Now there's no hard evidence that the Christ referred to in this story is the actual Jesus that my Christian friends and family members insist healed the sick and made lunch for everybody 2000 years ago (my own ancient Greek is a little rusty) so take it with a grain of Dead Sea salt:
A team of scientists led by renowned French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio recently announced that they have found a bowl, dating to between the late 2nd century B.C. and the early 1st century A.D., that is engraved with what they believe could be the world's first known reference to Christ, providing evidence that Christianity and paganism at times intertwined in the ancient world.I toyed with the idea of titling this post "Two Apostles And A Cup" but decided that I really didn't like the mental images that it conjured up (if you don't get that reference be thankful).
The full engraving on the bowl reads, "DIA CHRSTOU O GOISTAIS," which has been interpreted by the excavation team to mean either, "by Christ the magician" or, "the magician by Christ."
2 comments:
I am going to speculate that Cristo was a very popular name. It could have been Cristo the neighborhood clown for all we know. After all, this cup could have been made a hundred years before Jesus was born.
It could be asserted that the Christ guy that we all know was not a "magician" but a master of manipulation. Not to say that he manipulated the things that people construed as miracles, but that he/or his cronies manipulated the people who followed him, into believing that events that were probably explainable by science were in fact created by him. No magic. Just hyperbole.
Just food for thought.
I would like to add something about the subject of this post, but don't feel there's anything worthwhile I can say.
I've never seen the apostles or their cup, but I HAVE seen the John Mayer parody... and that in itself is enough to keep me from watching the real thing.
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