Christianity in Europe Earlier than Previously Believed

In recent years, a silver amulet or phylactery was discovered in a grave in Germany (LiveScience, December 20, 2024). The grave dates to the middle of the third century AD—about 200 years after the death of Christ and about 100 years before Constantine converted to his own brand of paganized “Christianity.” Inside the amulet was a rolled scroll made of thin, silver foil, which was 3D-scanned to read the contents without damaging it. This revealed an inscription that clearly speaks of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, noting that “every knee bows” to Him. While historians know that it was dangerous to profess such biblical truths at that time in the Roman world, the authors of the article fail to recognize that what passes as modern Christianity was not codified until centuries after the original apostles lived—beginning with the efforts of the Roman Emperor Constantine in the fourth century AD—and that true biblical Christianity is very different! The Christianity apparently professed by the wearer of the phylactery predates the “Christianity” of Constantine, though little detail is revealed in the scroll. All this implies the presence of Christianity in the region much earlier than some previously believed. As the mayor of Frankfurt noted, “The history of Christianity in Frankfurt and far beyond will have to be turned back by around 50 to 100 years.” But why would a believer in Christ be found so far north and outside of the Roman Empire?

The Bible records the travels of true Christians all over the Middle East and into Asia Minor and points north and west. In many cases, they followed migration routes set down in earlier centuries by Israelitish people making their way across Europe and toward the British Isles. The recently discovered amulet lends credence to the extent of these migrations. To learn more about where the descendants of the Israelite people are today, read or listen to The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy.

Editor’s Note: The image depicted in this article is not the actual item found in the news report, and is merely an artistic/photographic rendering of a modern silver phylactery.