Several years ago, a small silver amulet was discovered buried alongside a skeleton in a grave in what is now Frankfurt, Germany. The amulet was small—under 1.5 inches long—and the grave it was found in is believed to have been dug between AD 230–270 when Frankfurt was the Roman city Nida. Well, scientists are finally able to read the fragile silver foil found in the amulet, and the results are incredible.
Using a state-of-the-art version of tomography, they analyzed each section and pieced together most of what the document stated and then painstakingly translated the ancient Latin into English. And here’s what it said:
Holy, holy, holy!
In the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God!
The Lord of the world resists [to the best of his ability?] all seizures (?)/setbacks (?).
The God (?) grants entry to well-being
This means of salvation protects
the human being who surrenders himself to
the will
of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son,
since all knees bow before Jesus Christ
the heavenly,
the earthly and
the subterranean, and every tongue
confesses (Jesus Christ).
Wow! Just over two centuries after Jesus’ life and death, the gospel had made it all the way over the Alps into Germany! This new find is “perhaps the earliest known evidence of the spread of Christianity in what is today Germany.” Over the years, the science of archaeology has shone much light on the Bible and Christianity in history.
When reading that inscription, specifically the last section, Philippians 2:9–11 immediately came to mind: “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Was this person paraphrasing Philippians? The authors of the study didn’t make that comparison (at least not in the popular summary of their research linked above), but I couldn’t help but notice the similarity.
It’s an exciting find and a great reminder of how Christianity turned the world upside down—and it continues to do so because Jesus promised, “… I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).
