Monday, October 26, 2009

Alexamenos worships God





This graffito was discovered in 1857 during excavations of the Palatine Hill. It has become justly famous as one of the earliest depictions (and caricatures) of a Christian worshipping Christ crucified.  For details, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexamenos_graffito

The Greek text printed above has caused some discussion, with some scholars debating how the imperative plural (sebete) could be used for the third person singular indicative (sebetai).  D'oh!!  I can think of two off the top of my head:  spelling and pronunciation were fluid (as we will see in further inscriptions to come);  whoever did this was mocking Christians, so he might have been mocking their language skills at the same time.

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