While laying a new wing of a prison, workers at Megiddo uncovered the floor of what may be the oldest Christian prayer hall ever found. A Greek inscription set into the mosaic records that a woman named Akeptous “offered this table to the God Jesus Christ as a memorial.” It dates to around AD 230 — three generations before Constantine made Christianity legal — and it calls Jesus “God” plainly, in a working Roman garrison town where soldiers and civilians met to pray.
- What it is
- The mosaic floor of an early Christian prayer hall, with a Greek dedication naming Jesus as God
- Date of artifact
- c. AD 230 (3rd century)
- Discovered
- Legio, beside Tel Megiddo, Israel (within the grounds of Megiddo Prison), 2005 (Yotam Tepper, Israel Antiquities Authority)
- Where it is now
- In situ (since lifted for display); Israel Antiquities Authority
- Related to
- Early Christian worship of Jesus as God, generations before the church was legal
- Scripture
- John 20:28 · Titus 2:13
What this find showsOrganised Christian worship — gathered around a table, openly naming Jesus as God — existed in the Roman East by the early third century, hard physical evidence of the faith well before its legalisation.
What it does not proveIt is a third-century floor, not a first-century one: it witnesses to what early Christians believed and did, not to the events of the Gospels themselves.
Sources & further reading