A letter written on papyrus, which has been located at a Swiss university for more than 100 years, has been identified as the oldest known Christian private letter, according to a researcher.
A statement released by the University of Basel last Thursday said the letter from Roman Egypt – which mainly deals with mundane family matters – has been dated to the 230s AD and is at least 40 to 50 years older than all previously known Christian documentary letters.
The papyrus knwon as ‘P.Bas. 2.43’ has been in the possession of the University of Basel for over 100 years. The letter has been dated to the 230s AD and is thus older than all previously known Christian documentary evidence from Roman Egypt. PICTURE: University of Basel.
While the earliest Christians in the Roman Empire “are usually portrayed as eccentrics who withdrew from the world and were threatened by persecution”, the statement said such a perception is countered by the letter which contains indications Christians were living outside cities in the Egyptian hinterland in the early third century, held political leadership positions and “did not differ from their pagan environment in their everyday lives”.
The letter was written by a man named Arrianus to his brother Paulus, both of whom were said to be “young, educated sons of the local elite, landowners and public officials”. It also mentions a Menibios and Heracleides, who has been named to a city council.
After reporting on family matters and asking for Paulus to send some fish sauce, the writer expresses in the letter’s last line his hope that his brother will prosper “in the Lord”, using an abbreviation of a Christian phrase “I pray that you fare well ‘in the Lord’.”
Sabine Huebner, professor of ancient history at the university, said in the statement that the use of this abbreviation, which is known as a nomen sacrum in this context, “leaves no doubt about the Christian beliefs of the letter writer”.
“It is an exclusively Christian formula that we are familiar with from New Testament manuscripts.”
Huebner says the name of the brother is also revealing.
“Paulus was an extremely rare name at that time and we may deduce that the parents mentioned in the letter were Christians and had named their son after the apostle as early as 200 AD.”
The papyrus letter is at the heart of Huebner’s new book, Papyri and the Social World of the New Testament.
