1A Christian epitaph from Autun: the faithful, born anew from divine waters, are urged to receive the Saviour's food, holding the Fish in their hands, and Pectorius asks his dead father to remember him.
About this work
Author
Anonymous
Attribution
authentic · Greek Christian epitaph from Autun (Augustodunum), found in fragments in 1830 and 1839; it names Pectorius and addresses 'Ascandius' (probably his father). The ichthys acrostic and the baptismal and eucharistic language make it an important early witness. Its date is much disputed (from the 2nd century, as Pitra argued, to the 4th); the edition used here is Pitra's 1852 text, whose readings in lines 7–8 are doubtful. Not part of the 66-book canon.
Standing
Not honoured as a saint or in a church calendar by the Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant traditions. Anonymous or pseudonymous work read and used in the church of its time.
Date
3rd–4th century (disputed) (disputed) · Pitra argued for the late 2nd or early 3rd century; many later scholars date the inscription to the 4th century.
Written at
Autun (Augustodunum), Gaul
Language
Greek
Genre
other
Reference system
one inscription in eleven verse lines (Pitra's lines 1–11); a single section.
SBL abbreviation
Ep. Pect.Not yet checked
Text from
J. B. Pitra, ed., Spicilegium Solesmense 1 (Paris: Didot, 1852), chapter VIII on the Autun inscription (Printed edition in the public domain; OCR of a public-domain scan on the Internet Archive)