Archeological Find in Israel

A prisoner trustee digging to prepare a site for a new prison wing in Megiddo in Israel, turned up the mosaic floor of the earliest Christian Church ever discovered.

Two mosaics in the church - one covered with fish, an ancient Christian symbol that predates the cross - tell the story of a Roman officer and a woman named Aketous who donated money to build the church in memory "of the god, Jesus Christ."

Pottery remnants from the third century, the style of Greek writing used in the inscriptions, ancient geometric patterns in the mosaics and the depiction of fish rather than the cross indicate that the church was no longer used by the fourth century, Tepper said.

The church's location, near the spot where the New Testament location for the final battle between good and evil, also made sense because a bishop was active in the area at the time, said Tepper, who works with the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Cool.

This was dated to around 300 C.E. so it was after the apostasy of the original church which happened when the Apostles ceased to be, and the single church became a collection of individual churches governed by their own bishops. This denunciation of this find by Islamics as "a monophysite blasphemy." Illustrates how the church was being split by arcane doctrinal issues espoused by contentious intellectuals within it. Later the groups which came to be the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox movements emerged and declared all the others to be heretics.

If all they find is potsherds and mosaics, this is interesting. If they find any scrolls or codices, it would really rock. I like that fish symbol rather than the cross, but I'm not sure how it relates to Christ unless it ties into Peter, the first President of the Church after Christ ascended, being a fisherman.