A lintel inscription from the fifth century A.D.

Pictured below is a lintel inscription dated to the fifth century A.D.; this piece is currently held in the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki.

epigraphical museum

The stone is marble, described as off-white and ‘granular’ (κοκκωτό).  It is also described as a private inscription, meaning – as I believe – that it was commissioned by an individual rather than by the state or for a public occasion.

The words – written in all capital letters, with the ω form for the omega – read as follows:

ton kalliergoynton

Note that the ‘Ν’ looks, at first glance, to be an ‘Η’.  Unfortunately, we don’t have an actual ήτα to compare it to in this inscription.

What does the inscription mean?  If we assumed a missing ‘Ν’ on the end we would have the words ‘των καλλιεργούντων’.  The second word is thus a participle (masculine plural genitive) from the verb καλλιεργώ.  This verb is not found in the New Testament, but does exist in a modern Greek vocabulary, with the meaning ‘I grow/cultivate’ (e.g., a crop) or ‘I promote/foster’ (e.g., good relations).

But that’s not the end of the story.  The word ‘καλλιεργώ’ derives from a word for good, or beautiful (καλός) and a word for work or deed (ἔργον).  Together, they suggest something like ‘I do good work’.  The museum description states that these words correspond to dedicatory inscriptions, possibly taken from a prayer in the liturgy of St. Basil, part of which reads as follows:

Μνήσθητι, Κύριε, των καρποφορούντων, και καλλιεργούντων εν ταις αγίαις σου Εκκλησίαις

Remember, Lord, those who bear fruit and do good works in Your holy churches

I note only at this point that – if this is indeed the source of the inscription – that the words for ‘those who bear fruit’ may have been omitted from the lintel (the entire prayer could hardly have been inscribed on it), so that the article (των) comes immediately before καλλιεργούντων.

The liturgy of St. Basil in its entirety can be seen here in an English translation.

An early Christian funeral stele

The inscribed stele below was excavated near the Vatican, and is dated to sometime in the third century A.D.  It is considered to be one of the earliest Christian inscriptions.

funerary stele Licinia Amias

This stele is currently located in the National Roman Museum at the Baths of Diocletian in Rome.  The inscription is in both Greek and Latin.  Note the two fish, and the anchor. Above these are the words epigraphy

i.e., ἰχθύς ζώντων – ‘fish of (the) living.

The words below are in Latin, and give the name Licinia Amias, who is described as bene merenti  (‘well-deserving’).

A fish became a Christian symbol early on.  This has been explained (by Augustine, among others) as the result of using the letters of the word ἰχθύς as an acrostic:

Ι = Ἰησοῦς

Χ = Χριστός

Θ = Θεοῦ

Υ = Υιός

Σ = Σωτήρ

I.e., ‘Jesus Christ, of God Son (Son of God), Savior.