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Above: DIA CHRHSTOU
Below: OGOISTAIS
Copyright: Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation
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An inscribed bowl found in 2008, by the divers of Franck Goddio in Alexandria’s Eastern Harbour close to the modern Corniche caused a media frenzy: Was Jesus a witch? as an example.
The ceramic bowl was discovered at the foot of the peninsula that stretches towards the island of Antirhodos on the former coastline now submerged.
The bowl was found in an even context of the first half of the 1st century of this era, associated with oriental sigillated, thin-walled goblets and imported culinary ceramic.
This thin-walled ceramic dates to the 1st century BCE. It is a careened cup with handles, well preserved (right).
Franck Goddio presents the bowl. (El Mundo, Foto: Bernardo Díaz)
Close forms are present in Pergamon, for production between the late 2nd century BCE and the early 1st century CE.
Bearing in mind the technical characteristics and type of this specimen, this jug very likely comes from a workshop in the west of Asia Minor.
This bowl is engraved with DIA CHRHSTOU OGOISTAIS and in the opinion of Goddio's team, made after baking as the incisions have taken away the slip.
In the initial rush of speculation, many made without seeing the other side of the bowl, or the lettering close up, all sorts of possibilities were raised, from the artefact being a fake, to the inscription referring to Jesus Christ.
A recent post here - Archaeology of first-century wizards – discussed magic and magicians of this period in Judea and Egypt, in relation to the Magi of Persia and Zoroastrianism. This is the context for the inscription.
For the inscription, we must be clear, no form of the name 'Jesus' exists on the bowl.
We also know – as we discussed in Archaeology of the earliest canonical gospels – that Jesus Christ does not appear until the 2nd century of this era. The bowl therefore does not and cannot refer to Jesus Christ.
What does the inscription say?
OGOISTAIS is best understood as a fuller form of O GOHS, or magician. The Attic spelling would be O GOHSTHS. The itacisms are not unusual for Alexandria.
The inscription has CHRHSTOU and whoever or whatever is being referred to, the lettering is not 'messiah'.
There are numerous possible interpretations of this word and even the scholarly debates often become confused with Christian theology and associated assumptions.
Made probably in Pergamon and exported to Alexandria, the bowl was then inscribed, used in one of the many waterfront bars and then tossed into the water.
Two-sided amulet. On the front, the Raising of Lazarus. On the reverse are three lines of Greek magic words.
Jerusalem, Bible Lands Museum. Soft gray stone, 33 mm.
It is a vulgar, Greek thing in all respects, fitting perfectly the Greek magic of the period, alongside the many magical artefacts of this time and place, shared by Philo the Lysimachus philosopher, author of the first christology, and Ptolemy the astrologer, who invented the zodiac.
To the examples of Greek magic in first-century Alexandria, whose roots lie in Zoroastrian Persia with Smerdis Magus, with branches in Qumran and Nag Hammadi, then blossom in the 1st century into Simon Magus and the Three Magi, we can now add Chrest Magus.
A scholarly view:
Ceramic Bowl
Alexandria
Roman times (1st Century BC and 1st Century AD)
Alexandria Maritime Museum (C1_3557)
by David Fabre, Doctor in Egyptology, member of the European Institute of Submarine Archaeology
This bowl was discovered on the last IEASM archaeological mission in the Portus Magnus in Alexandria, close to the modern Corniche, at the foot of the peninsula that stretches towards the island of Antirhodos on the former coastline now submerged.
Bowl C1_3557 was found in an even context of the first half of the 1st century AD, associated with oriental sigillated, thin-walled goblets and imported culinary ceramic. This thin-walled ceramic, however, dates back to the 1st century BC. It is a careened cup with handles, well preserved. Close forms are present in Pergamon, for production between the late 2nd century BC and the early 1st century AD. Bearing in mind the technical characteristics and type of this specimen, this jug very likely comes from a workshop in the west of Asia Minor.
This bowl is engraved with DIA CHRSTOU O GOISTAIS made after baking as the incisions have taken away the slip. This inscription is at least enigmatic; it dates back either to the 1st century BC (dating of the ceramic) or the first half of the 1st century AD (dating of the occupation) and offers different hypotheses of reading.
Different hypotheses of reading
For Pr. Bert Smith of Oxford University, it might be a dedication or a present made by a certain Chrestos belonging to an association (maybe religious) called Ogoistais. In this sense, Pr. Klaus Hallof, director of the Institute of Greek inscriptions in the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of inscriptions believes that it is necessary to connect “ogostai” to known Greek denominations of religious associations such as Hermaistai, Athenaistai, Isiastai which gathered worshippers of the god Hermes or the goddess Athena and Isis. “Ogo,” according to this hypothesis, would be a divine form of expressing the god Osogo or Ogoa of whom Strabon and Pausanias talk with regard to a divinity worshipped in Milas, in Caria.
The goet?
According to the interpretation of Pr. André Bernand, Professor emeritus of French Universities, Goistais might be a mistaken graphic of goes, the “goet”, that is, the “magician, the sorcerer, the charmer, the magus”. This hypothesis becomes even more seducing as the expression introduced by “dia” is typical of these casters of chance and soothsayers well-known by the classical texts. According to this supposition, the writing could then be translated either as “by Chrestos/Christos the magician”, or “the magician by Chrestos/Christos.” Having said this, is it possible to specify the nature of the practised magic ritual with the help of this bowl?
A lecanomancia?
A certain number of elements lead us to imagine that this bowl was used by a magus to tell the future by evoking gods or the dead, questioning about the content of the vessel. This hypothesis could therefore be based on lecanomancia which is one of the oldest forms of artificial divination. It has been known in Mesopotamia probably since the 3rd millennium BC; the soothsayer interprets the forms taken by the oil poured into a cup of water in an interpretation guided by manuals. There is one “hallucinating” variant: the medium, or the soothsayer themselves, goes into a kind of trance when studying the oil in the cup. They therefore see the divinities or supernatural beings appear that they call to answer their questions with regard to the future. Two Egyptian earthenware statuettes, dating from the Middle Empire, might be the first signs of lecanomancia in Egypt(1). They show a kneeling child leaning his chin on a jug he is holding with his two hands. The shape of the vessel is very similar to that of the bowl discovered in the Portus Magnus in Alexandria (a bowl with two handles and careened belly). The position of the seer performing his art illustrates the practices described in the demotic and Greek scrolls.
Chrestos/Christos and Christ?
If Chrestos is a widely accepted name in Greek onomastics, chrestos or christos is the Greek word that translates the Hebrew mishnah, “messia”, “Christ” of the would refer to Jesus-Christ to legitimise his magic abilities. Transformation of water into wine, multiplication of loafs, miraculous curing, resurrection… The story of Christ must have been veritable manna for the magician who could find (mythical) precedents to his questions and concerns. To resort to “Christ” to support a magical practice does not mean belonging to the Christian religion. A pagan might appeal to the Christian God, new to them, simply because of his strangeness and the power attributed to him. It should be remembered that in Alexandria paganism, Judaism and Christianity never evolved in isolation. All of these forms of religiousness came into magical practices that seduced both the humble layers of the population and the most well-off classes. It was in Alexandria where new religious constructions were made to propose solutions to the problem of man, of God’s world. Cults of Isis, mysteries of Mithra, early Christianity bear witness to this.
1. One is conserved in the Royal Museum of Art and History in Brussels (former Mac Gregor Collection, E. 7421), and the other to the Metropolitan Museum of Arts in New York. This comes from the Licht’s searches (no. 22.I.124)
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