1500 year old document referencing The Last Supper found

Amazing that it's been somewhere the last 100 yrs, but the importance just now discovered.

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It has laid largely unstudied in a university library for more than 100 years.

But now a 1,500-year-old papyrus has been identified as one of the world’s earliest surviving Christian charms.

The ‘remarkable’ document contains some of the earliest documented references to The Last Supper and sheds new light on early Christian practices, experts say.

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The document was rediscovered in the University of Manchester’s John Rylands Library.

It is the earliest surviving document to use the Christian Eucharist liturgy - which describes The Last Supper - as a protective charm.

The ‘magical’ words are written on a recycled piece of papyrus, which was originally used as a grain tax receipt.

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She believes that the charm casts important new light on early Christianity - just 300 years after the Roman emperor Constantine converted to the religion.

It shows how Christians adopted the ancient Egyptian practice of wearing amulets to protect the wearer against dangers.

This practice of writing charms on pieces of papyrus was continued by the Christians who replaced the prayers to Egyptian and Greco-Roman gods with extracts from the Bible

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The full text of the papyrus reads:

'Fear you all who rule over the earth.

'Know you nations and peoples that Christ is our God.

'For he spoke and they came to being, he commanded and they were created; he put everything under our feet and delivered us from the wish of our enemies.

'Our God prepared a sacred table in the desert for the people and gave manna of the new covenant to eat, the Lord’s immortal body and the blood of Christ poured for us in remission of sins.'

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