1,500-year-old Papyrus the Last Supper gives valuable insight into Christianity

[Omaha Steve]

Source: WSJ

A group of researchers have claimed to have unearthed one of the oldest Christian amulets in the form of a 1,500-year-old Greek papyrus fragment with writing that connotes to the biblical Last Supper and ‘manna from heaven’.

The papyrus was found by the researchers while they were looking through thousands of papyri in the library vault at the University of Manchester’s John Rylands Research Institute in the UK.

Roberta Mazza, one of the researchers who spotted the papyrus, said that the oldest fragment was most probably worn inside a locket or into a pendant as a token of protective charm.

In a statement, Mazza said, “This is an important and unexpected finding as it is one of the first recorded documents to use magic in the Christian context, while the first charm ever found to refer to the Eucharist – the Last Supper – as the manna of the Old Testament”.

FULL story at link.





Read more: http://www.wallstreetotc.com/1500-year-old-papyrus-the-last-supper-gives-valuable-insight-into-christianity/28679/

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Fascinating! Thank you, my dear Omaha Steve. n/t

[hrmjustin]

2. Yes it gives an interesting look into how people celebrated the Eucharist in

earlier times.

Great find.

[tanyev]

3. Ooh, marking to read later.

[Igel]

4. "the first charm ever found to refer to the Eucharist – the Last Supper – as the manna of the OT"

Which makes it sound like the "Eucharist as the manna of the OT" is something a bit novel. It would be a large innovation.

But it's just saying that while this idea was around, this was the first charm that referred to it.

Otherwise the article's making a rather extreme statement about John 6:50-1: "This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51"I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh."

Seems a rather obvious allusion, especially considering the context: An entirely Jewish group as they were observing Passover. (With manna needed as a result of the exodus that the Passover commemorated.)

[cosmicone]

5. More stuff stolen by the Brits from around the world

giving their scientists a leg up on others.

[undeterred]

6. What was on the menu?

[ret5hd]

9. Chicken or fish.

Jello for dessert.

[Hoppy]

7. I used to be better able to translate this stuff . I've gotten rusty over the years. The fifth line

of the second page, roughly translates, to "Yankee Imperialists Out of Southeast Asia."

[packman]

8. First line reads:

Obama did it