The Bible details how Jesus resurrected a man using the sound of his voice, but ancient artwork may show Christ used a little magic.
A 4th-century painting discovered in Rome shows Jesus holding what some archaeologists claim is a magic wand.
Other paintings dating from the same period also depict Christ holding a wand-like object while performing famous miracles such as multiplying the loaves and healing the sick.
Ancient depictions of Jesus holding what appears to be a magic wand have led some researchers to believe that early Christians considered him a magician. This image was painted in the 4th century, although the exact date is unknown, and was found in the catacomb of Via Anapo in Rome.
However, some researchers have suggested that these masterpieces actually depict Jesus holding a staff, which was likely depicted as a way to connect him to the prophet Moses, who was better known at the time.
However, historians believe that early Christians viewed their Lord and Savior as a magician.
According to the Bible, Jesus performed miracles through the power of God and his ability to heal people and resurrect them while also producing food and drink elevated him above the Roman gods in the eyes of Christians.
The fantastic feats may have led some people to resort to the superstitious belief that Jesus was a magician to explain his actions.
“I mean, here’s this group that gets together in the morning and drinks wine and says it’s blood and eats bread and says it’s meat,” said Lee Jefferson, chairman of the religion program at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. Living science in 2020.
You can probably understand why people thought he was superstitious.
The belief that Jesus was a magician may have been translated into paintings dating back to the early third century depicting Christ holding a wand, experts said.
One of the earliest records of wand use was in the 9th century BC, when people practicing the ancient religion of Zoroastrianism used wand-like objects made of small rods or sticks during sacred rituals.
One of the most referenced works of art was a 4th century AD painting found in the Via Anapo catacomb in Rome, showing Jesus multiplying seven loaves of bread.
In one painting, Jesus holds a rod over the corpse of Lazarus before performing the miracle of resurrecting him. This image was painted in the 4th century, although the exact date is unknown, and was found in the Catacomb of the Via Latina in Rome.
On the door of the Church of Santa Sabina in Rome, there is a carving showing Jesus using a wand to raise Lazarus from the dead and turn water into wine. The carving was created on a wooden door in 432 AD and is on display in the Church of Santa Sabina in Rome.
In the painting discovered in 1578, he appears to be waving a wand over the bread, pointing it towards the objects.
Another 4th-century painting was found in the Via Latina catacomb, showing Jesus holding a thin wand in front of a shrine containing the body of Lazarus.
This is one of the most popular scenes depicted in early Christian funerary art, according to Biblical archaeology.
In John 11:4, the story says that Lazarus became ill and died, but when his sister Mary called Jesus to come and heal her friend, He told His disciples, ‘This illness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified thereby.’
Jesus chose not to heal Lazarus but to let him die and then raise him from the grave and the miracle would force his disciples to believe that he was the son of God.
A similar carving was also displayed on a wooden door at the Church of Santa Sabina in Rome, depicting 18 scenes from the Old and New Testament.
The door was created in 432 AD and shows Jesus using a long object to perform miracles, including raising Lazarus from the dead and turning water into wine.
Despite the imagery, evidence suggests that most of Jesus’ followers did not perceive his actions as magic, but rather as miracles performed through God.
“You wouldn’t want your demigod to be called a wizard because it would make him seem less powerful,” Jefferson told Live Science.
Christian figures, such as the 3rd-century scholar Origen, who ran a Christian university in Alexandria, defended Jesus against the philosopher Celsus, who was a vocal critic of Christianity and spread accusations that he was a magician.
Origen “spilled a lot of ink talking about how Jesus’ wonderful works were not magic because they were aimed at things like moral reform and salvation rather than the kind of parlor tricks displayed by market sorcerers,” said Dr. Shaily Patel, a professor of early Christianity at Virginia Tech. Daily Beast.
However, the artwork likely does not depict a wand at all, but rather a staff that acknowledges other notable figures, according to experts.
Moses was one such person portrayed as using a staff to part the Red Sea and then using it to provide drinking water to the Israelites during their escape from Egypt.
At that time, people knew about Moses, but they didn’t necessarily know who Jesus was, the experts explained.
To combat this, paintings may have been created of him performing miracles with a type of staff to connect him to the prophet.
“It’s like a new Moses,” Jefferson told Live Science.
A staff was recognized as a symbol of power, similarly to how a scroll would have been associated with someone wise or cultured.
“They see that person holding the object and they can understand it,” Felicity Harley-McGowan, an art historian at Yale Divinity School, told the outlet.
‘The staff is a sign of Jesus’ authority.’