THE CHRISTIAN INSCRIPTION AT POMPEII

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THE CHRISTIAN INSCRIPTION AT POMPEII
By Paul Berry
Copyright 1995, 60 pages, 10 plates, bibliography, index
ISBN 0-7734-889-5 (hardbound)
Edwin Mellen Press, P.O. Box 450, Lewiston, NY 14092-0450 
$49.95

	A page can hardly be located in the New Testament that would not 
place the reader at some point along the Roman road.  From this point of 
departure, Paul Berry begins to track the first physical appearance, 
discovered in 1862, of the world "Christian" in Western history.  The 
inscription (Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum #619), in Latin, appears in 
carbon script on stucco in the city of Pompeii, which was preserved to 
history by its sealing in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79.

	We know from the Acts of the Apostles (28:13) that St. Paul 
visited the nearby city of Puteoli for seven days, where there already 
existed a community of Latin-speaking Christians.  Of the 1800 
inscriptions cataloged in that city, all appear in Latin, none in 
Greek.  Chapter 2 of Berry's monograph is devoted to the archaeological 
background of the find and to what is known about Pompeii from 
classical sources.  Those who have studied Latin may recall the 
frequent mention of the Puteoli-Pompeii area in Cicero's letters and, 
most especially, in the two letters of the younger Pliny, who was an 
eyewitness to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, in which his uncle, the 
great natural philosopher, perished.

	In Chapter 3 Berry presents the focal point of his thesis:  "the 
language of the Christian ritual at Rome, from the groundline of its 
existence, was Latin and not Greek."  Point by point, he challenges the 
conventional wisdom that Greek was the language of the Christian communities, 
even in Rome and Italy, until around the third century.  His evidence is 
carefully developed and is fully documented from the classical Roman sources 
with whom students of Roman history are fully familiar:  Suetonius, Dio 
Cassius, Juvenal, Cicero, Pliny, Plutarch.  To these Berry adds insights from 
the Acts of the Apostles and the Pauline epistles.

	Berry argues that "the language that mattered in the Apostolic Age 
was not Greek, but Latin."  Although the Romans admired the ideals of 
5th-century Greece, five centuries later the Greeks were a conquered people 
-- conquered by Rome.  Rome, far from being officially bilingual, did not 
allow a person to apply for citizenship or be granted civil rights without a 
knowledge of Latin.  One recalls the understandable pride that St. Paul 
had in his Roman citizenship -- so unusual in the East that even the Roman 
officials he encountered were careful to protect his rights, even against the 
hostile Jewish officials, who dogged him at every turn.

	Berry argues the likelihood that Christ spoke in Latin to the Roman 
centurion in the Gospels and to Pontius Pilate.  It is known that the 
emperor Tiberius was passionate about the Latin language, and defendants could 
be forced to address the courts in Latin.  Even Cleopatra studied Latin in 
order to negotiate with Marc Anthony.

	From such evidence, Berry regards it as highly unlikely that a 
Roman would participate in a Christian ritual celebrated in Greek.  In 
addition, the number of dialects of the Koine Greek of the time were 
quite numerous. Even the early liturgical evidence supports this thesis.  
The chanting of the Latin hymn Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus can be dated to 
a time before the papacy of Pope Clement (91-100).  The Greek hymn Kyrie 
Eleison was not officially added to the liturgy until the close of the 
5th century.

	With a fresh approach, ably documented by the ancient evidence, 
Berry argues in this small tome for a re-analysis of the conventional 
assumptions about the use of Greek in the earliest liturgies at Rome and 
Italy.  His evidence confirms the position that the Church has 
traditionally taken:  the Latin language is inseparable from the Roman 
Catholic Faith.  Tolle Latinam linguam, tolle Romanam ecclesiam.

	My only difficulty with the book is its price.  At $50.00, this 
monograph will not get the exposure that it deserves both in the 
scholarly and in the Christian communities.  I hope that the publisher 
will consider reissuing the monograph in tract form so that it will 
receive the wide circulation it deserves among those who wish to 
understand the truth about the Roman Catholic Church from Apostolic 
times.