The earliest known evidence of Christianity north of Italy was recently unveiled by archaeologists, who call the discovery one of the “most important testimonies of early Christianity.”
The artifact, publicized by the Frankfurt Archaeological Museum last week, is called the Frankfurt silver inscription. Discovered in 2018, the inscription has been analyzed and studied for years before finally being released to the public this month.
The Frankfurt silver inscription is an engraving on silver foil that consists of 18 lines written in Latin. It dates to between 230 and 260 A.D. and was discovered wrapped in a small silver amulet.
Saint Titus was a first-century Christian missionary and disciple of Paul the Apostle. The inscription also calls for the amulet to protect “the man who gives to the will the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son.”
“The heavenly, the earthly and the underground, and every tongue confess (to Jesus Christ),” the text concludes.
Written in Latin, the inscription took several weeks to decipher due to its deteriorated condition. Archaeologists needed to “digitally unroll” the silver foil, which had been crumpled for around 1,800 years.
Using computed tomography and state-of-the-art technological equipment, the text was finally decrypted in May. It was then translated over an extended period of time.
“Sometimes it took weeks, even months, for me to have the next idea,” Goethe University professor Markus Scholz said of the translation process. “I brought in experts from the history of theology, among other things, and piece by piece we have approached the text together and ultimately deciphered it.”
Scholz added that the inscription was “very sophisticated” and called its author “an elaborate writer.”
“It is unusual that the inscription is completely in Latin,” Scholz said. “This is unusual for this time. Such inscriptions were usually written in amulets in Greek or Hebrew.”
Not only is the inscription not written in Hebrew, it doesn’t reference Judaism at all, nor does it contain any pagan elements, which makes it even more unique.
