The papyrus fragment contains references to the Last Supper and manna from heaven

Sep 2, 2014 20:03 GMT  ·  By

A fairly small piece of papyrus that has references to the Last Supper and manna from heaven written down on it is now hailed as one of the oldest Christian charms to have until now been documented by historians.

Besides, the document, estimated to be about 1,500 years old, is argued to be the earliest papyrus fragments of this kind to use the Christian Eucharist liturgy as a protective charm.

Information shared with the public says that this early Christian charm, whose complete text is available at the end of this article, was discovered by researcher Dr. Roberta Mazza.

According to Phys Org, the specialist stumbled upon it while browsing through thousands of historical documents kept in storage at The University of Manchester's John Rylands Library.

Interestingly enough, it looks like the papyrus fragment ended up at the John Rylands Library back in 1901. However, it failed to be recognized as one of the earliest Christian charms in existence until Dr. Mazza had closer look at it.

Commenting on this find, the researcher 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.”

Furthermore, “The text of the amulet is an original combination of biblical passages including Psalm 78:23-24 and Matthew 26:28-30 among others. To this day, Christians use passages from the bible as protective charms so our amulet marks the start of an important trend in Christianity.”

While closely studying the 1,500-year-old papyrus fragment and the words scribbled down on it, Dr. Roberta Mazza found that whoever wrote the charm used a former grain tax receipt. Simply put, the charm is written on ancient recycled paper.

“The amulet maker would have cut a piece of the receipt, written the charm on the other side and then he would have folded the papyrus to be kept in a locket or pendant. It is for this reason the tax receipt on the exterior was damaged and faded away,” the researcher said.

The charm is believed to have been written by a commoner. Seeing how some of the words are misspelled and others are written down in the wrong order, chances are that this person did not simply copy the charm, but put it down on paper from memory.

According to Dr. Roberta Mazza, early Christians got into the habit of wearing amulets to keep themselves safe from dangers after seeing Egyptians doing so. To stay true to their beliefs, they replaced prayers to pagan gods with passages from the Bible.

Full text of 1,500-year-old Christian charm:

"Fear you all who rule over the earth. Know you nations and peoples that Christ is our God. For he spoke and they came to being, he commanded and they were created; he put everything under our feet and delivered us from the wish of our enemies. 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."