By Mari Kaimo, co-host, The 700 Club Asia
Christians have been persecuted for their faith for almost 2,000 years now. Despite the abundance of evidence for the Christian faith, we have been mocked and ridiculed for putting our faith in a God Who loved His creation so much that He came to earth, took on the body of a man and suffered torture and death on a cross on behalf of sinful man to save us from our sins.
One form of mocking today has come in the form of denial that Jesus Christ actually did exist, died and rose again. Muslims, on the other hand, deny that He was crucified at all. But time and time again, archaeology has found only proof of the historical accuracy of the Bible. Scholars tell us that, to date, nothing has been found to invalidate the Bible. And the discoveries are continuing today to make the case for our Yahweh God.
Here is one such find that was made as far back as 1857. It is called the Alexamenos Graffito:
The inscription reads,
“ALEXAMENOS SEBETE QEON”
or in Greek,
“ΑΛΕΞΑΜΕΝΟΣ ΣΕΒΕΤΕ ΘΕΟΝ”
A negative image of the graffito
In English, this reads, “Alexamenos worships (his) God.”
This juvenile taunt was scratched onto plaster, and depicts a man standing beside another man on a cross. The mocking of this religious belief extends to the placing of a donkey’s head on the body of the crucified man. This piece of ancient graffiti was etched to make fun of a particular Christian’s belief in a God Messiah Who was put on a cross. That Christian was Alexamenos.
Discovered near Palatine Hill in Rome, the Alexamenos Graffito is the oldest known portrayal of Christ on the cross. While it is sad that the oldest depiction of Christ’s crucifixion is one that was done in derision and solely to ridicule the faith, today it stands as one more refutation of the claims of the mockers.
Dated to the late 100s AD, this Graffito is proof that Christians not only worshiped Jesus as God, but that He was crucified, a fact which no reliable historian today denies.
What one mocker from thousands of years ago meant for evil, God has turned for good, proving yet again that, truly…
Jesus is Lord!
