Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus (Hinges of History) (44 page)

Titus Justus

Tongues, speaking in,
3.1
,
5.1

Torah,
1.1
,
1.2
,
2.1
,
2.2
,
2.3
,
3.1
,
3.2
,
4.1
,
6.1
,
6.2
,
7.1

Transjordan

Trastevere,
itr.1
,
7.1
,
7.2

Trinity

Twelve Tribes of Israel,
1.1
,
2.1
,
3.1
,
3.2
,
5.1

Tyre,
1.1
,
1.2

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Uomini e Religioni

Valley of Hinnom

Vatican

Circus

Hill

Virgil,
1.1
,
1.2

Way of Life,
1.1
,
2.1
,
5.1
passim

Wealth,
4.1
,
4.2
,
4.3

Women

church participation by

as disciples

discrimination against

in gospels

inequality of

marriage and

oppression of

sisterhoods of

subordination of

Wormwood star

Yeshua.
See
Jesus

Yuan Zhiming

Yunus, Mohammed

Zarathustra

Zealots,
1.1
,
2.1
,
3.1

Zebedee

Zechariah,
4.1
,
7.1

Zechariah, Book of

Zionists

JESUS AS THE GOOD SHEPHERD
In the earliest depictions of Jesus—in the Roman catacombs—there is no attempt to portray him as he may have looked in life. Rather, the first Christians relied on long-established conventions and types borrowed from pagan art. In their depiction of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, for instance, he is shown as the typical beardless youth of pagan mythological art. In fact, the whole scene is simply a re-presentation of the conventional portrayal of the Greek hero Orpheus.

ORPHEUS WITH THE ANIMALS
The Greek hero Orpheus, who, because he was known to have pacified wild beasts with his music, was always shown surrounded by peaceful animals.

ORANS FIGURE
Many of the figures of early Christian art are Christians themselves, anonymous to us, shown in their customary attitude of prayer, palms raised in front of them (the same posture that Muslims adopt to this day). This orans (or praying) figure was found in the Catacomb of Santa Priscilla, named for the same Prisca (Priscilla being the affectionate diminutive) who befriended Paul.

PETER AND PAUL
From the earliest attempts to depict them, Peter and Paul are shown not as conventional types but as real men with specific physical characteristics, leading us to the conclusion that their visages were well known to many Christians, especially in Rome, where both apostles spent their last years. Peter (left) is normally the larger of the two and has a round, sympathetic face, surrounded by curly white hair of head and beard. Paul (right) is smaller and leaner, usually with a pointed beard and sharp features and always bald. When the artist is skillful enough, Paul is inevitably represented with lines of tension across his brow.

PETER AND PAUL
From the earliest attempts to depict them, Peter and Paul are shown not as conventional types but as real men with specific physical characteristics, leading us to the conclusion that their visages were well known to many Christians, especially in Rome, where both apostles spent their last years. Peter (right) is normally the larger of the two and has a round, sympathetic face, surrounded by curly white hair of head and beard. Paul (left) is smaller and leaner, usually with a pointed beard and sharp features and always bald. When the artist is skillful enough, Paul is inevitably represented with lines of tension across his brow.

PETER
From the earliest attempts to depict them, Peter and Paul are shown not as conventional types but as real men with specific physical characteristics, leading us to the conclusion that their visages were well known to many Christians, especially in Rome, where both apostles spent their last years. Peter is normally the larger of the two and has a round, sympathetic face, surrounded by curly white hair of head and beard.

FUNERARY PORTRAIT
Depiction of recently deceased people, on coffin lids and grave memorials, was a custom that originated in Egypt and was common throughout the ancient world in the time of Jesus. These portraits were usually created by the encaustic (or hot wax) technique, because it gave the artist who employed it greater facility in portraying the deceased with as much realistic detail as possible. These portraits were normally made on wood.

ENCAUSTIC ICON OF JESUS
This portrait of Jesus, from Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, is our oldest surviving icon, dating to the sixth century. We have no earlier icons because they were all destroyed during the iconoclast controversy (from which Saint Catherine’s was spared because it was under Muslim protection). But we know that each generation of icon painters was expected to imitate faithfully the previous generation’s work and that, therefore, this icon represents a long tradition which may go back as far as the first century and even be based on eyewitness accounts. Unlike the catacomb depictions of Jesus, the icon is clearly meant (like the primitive portraits of Peter and Paul) to be a portrait of a specific man. Indeed, it is obviously a genuine descendant of the encaustic funerary tradition, made with hot wax on curved wood (not unlike a coffin lid). No print of this portrait can approach the effect of seeing it in person. The artist has used the curved surface as if it were a three-dimensional face, so that the eyes seem to look straight at you—an effect that is much reduced in a two-dimensional print.