Current Events: Archaeology and the Church

November 8, a prisoner in the city of Megiddo discovered the corner of a mosaic, which turns out to be the floor of a church that could be oldest that has been discovered, pre-dating Emperor Constantine of Rome in the 3rd century ACE. This is of course still speculation at this point, but there are many items that suggest its dating. The Christian symbol used is that of Fish in the center of the room. But what is fascinating are the Greek inscriptions on the floor, which refer to 4 women and 1 man (a Roman) as patrons of this particular church. The reference to a table instead of an alter also tends to present the find as earlier than most. I have managed to semi-translate one of the inscriptions on the floor, but the others have not been released yet to the public, though I'm trying to photoshop some aerial photos to try and read the print. I'll include the inscription at the top of this page with some photos of the site. This is my translation:

"Akeptos [name of a female person], lover of god offers a table to God, Jesus Christ as a way of remembering."

The line above the six characters identifies them as either numbers or abbreviations...it was common to abbreviate names of Christ to save space. The dots separate the abbreviations from each other. Theta and omega designate "God"; the abbreviation for 'Jesus' is a little odd though as an iota and upsilon as opposed to an iota and omega; and the chi and omega designates 'Christ.'

I think the NY Times got the translation wrong or perhaps has the translation for another inscription...though I could be wrong...given the fact that I'm not sure which noun the dative case modifies.

Anyway, this find has the potential of revealing a church that women may have a more prominent role in. It may also reveal more to us about what church-life was like before the third century. It's an exciting time...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051106/ts_nm/mideast_church_dc

Here is a better link that I just found:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1131043729944&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull