Christian invocation
created: Transcription (Reynolds).
source date: Perhaps fourth century CE
language: ar; en; fr; de; grc; grc-Latn; el; he
availability: Creative Commons licence Attribution UK 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/uk/) All reuse or distribution of this work must contain somewhere a link back to the URL http://inslib.kcl.ac.uk/

Bibliography

[...], 199.2, whence [...], 2004.456, [...] 53.2062, and further [...] 999

ἠ φίλοϲ ἶ ἠ δὲ ἐχθρόϲ

Apparatus

Translations

You are either a friend or an enemy.

Que tu sois ami ou ennemi.

Si tu es ami, salut! Si tu es ennemi, va te pendre!

If you are a friend [welcome]! If you are an enemy [get lost]!

Commentary

It is tempting to suggest that the findspot, taken with those of P.311 and P.313, may indicate that there was a church near the modern seashore; but it may be that material from elsewhere on the site was dumped here pending re-use in modern times.

The somewhat enigmatic statement might be a reference to Matthew XII. 30, ὁ μὴ ὢν μετ’ ἐμοῦ κατ’ ἐμοῦ ἐστίν ('who is not my friend is an enemy'). But Feissel, art. cit., points out that the necessary end of each line is missing - either completed on a further block, or perhaps implicit; this would give an attested formula.