A few words about the Alexamenos graffito.

The Alexamenos graffito, also known as the graffito blasfemo, might be the oldest surviving depiction of Jesus. It was found in Rome, and it’s believed to have been carved sometime in the late second or early third century. Apparently the person who created it didn’t take Christianity seriously, but it is evidence that the Christian religion was beginning to have some kind of impact.

That’s almost two centuries after the death of Jesus. I continue to be struck by how mysterious and enigmatic early Christianity is. Jesus lived and died and there’s no mention of him or his followers in the historic record. The books of the New Testament and the other writings from early Christians that were rejected by the Orthodox were written decades after the death of Jesus, and they were written in Greek, a language Jesus didn’t speak. We don’t have the original copies but copies of copies of copies. The earliest known copy to survive, P52, is a fragment, nothing more than part of a page from the Gospel of John that can fit in the palm of your hand. And the other later, more intact copies are never exact copies. They always differ from one another.

I don’t think this means that Christianity is illegitimate. For many, religion isn’t about certainty that demands a literal and concrete understanding and acceptance. But the belief that the strange, shadowy history of early Christianity created an inerrant Bible that can be readily understood and must be followed to the letter… That seems absurd to me.