The Earliest Depiction of Christ

Take a look on the back of this piece of paper. What you see there is a redrawing of the earliest depiction of Christ. This picture, dubbed the “Alexamenos Graffito,” comes to us from around 200 AD. It was found in 1856 in Rome, just a rock’s throw away from the Colosseum. The picture depicts Christ crucified, but notice the head, it’s that of a donkey! It read, “Alexamenos worships [his] God.” Alongside this crucified donkey-man stands a man lifting his arm in homage. Putting these puzzle pieces together, this is the conclusion scholars draw from this picture: a non-Christian drew this picture on the wall to mock someone he/she knew named, “Alexamenos.” Alexamenos was a Christian, and he believed that Jesus was a crucified god.

This picture tells us a lot about early Christianity. First, it solidifies what Paul writes in 1 Cor 1:23: “We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.” The “foolishness” of the cross was true when Paul wrote these words in the 50s, and it was true when Alexamenos was mocked for his faith around 200. Second, this depiction solidifies that Christians have believed from a very early time that Jesus was divine. In other words, contrary to what Dan Brown described, the Emperor Constantine didn’t invent the deity of Christ in 325. Lastly, it shows the power of God to bring good from evil. We don’t know who wrote these words, but the author intended them to ridicule both Alexamenos and Christianity. Little did that artist know that his/her words would serve as the earliest depiction of Alexamenos’ God, thus solidifying the truthfulness of Christianity and enshrining Alexamenos’ name into the history books. Haha! The Triune God is awesome, isn’t He?

Pastor Chance