Alexamenos is faithful

I've been reading Michael Green's "Evangelism in the Early Church," which uniquely combines a passionate message with scholarly detail. The only illustration in the book is pictured above. It reproduces a carving found on the wall of a building, located in Rome's Palatine Hill, where all the rich and famous lived in Rome's heyday. The building is thought to be a slave's quarters, but of course we have to remember these were relatively high-class slaves. Michael Green says this was housing for the young boys who served in the imperial household.

The inscription reads, "Alexamenos worships his god." Jesus is depicted with an ass's head because of a misconception that Jews worshiped an ass's head. (Christianity was very much associated with Judaism in the first century.) The youth is supposedly Alexamenos, and it's obvious someone is mocking his faith.

The recorded travails of Alexamenos are touching. This boy lived in a culture that was very much biased against Christianity. Remember that Paul says the cross of Christ is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles--a statement borne out entirely by this wall carving.

But the story goes further. Michael Green relates that below this carving, inscribed in another's handwriting, is, "Alexamenos is faithful." Although you could attribute this second inscription to another follow-on mocker, to a peer of Alexamenos who is impressed with his faithfulness, or to a Christian of a later date, I like to think that Alexamenos himself was stalwart enough in his belief to affirm his worship and allegiance to Christ.

Alexamenos, we salute you!