A magic charm reveals ancient Christian practices? Either the description, “magic charm” is shockingly inaccurate, or the practices ain’t Christian. Idiots.
Magic has not always been regarded as it is today.
Well, instead of prayer the disciples cast lots to decide who was next in line after Judas biffed it, so there’s that.
“And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. And he was numbered with the eleven apostles.” Acts 1:26.
“Cleromancy is a form of divination using sortition, casting of lots, or casting bones or stones, in which an outcome is determined by means that normally would be considered random, such as the rolling of dice, but are sometimes believed to reveal the will of God, or other supernatural entities.”
“Dr Mazza said: ‘This is an important and unexpected discovery as it’s one of the first recorded documents to use magic in the Christian context and the first charm ever found to refer to the Eucharist - the last supper - as the manna of the Old Testament.
The text of the amulet is a combination of biblical passages including Psalm 78:23-24 and Matthew 26:28-30 among others.
It includes the words: ‘Our God prepared a sacred table in the desert for the people and gave manna of the new covenant to eat, the Lord’s immortal body and the blood of Christ poured for us in remission of sins.’
Dr Mazza said that some Christians still use passages from the Bible as protective charms, so the amulet marks the beginning of a trend in Christianity.
‘Though we know almost nothing about the owner of the charm, we think it could have been owned by a resident of the village nearby Hermopolis (el-Ashmunein),’ she said.
‘We can say this is an incredibly rare example of Christianity and the Bible becoming meaningful to ordinary people - not just priests and the elite.
‘It’s doubly fascinating because the amulet maker clearly knew the Bible, but made lots of mistakes: some words are misspelled and others are in the wrong order. This suggests that he was writing by heart rather than copying it.
‘It’s quite exciting. Thanks to this discovery, we now think that the knowledge of the Bible was more embedded in sixth century AD Egypt than we previously realised.’”
“Dr Mazza said: ‘This is an important and unexpected discovery as it’s one of the first recorded documents to use magic in the Christian context and the first charm ever found to refer to the Eucharist - the last supper - as the manna of the Old Testament.
The text of the amulet is a combination of biblical passages including Psalm 78:23-24 and Matthew 26:28-30 among others.
It includes the words: ‘Our God prepared a sacred table in the desert for the people and gave manna of the new covenant to eat, the Lord’s immortal body and the blood of Christ poured for us in remission of sins.’
Dr Mazza said that some Christians still use passages from the Bible as protective charms, so the amulet marks the beginning of a trend in Christianity.
‘Though we know almost nothing about the owner of the charm, we think it could have been owned by a resident of the village nearby Hermopolis (el-Ashmunein),’ she said.
‘We can say this is an incredibly rare example of Christianity and the Bible becoming meaningful to ordinary people - not just priests and the elite.
‘It’s doubly fascinating because the amulet maker clearly knew the Bible, but made lots of mistakes: some words are misspelled and others are in the wrong order. This suggests that he was writing by heart rather than copying it.
‘It’s quite exciting. Thanks to this discovery, we now think that the knowledge of the Bible was more embedded in sixth century AD Egypt than we previously realised.’”