CIRCA MID 1ST CENTURY A.D.

The Greek inscription around the body of the beaker (EΥΦΡΑΙΝΟΥ ΕΦΩ ΠΑΡΕΙ) reads, “Rejoice in that at which you are present.” Stern comments that the phrase is a contraction of a similar expression found in the Greek koine text of the New Testament (Matthew 22.50), prompting some to conclude that vessels bearing this inscription were used at the Last Supper. The phrase, however, was a well-known secular formula insisting that the vessel’s user enjoy the here and now – “an appropriate exhortation at any meal or symposium” (p. 97 in The Toledo Museum of Art: Roman Mold-Blown Glass). For a similar beaker in the Getty Villa, see no. 7 in "Recent Important Acquisitions Made by Public and Private Collections in the United States and Abroad," Journal of Glass Studies 13.