“One of the most important discoveries made in Israel this century.” —Ariel David and Ruth Schuster, reporters for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.1
“A stunning trio of early Christian (3rd century) inscriptions.” —Christopher Rollston, Professor of Northwest Semitic Languages and Literatures and chairman of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the George Washington University.2
What is it that has these reporters and a linguistic expert so excited? It is the discovery and further study of three mosaic texts in pristine condition that were excavated in 2005 by Yotam Tepper3 on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and that I focused on in my prayer letter from the spring of 2022. Rollston has now provided a detailed analysis of the inscriptions. They were found in a 16.4 × 32.8–foot (5 × 10–m) room in a building used by officers of the Roman Legio VI Ferrata (“Sixth Ironclad Legion”) in the Jewish-Samaritan village of Kefar ‘Othnay, on the grounds of the Megiddo Prison 1.8 miles (2.9 km) south of Tel Megiddo in northern Israel. Coins and the typology of the script of the texts indicate that the room was constructed in about AD 230. This was a time when Christianity was considered an illegal religion. It was not until the reign of Constantine (306–337) that Christianity was legalized. The building was abandoned in the later part of the third century, probably during the reign of Diocletian (284–305), who carried out extensive reforms of the Roman Empire and its army. When the building was dismantled, someone intentionally protected its mosaic floor by covering it with pottery sherds and large sections of wall plaster. Thus it was preserved in its condition in the late third century until it was excavated in our own times.
In the center of the floor was the base of a communion table with inscribed mosaic panels just to the north and south of it. The excavators called the room a “Christian Prayer Hall,” but, because of the presence of the communion table, Rollston prefers the broader term “Christian Worship Hall,” which is more appropriate.4 The three texts were the “Gaianus Inscription” in the north panel, which names Gaianus the centurion as the benefactor of the mosaic floor; the “Akeptous Inscription” on the west side of the south panel; and the “Women Inscription” on the east side of the south panel. All three texts provide important insight into a remarkable early Christian enclave active within the Roman army.
Megiddo worship hall's mosaic panels and communion table base. Photo by Niki Davidov / Israel Antiquities Authority.
The Gaianus Inscription. “Gaianos, who is also called Porphyry, a centurion, our brother, having earnestly desired to do so, has commissioned this mosaic-inscription. Brutus has done the work.”5 The name Porphyry is Greek, so Gaianus had both a Roman name and a Greek name that he used in non-Roman circles, just as in the New Testament there are individuals with both a Hebrew name and a Greek name used in non-Jewish circles, such as Saul/Paul. Centurions are mentioned a number of times in the New Testament, some of them believers (Cornelius, Acts 10; Mt 8:5–13, 27:54). The north panel also included a medallion depicting two fish. The fish, of course, was an early Christian symbol, as the letters in the Greek word for “fish” served as an acronym for “Jesus Christ God’s Son Savior.”6
The Akeptous Inscription. Of the three inscriptions, the Akeptous Inscription has received the most attention. It states, “Akeptous, the friend of God, has offered the table to God Jesus Christ (for) remembrance.”7 An article in the Greek sentence indicates that Akeptous was a woman.8 Reference to “the table,” of course, is an allusion to the communion table immediately to the north of the mosaic panel. Of greatest import is the phrase “God Jesus Christ,” as the inscription is nearly a century earlier than the Council of Nicaea, which was convened in AD 325 to settle the question of the divinity of Christ. The Council determined that Jesus, just like the Father, merits the title of God (Theos).
The Akeptous Inscription. The words “God Jesus Christ” appear at the end of the fifth line; they are abbreviated, as indicated by the line above the letters. ΘΩ = ΘΕΩ, Theos (“God”); ΙΥ = ΙΗΣΟΥ, Iēsou (“Jesus”); ΧΩ = ΧΡΙΣΤΩ, Christō (“Christ”). Photo by Vesafis Tzferris - www.cojs.org, Wikimedia Commons, November 25, 2021, CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Women Inscription. “Remember Primilla and Cyriaca and Dorothea, and moreover also Chreste.”9 Primilla is “a good Latin name” and the other three are “common Greek names.”10 These four women evidently were prominent members of the fellowship. It is interesting that, with these and the donor of the communion table, five of the seven people named in the three texts are women. This bears out the New Testament portrayal of the important role women played in the early church. This is in stark contrast to Roman society, where women generally had a subservient status.
As a side note, a Christian worship center in Dura-Europos (located along the Euphrates River in eastern Syria) that dates to the mid-third century, about the same time as the Megiddo worship hall, is often characterized as the earliest house church discovered. This is incorrect, however, since the church in the house of Peter at Capernaum is much earlier, as it dates to the second half of the first century.11
The general public has not been able to view the Megiddo mosaic due to security considerations. But now, for the first time, the mosaic is being put on public display: the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, is featuring a special exhibit called “The Megiddo Mosaic: Foundations of Faith” from September 15, 2024, to July 6, 2025.12
Endnotes
1 Ariel David and Ruth Schuster, “Israel Lending ‘Jesus Mosaic’ from Armageddon to Controversial Bible Museum,” Haaretz, June 3, 2024, Archaeology, https://bit.ly/47y1jhf.
2 Christopher Rollston, “A Stunning Trio of Early Christian (3rd Century) Inscriptions from Biblical Armageddon: ‘God Jesus Christ,’ Five Prominent Named Women, a Named Centurion, a Eucharist Table, and Two Fish,” Rollston Epigraphy: Ancient Inscriptions from the Levantine World, July 4, 2024, http://www.rollstonepigraphy.com/?p=1004.
3 See Yotam Tepper and Leah Di Segni, A Christian Prayer Hall of the Third Century CE at Kefar ‘Othnay (Legio): Excavations at the Megiddo Prison 2005, with contribution by Guy Stiebel (Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority, 2006).
4 Rollston, “Stunning Trio.”
5 Translation of Rollston (“Stunning Trio”). Rollston notes that the name Porphyry means “purple” and Brutus means “weighty.”
6 Rollston, “Stunning Trio.”
7 Translation of Rollston (“Stunning Trio”).
8 Rollston, “Stunning Trio.”
9 Translation from Tepper and Di Segni, Christian Prayer Hall, 41.
10 Tepper and Di Segni, 42.
11 Bryan Windle briefly discusses this site in the following post on his blog: “Footsteps: Three Things in Capernaum that Peter Likely Saw,” Bible Archaeology Report, July 8, 2019, https://bit.ly/4eqtelj.
12 https://www.museumofthebible.org/exhibits/megiddo.
Bibliography
David, Ariel, and Ruth Schuster. “Israel Lending ‘Jesus Mosaic’ from Armageddon to Controversial Bible Museum.” Haaretz, June 3, 2024, Archaeology. https://bit.ly/47y1jhf.
Rollston, Christopher. “A Stunning Trio of Early Christian (3rd Century) Inscriptions from Biblical Armageddon: ‘God Jesus Christ,’ Five Prominent Named Women, a Named Centurion, a Eucharist Table, and Two Fish.” Rollston Epigraphy: Ancient Inscriptions from the Levantine World, July 4, 2024. http://www.rollstonepigraphy.com/?p=1004.
Tepper, Yotam, and Leah Di Segni. A Christian Prayer Hall of the Third Century CE at Kefar ‘Othnay (Legio): Excavations at the Megiddo Prison 2005. With contribution by Guy Stiebel. Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority, 2006.
Windle, Bryan. “Footsteps: Three Things in Capernaum that Peter Likely Saw.” Bible Archaeology Report, July 8, 2019. https://bit.ly/4eqtelj.
