Sunday, March 29, 2009

Ancient bowls, Jesus, and magic


"A team of scientists led by renowned French marine archaelogist Franck Goddio recently announced that they have found a bowl, dating to between the late 2nd century B.C. and the early 1st century A.D., that is engraved with what they believe could be the world's first known reference to Christ."

That's Jesus H. Christ. The Jesus Christ of the Gospels.

The bowl carries an engraving in Greek which reads "DIA CHRISTOU O GOISTAIS," which could mean "by Christ the magician," or perhaps "the magician by Christ."

Goddio thinks the engraving "could very well be a reference to Jesus Christ, in that he was once the primary exponent of white magic."


But, maybe not.

There were many "Christ" groups in the ancient world, "Christ" being the Greek for "messiah." Some of these existed long before the legendary Jesus is said to have come on the scene. [Read any of Earl Doherty's works on the "historical" Jesus.]


Still, it is fascinating. It is also possible that magicians (or magus) who divined the supernatural using oil in cups like this legitimized their powers by invoking the name of Christ."

But for now, all of this is pure speculation. There's no real evidence for anything other than an ancient cup with an inscription indicating that some Christ was a magician or involved in magic.

Turning water into wine was certainly magic.

That's not to say that the Jesus of the Gospels was the Christ of the cup.


You can read the entire article at Debunking Christianity here.

3 comments:

Grandpa Eddie said...

It could be that that is all this Jesus was. A magician who had been very well versed in the old testament.

By being well versed, he would know exactly what he would need to do to portray the Jew's messiah. His knowledge of magic would be a big help in 'proving' his 'divinity'.

Lowell said...

The "Jesus" of the Gospels didn't exist.

Bob Poris said...

They should look for the date stamp. If it is “something” AD or BC. that could be useful on old coins too. I think Jesus could read and write, except in Spanish. It is strange he never picked up a quill or a chisel. Some of his contemporizes might have, but maybe they didn’t put a large enough stamp on mail. Tablets are heavy and judging postage must have been a real problem. You would thing His father might have written, I understand HE was proud of his only son. Certainly Mary would have kept a scrapbook.

opinions powered by SendLove.to