A papyrus letter believed to have been penned by a Christian in 230AD has upended many long-held theories and beliefs about the Roman Empire.
It proves that not all religious groups were subjected to persecution throughout the Empire and that they could, at times, live in relative peace.
Sent between two Christian brothers, it is believed to be the oldest surviving letter example written by a person of the faith.
It features one brother regaling the other with stories of local sports centres, political gossip and a desperate plea for his favourite fish liver sauce,
Professor of Ancient History at the University of Basel Sabine Huebner has dated, researched and translated the document.
Her analysis of the artefact, she claims, proves it is older than all previously known original Christian documentary evidence from Roman times.
The University of Basel has owned the papyrus, numbered P.Bas. 2.43, for over a century but its true backstory has long been a mystery.
The papyrus was found to have come from the village of Theadelphia in central Egypt and it is part of the Heroninus archive, which is the largest archive of papyri from Roman times.
The letter was written in Ancient Greek by a man called Arrianus for his brother, named Paulus, and experts say it differs from other preserved letters from Greco-Roman Egypt because of how Arrianus signs off.
Arrianus finishes by saying he hopes his brother will prosper 'in the Lord.' he uses a shortened form of the Christian phrase 'I pray that you fare well 'in the Lord'.'
Professor Huebner said: 'The use of this abbreviation - 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.'
The letter reportedly shows that Arrianus and Paulus' parents were part of the local elite, public officials and landowners.
Professor Huebner said: 'This is the oldest Christian autograph, the oldest original handwriting of a Christian that we have from the entire ancient world.
'We know of course the letters of the Apostle Paul from the first century, but here we don't have the originals, just later copies survived, not his own handwriting.
'However, the Basel papyrus is not the earliest Christian document altogether. We have the copies of the gospels on papyrus for instance, which might date already to the late second century.
'But again, these are copies of the originals written by professional scribes, not necessarily Christians.
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'We also have other literature of Christians from the second century however these are literary texts transmitted via copying and copying through medieval times. Not the original writings.'
Prosopographical research was used to determine the age of the letter, which involves investigating the common characteristics of a historical group through a collective study of their lives as their individual biographies may be difficult to trace.
The Basel papyrus collection comprises 65 papers in five languages, which were purchased by the university in 1900 for the purpose of teaching classical studies - with the exception of two papyri.
These arrived in Basel back in the 16th century, and likely formed part of Basilius Amerbach's art collection.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
