Posted on 11/15/2018 4:57:18 AM PST by SJackson
A previously unknown 1,500-year-old painting of Christ’s face has been uncovered at a Byzantine church in Israel’s Negev desert.
The discovery in the ancient Byzantine village of Shivta has thrilled archaeologists. Although the painting is fragmented, experts from Israel’s University of Haifa were able to make out the facial outline. Their research was published recently in the journal Antiquity.
he painting, which is believed to date from the sixth century, depicts Jesus as a short-haired youth.
“Christ’s face in this painting is an important discovery in itself,” they explained in their paper. “It belongs to the iconographic scheme of a short-haired Christ, which was especially widespread in Egypt and Syro-Palestine, but gone from later Byzantine art.”
The painting was briefly noted in the 1920s, but has now undergone more analysis. In their study, the University of Haifa archaeologists explain that Christ is depicted next to a much larger figure, which is probably John the Baptist. “The location of the scene – above the [church’s] crucifix-shaped Baptist font – suggests its identification as the baptism of Christ,” said the study’s authors.
Experts describe the painting’s discovery as extremely important, noting that it predates the religious iconography used in the Orthodox Christian Church. “Thus far, it is the only in situ baptism-of-Christ scene to date confidently to the pre-iconoclastic Holy Land,” they said in the study. “Therefore, it can illuminate Byzantine Shivta’s Christian community and Early Christian art across the region.”
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
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ping
Anyone else not see a face on the rock at ALL?
Wonderful.
Time for my eye exam. I don’t see anything but rock no matter how hard I squint.
Anyone else not see a face on the rock at ALL?............
Like looking at clouds on a July afternoon, I see many faces and creatures; the longer I look, the more I see.
No.
It’s not.
I’m seeing a face.
It’s Glenn Frey.
I didn’t know Picasso lived that long ago!
Holy sh!t, it looks like Jeff Flake!
'Suddenly I Saw Eyes': Jesus’ Face Discovered in Ancient Israeli Desert Church
I’ve been looking for awhile and I’m going to say not really.
I think it is upside down.
Channel your inner Picasso, stand back about 4’ and unfocus your eyes like you are looking past the rock.
Then you can see it plain as day.
Go to the article and play the video. The face is almost completely missing in the photo posted here; it’s almost completely off the left-hand side. The video shows the complete area, and I can definitely see the face.
It’s 500 years after its subject lived, so it’s just another conjecture of what he looked like.
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