Posted on 06/13/2026 8:32:09 AM PDT by mac_truck
Archaeologists in Germany have confirmed the discovery of a 1,750-year-old amulet containing a silver scroll, now recognised as the oldest physical evidence of Christianity north of the Alps.
The extraordinary artefact was first uncovered in 2018 during excavations of a Roman-era grave in Frankfurt and was formally announced in a press release from the City of Frankfurt am Main on 11 December.
The grave, dated to between 230 and 270 AD, contained the amulet, inside which archaeologists noticed a small silver scroll. However, its fragility posed significant challenges for researchers attempting to read its contents.
Initial efforts to unroll the scroll by hand were abandoned to prevent damage. Subsequent attempts using X-rays and microscopes made little progress.
Eventually, a 3D X-ray method known as computed tomography was employed, enabling experts to digitally "unroll" the scroll without physically handling it. This process revealed 18 lines of Latin text, which linguists spent months deciphering.
The inscription consists of sentences praising Jesus Christ, including the words: "Holy! Holy! Holy! In the name of Jesus Christ, Son of God... Protect the man who surrenders himself to the will of the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, since before Jesus Christ every knee bows."
(Excerpt) Read more at christiantoday.com ...
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Those 3D x-rays and AI are great together, letting us read what never could be read before.
Hard to believe Christianity or especially Christian artifacts existed north of the Alps at such an early date. Could the scroll have fallen into the grave at a later date?
Hard to believe Christianity or especially Christian artifacts existed north of the Alps at such an early date. Could the scroll have fallen into the grave at a later date?
Amazing, but the guy couldn’t mention Co-Redemptrix Mary even once?
I expect true Christians to have valued Jesus, like this.
He lived before the Catholic church and its Mary fixation.
The last I knew, AI wasn’t that great at translating Latin, although not as bad as it once was.
It doesn’t look like a very complicated passage. The hard part is that if it’s written in old script it can be very difficult. Take the Maryland colonial charter, for instance:
https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/speccol/sc5300/sc5330/000001/000019/html/ukpro.html
Behold your mother.
Irenaeus was Bishop of Lyons in France around 150 AD. That’s only just past the Alps but also 100 years earlier.
Actually, if Papyrus 470 is as old as the 3rd century as some believe, the Marian prayer in it would be roughly contemporary with this scroll:
https://www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/view/MS-GREEK-P-00470/1
bmk archaeology
Good point.
Went to one of the links given by SunkenCiv and read the Full text translated:
(In the name?) of Saint Titus.
Holy, holy, holy!
In the name of Jesus Christ, Son of God!
The Lord of the world
resists with [strengths?]
all attacks(?)/setbacks(?).
The God(?) grants
entry to well-being.
May this means of salvation(?) protect
the man who
surrenders himself to the will
of the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,
since before Jesus Christ
every knee bows: those in heaven, those on earth
and those
under the earth, and every tongue
confesses (Jesus Christ).
From Post 5 by Tell It Right in the link given by SunkenCiv:
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4284840/posts
and Post 8 from same link:
The last part reads like a quotation from Philippians 2.10-11.
by Verginius Rufus
Shed a very interesting light on that translation. So Philippians 2.10-11 were spoken for some time before becoming written, which of course is what we would expect but how interesting to see this here confirming that.
Post 13:
The last part reads like a quotation from Philippians 2.10-11.
Yes. I believe that the consensus among scholars is that it is. Which makes the reference to Paul’s companion Titus, in the first line, all the more interesting.
from 13 posted on 12/16/2024, 1:44:24 PM by DSH
all from https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4284840/posts
I wonder how old the guy was when he died and how long he wore this amulet? I wonder also did he get it from someone else, an inheritance from someone else and was that also handed down? How old was the actual artefact?
That scrap you gave translates:
“Beneath your compassion, we take refuge, O Theotokos: do not despise our petitions in time of trouble, but rescue us from dangers, only pure, only blessed one.”
Theotokos = Mother of God
The silver item with the person buried in this article said nothing about Mary.
There is no parallel.
So many possible scenarios....Father gave it to his son...20 years later...the son was adventuring in the Alps...
That didn’t take long.
I'm not surprised. Jack Chick's Law states: Any FR thread, however remotely related to religion, will eventually and invariably get corrupted by an ignorant anti-Catholic remark.
So true. The anti-Catholic ignorant bigots are thick at FR.
At this date, the entire Church was Orthodox.
The Orthodox Church venerated (not worshipped) the Theotokos and other Saints at this date, and still does, up to the present!
All Christian are called to be Saints. But no real Saint considers himself or herself to be a saint while he or she is alive!
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