Another rare early portrait of Jesus
was discovered in 2018 on the walls
of a ruined church in southern Israel.
Painted in the sixth century A.D., it is
the earliest known image of Christ
found in Israel, and portrays him with
shorter, curly hair, a depiction that
was common to the eastern region of
the Byzantine empire―especially in
Egypt and the Syria-Palestine
region―but disappeared from later
Byzantine art. The long-haired,
bearded image of Jesus that emerged
beginning in the fourth century A.D.
was influenced heavily by
representations of Greek and Roman
gods, particularly the all-powerful
Greek god Zeus.
At that point, Jesus started to appear
in a long robe, seated on a throne (such
as in the fifth-century mosaic on the
altar of the Santa Pudenziana church
in Rome), sometimes with a halo
surrounding his head.