PROVO, UTAH
"Graffiti is a huge source of information," said Thomas A. Wayment on Wednesday, Aug. 17, during Campus Education Week at BYU.
He was referring to the ancient inscriptions found in Turkey. He suggested these writings were a way for Christians to communicate with other Christians and were in code to protect the parties. Rulers could put to death anyone that disagreed with their reign.
Each letter of the Greek alphabet corresponds to a number. This is called Isopsphy. If talking about the Hebrew numbers and letters it is called Gematria. "The letter "I" is 10," explained Brother Wayment. "It goes from 1 through 10 then it goes 20, 30, up to 100." Alpha is 1 and Omega, the last letter, is 800." One class member joked that the number 801 was an area code in certain parts of Utah.
There are fun ways to look at these numbers and corresponding letters. Brother Wayment said that for centuries people have tired to draw conclusions as to a possibly coded number, like the 153 fishes Peter drew or the seven loaves and fishes or the number of the beasts in Revelation 13. You can even take your name and add up the Gematria or Isopsphy and have your name.
Brother Wayment gave the example of an Isopsphy that reads, "I love her whose number is 154." Brother Wayment suggested the number was code for a name and the author of the inscription didn't want the affection made public.
It is a way "to communicate truths to one another that no one else can get unless they are really smart," he said.
In the modern city of Izmir in Turkey, a five-acre lot has been excavated. A market place in the ancient city of Smyrna was uncovered. Pillars span 200 to 300 feet and are layered with plaster.
"In all that plaster there are thousands of graffiti," said Brother Wayment. There was one inscription found that dated 125 A.D. The reason scholars knew the date is because the words named a senator whose time in office is known. That means that anything underneath that layer of plaster is pre-125 A.D. Archeologists found Christian Isopsphy under that layer.
The Isopsphy, with the value of each inscription, was as follows:
Lord = 800
Faith = 800
Brother Wayment said finding this Smyrna "graffito" is important because it is the oldest Isopsphy of Jesus. Although the word "Lord" is not exclusively Christian, scholars concluded the Isopsphy was Christian because of the word "faith." Brother Wayment referred to 2 Thessalonians 3:3, which reads, "But the Lord is faithful…"
Isopsphy is a way to communicate truths," said Brother Wayment. "When we start to get back to these Christians pre-125 A.D. we see that they communicate in secret. All I'd have to do is say a small catchphrase and you and I would understand it was something sacred." Like today, there are scholars who laugh at the Latter-day Saints and the "secret part of our religion." He said what some call secret, is actually sacred and that is how it was with early Christians.
