" Typical of paganized Gnostics from that area in Egypt. The article says this dates back 1500 years, at 500 AD that puts us in the time Egyptian Gnostics were causing such havoc, subverting original Christian practices and beliefs.
“contains some of the earliest documented references to the Last Supper.”
That would be true as long as you leave out the entire New Testament. 1500 years ago would date to 600 AD, at least 400 years after the reliable dating of multiple documents containing the entire New Testament.
While I welcome the original scraps of scripture and later letters that are found, I am confident that we already have a completely reliable source of information on early Christianity.
One of world’s earliest Christian charms found
“To this day, Christians use passages from the bible as protective charms so our amulet marks the start of an important trend in Christianity."
Intresting stuff. I would suggest the Book of Acts presents and even earlier look at Christianity...but who am I to argue with Fox News...
Then of course you have the Apostolic Fathers writings, the Ante-Nicene Fathers, and Post- Nicene Fathers works all pre payprus from Egypt.
Freegards
LE
Why wouldn’t the “amulet” be a phylactery (Tefillin)? Early Christians were also Jews, or had been Jews. Isn’t this just a phylactery Christian style? Why make it sound like a superstition?
No one seems interested in what it says. Well, for those who are:
The full text of the papyrus:
“Fear you all who rule over the earth.
Know you nations and peoples that Christ is our God.
For he spoke and they came to being, he commanded and they were created; he put everything under our feet and delivered us from the wish of our enemies.
Our God prepared a sacred table in the desert for the people and gave manna of the new covenant to eat, the Lord’s immortal body and the blood of Christ poured for us in remission of sins.”
Ping!
"behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word, for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him". (Matthew 2:13)
Egypt is identified in the Bible as the place where the Holy Family fled from Bethlehem to Egypt, seeking refuge from a bloodthirsty King Herod. They made an arduous 2,000km trek by donkey over four years which took them over 30 different places in Egypt, from Al-Farma down to the Al-Muharraq monastery.
From 1st century with the arrival of Saint Mark in Alexandria, Christianity quickly spread throughout Egypt. Monasticism was born in Egypt and by the 4th century there were hundreds of monasteries, and thousands of cells and caves scattered throughout the Egyptian desert and around places where the Holy Family was supposed to have stayed. A great number of these monasteries are still flourishing to this day.