Earliest Evidence of Christianity North of the Alps

 In 2018, archeologists discovered a protective amulet during excavations of a cemetery in the northwestern suburbs of Frankfurt am Main. The man's grave in which the amulet was found has been dated to between 230 and 270 AD. Inside a tube was a rolled up sheet of engraved silver foil, but because of the thinness and condition of the silver sheet, scientists could not unroll it to read the writing. But by using CT scans, the Daily Mail reports, scientists were able to piece together the writing without damaging the rolled foil. The inscription read:

(In the name?) of Saint Titus.

Holy, holy, holy!

In the name of Jesus Christ, Son of God!

The Lord of the world

resists with [strengths?]

all attacks(?)/setbacks(?).

The God(?) grants

entry to well-being.

May this means of salvation(?) protect

the man who

surrenders himself to the will

of the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,

since before Jesus Christ

every knee bows: those in heaven, those on earth

and those

under the earth, and every tongue

confesses (Jesus Christ).

The article also notes:

    Aside from the fact that the wearer of the amulet was clearly a devout Christian, what's also unusual is that the inscription is written entirely in Latin.  

    'Such inscriptions in amulets were usually written in Greek or Hebrew,' Professor Scholz added.   

    Also, up until the 5th century, precious metal amulets of this type always contain a mixture of different faiths, such as Judaism or pagan influences. 

    But the experts describe this amulet as 'purely Christian' because there are no pagan references such as demons or elements of Judaism.

    Neither Yahweh, the almighty God of Judaism, nor the archangels Raphael, Gabriel, Michael or Suriel are mentioned, nor are any of Israel's forefathers such as Isaac or Jacob.

    Ultimately, the biggest surprise is the location and age of the amulet and the man, who clearly considered his Christian faith so important that he took it with him to the grave.

The amulet is also the earliest evidence of Christianity having penetrated to the area north of the Alps.

    Interestingly, the Wikipedia article has a slightly different translation of the last bit of the engraving:

That at the name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue should confess 

Given that the inscription was in Latin--a well understood language--you wouldn't think that the translation would be that different. 

[UPDATE] Also check out the post on this at the Daily Timewaster blog.