"Christ" Inscription in Egypt.

An English translation of the original article, written in Spanish, found here.  Translation by Bryan Dubuc.

22 September 2008

    Madrid- A team of archaeologists and Egyptologists have just discovered, among the ruins of the mythical city of Alexandria a ceramic vase with an enigmatic Greek inscription that could be the oldest reference in existence to Jesus Christ.
    As Franck Goddio, one of the most prestigious underwater archaeologists in the world, and the man responsible for the discovery, explained to Elmundo.es, the object shows an inscription in Greek that is interpreted as saying, "for Christ, the magician."
    Among the theories that have emerged, "It very well could be a reference to Jesus Christ, who in that time was the epitome of White Magic," says the French investigator.
    The validity of this discovery is supported by the old age of the vase. Already Egyptologists have studied the piece and assure that the vase, coming from Asia minor, is of the first century and the inscription in question was made in 50 AD.  This could be the oldest discovery and the first reference to the messiah that we know of, beating a letter from Saint Paul of the year 51AD that speaks of "his teacher."
    Although, this is only one of two or three theories that have emerged from experts about the origin and significance of the valid piece. The discovery was made this past June when a team was working in on
site situated in the oriental zone of Port Magnus, Alexandria, solidly inside of a temple near the island of Antirhodos, very close to the coast.  "The excavations are present in various stratum that coincide with concrete dates in time. the vase was discovered in the shelf corresponding to the first century AD, even though prior tests have confirmed that its age situates it in the century before this era. it was found among various other objects and columns on the temple", explains Goddio.
    During the last few months, the best Egyptologists in the world have been working with the piece and have given various theories about it. They believe that the vase was used in oracle rituals. They used to pour oil into it which gave off smells that were interpreted by a mage, or magician, as predictions of the future.
    Elmundo.es was witness, in a private event, to the arrival of this object to Madrid, where it will remain in a public exhibit called "submerged treasures of Egypt" until November 26th. Amongst strong security measures and the supervision of Egyptologists and representatives of the Egyptian government, proprietor of the piece Franck Goddio took the piece out of a safe and placed it in a crystal urn at the end of the final corridor of the exhibit, which has over 500 pieces coming from 3 submerged sites of Ancient Egypt.
    The inscription in Greek, "Dia Chrstou o goistais," the word "goistais" means magician, while Chrstou is distinguished as the name of he who received the piece, although it could also signify the Messiah. In this
case, the vase was probably used by a magician, who, in order to legitimize his supernatural powers, had invoked it to Christ. "It is not crazy to think that, already there are artifacts of this era that we speak of, in the first century of our era, the communication between Port Magnus of Alexandria and the region of Palestine was very fluid, with ships arriving there daily. It is very probable that in Alexandria it was ordinary to accept the existence of Jesus and his miracles not too far away and the magicians of the area did rituals in his name." explains Goddio.
    While the vase is in Madrid for this exposition, a great team of expert investigators continues to look into the piece and its origin and it is likely that in the next few months, much more will be known about the inscription and the theories will simplify a bit.