{"id":29268,"date":"2014-08-28T07:00:25","date_gmt":"2014-08-28T14:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=29268"},"modified":"2015-03-19T22:18:17","modified_gmt":"2015-03-20T05:18:17","slug":"whats-the-earliest-depiction-of-the-crucifixion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2014\/08\/28\/whats-the-earliest-depiction-of-the-crucifixion\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s the earliest depiction of the crucifixion?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The earliest depiction of Jesus’ crucifixion doesn’t, in fact, come from a Christian source. It is known as Alexamenos Graffito<\/em> and, as the name suggests, it’s a piece of graffiti. It was found near Rome’s\u00a0Palatine Hill and is dated sometime between 1st and 3rd Century:<\/p>\n

\"AlexGraffito\"<\/p>\n

The text underneath the picture says in Greek\u00a0“Alexamenos worships [his] God”<\/em><\/span>. The picture itself shows Jesus on a cross with a donkey’s head, with another person on the left\u00a0(presumably “Alexamenos”<\/em><\/span>) raising his hand in worship. It’s clear that this was written by someone who knew Alexamenos and wanted to mock him\u00a0and his Christian faith.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But why is Christ drawn with a donkey’s head? Well, in the early centuries it was a commonly asserted by Pagans that Christians worshipped donkeys, a practice known as Onolatry<\/a>. The ecclesiastical writer, Tertullian, mentions the genesis of this slur against the Christians:<\/p>\n

…\u00a0for some among you have dreamed that our god is an ass’s head<\/span>, an absurdity which Cornelius Tacitus first suggested<\/span>… He relates that the Jews<\/span>, in their migration in the desert, when suffering for want of water, escaped by following for guides some wild asses<\/span>, which they supposed to be going in quest of water after pasture, and that on this account the image of one of these animals was worshipped by the Jews<\/span>.\u00a0<\/em>From this, I suppose, it was presumed that we, too, from our close connection with the Jewish religion<\/span>, have ours consecrated under the same emblematic form. <\/em><\/span>
\n – Tertullian, Ad Nationes (AD 197)<\/span><\/p>\n

If you’d like to know more about the Alexamenos Graffito<\/em>\u00a0, I’d invite you to watch the following video from Symbolon<\/a> which examines the shocking nature of the Christian worship of God crucified:<\/p>\n