A third-century artifact is creating major problems for skeptics who argue that Christ’s deity was “invented” in the fourth century. The Akeptous Inscription, as it has become known, was uncovered in northern Israel and dates to 230 A.D. Doubters have long made the argument that Christians viewed Jesus as a prophet but not divine until the council of Nicaea in 325.
The Akeptous Inscription is part of a mosaic that is currently on display in the Museum of the Bible. The artifact was discovered in northern Israel and dates to 230 A.D. almost one hundred years before the council. It references a woman named Akeptous who is devoted to “God Jesus Christ.” The inscription reads The God-loving Akeptous has offered the table to God Jesus Christ as a memorial.” This indicates that early Christians believed in the divinity of Christ.
Apologist Sean McDowell interviewed Christopher Rollston, an epigrapher at George Washington University, to discuss the significance of the finding. McDowell said “I can’t believe more attention is not being paid to this. It’s that significant.” Rollston retorted “It’s really consequential.“ The two scholars went on to explore the impact of this finding on common arguments against the church.
Rollston explained that “Scholars don’t generally suggest that the divinity of Jesus was a notion invented at Nicaea,” Rollston said. “But you hear it an awful lot in other contexts.” McDowell thinks this will majorly shift the debate. “I never thought the divinity of Jesus was invented at the Council of Nicaea,” McDowell replied. “The evidence is too strong, but this just puts the nail in the coffin to that definitively.”
The Georgetown academic noted how “really fascinating“ how archeology “often dovetails with textual material” He went on to explain how “This inscription… makes the declaration very clearly and emphatically that Jesus was divine,” Rollston said. “… Not all Christians believed in the divinity … but it was the predominant view among early Christians that Jesus was divine. And this inscription, therefore, is fascinating because it’s pre-Nicaean.”
This was not the only early Christian artifact to make waves recently. An ancient skeleton was discovered with a silver plate near the German city of Frankfurt. While excavating a Roman burial site, researchers found a piece of rolled silver foil dating back to between 230 and 270 A.D. The inscription read “Holy, holy, holy! In the name of Jesus Christ, Son of God! The lord of the world.”
The Lord Mayor of Frankfurt said in a statement: “The ‘Frankfurt Inscription’ is a scientific sensation. Thanks to it, the history of Christianity in Frankfurt and far beyond will have to be turned back by around 50 to 100 years. The first Christian found north of the Alps comes from our city: we can be proud of this, especially now, so close to Christmas. The people involved have done a great job.”
Another academic, Frankfurt’s Head of Culture and Science, Dr Ina Hartwig, replied: “This extraordinary find affects many areas of research and will keep scientists busy for a long time to come. It concerns archaeology as well as religious studies, philology, and anthropology. Such an important find here in Frankfurt is really something extraordinary.”
Featured image: Vesafis Tzferris, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons