Scholar maps early Christian amulet practice and church opposition

A new article in Biblical Archaeology Review by Megan Nutzman, a specialist in ancient Mediterranean religion at Ohio State University, documents the widespread use of Christian amulets in the late antique period and the fierce resistance they met from religious authorities. Nutzman examines surviving amulets and the written critiques of church leaders, particularly the fourth-century bishop John Chrysostom of Antioch, who condemned the practice and urged the faithful to "suffer all things rather than submit to do any of those idolatrous practices." The amulets fell into two groups by size. Smaller examples—inscribed gemstones, rings, and pendants—typically bore only a few words or a single image. One fifth- or sixth-century copper alloy pendant in the Walters Art Museum featured a "much-suffering eye" attacked by lions, scorpions, snakes, a stork, and spears on one side, with a "holy rider" and Greek inscription reading "[The] one God overcomes the evil. JHVH" on the other. A brass ring from Hammat Gader in the southern Golan bore the Greek inscription "Christ, help Andreas." Larger amulets contained gospel incipits—the opening words from each Gospel—written on papyrus or parchment, folded into cases worn on the body or around the neck. Church leaders disapproved of these too, likely viewing them as mimicking Jewish tefillin, which Jesus criticized in Matthew 23.

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Source: Biblical Archaeology Society — https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/daily-life-and-practice/christian-amulets-with-inscriptions/