{"id":16690,"date":"2026-01-19T09:56:53","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T09:56:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=16690"},"modified":"2026-01-19T09:56:53","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T09:56:53","slug":"archaeologists-find-early-christian-fresco-depicting-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=16690","title":{"rendered":"Archaeologists find early Christian fresco depicting Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/> By  Christian TodayFriday, January 16, 2026<span class=\"photo-des\">A fresco inside a third century tomb in Nicaea where a rare early Christian depiction of Jesus as the \u201cGood Shepherd\u201d was discovered in Iznik, Turkey. <\/span> | <span class=\"credit\">Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Archaeologists in Turkey have discovered a third-century mural depicting Jesus as the good shepherd.<\/p>\n<p>The mural, which remains in relatively good condition, is the centerpiece of a number of frescoes in an underground tomb in the Hisardere necropolis near the town of Iznik.<\/p>\n<p>While Iznik might not be a familiar name to many, its ancient name, Nicaea, may be better known to Christians.<\/p>\n<p>In 325 AD, it was the site of the First Council of Nicaea, a pivotal event in early Christianity when Constantine, the first Christian Roman Emperor, invited church leaders from all over the known world to resolve key issues of doctrine.<\/p>\n<p>The result was the Nicene Creed, the basic declaration of Christian belief that all major denominations, Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox, are built upon.<\/p>\n<p>The newly discovered Iznik mural depicts Jesus as a young man in a simple tunic, carrying a sheep on his shoulders. He&#8217;s also carrying a date palm, a symbol of eternal life and resurrection.<\/p>\n<p>Other images depicted in the frescoes are a deceased aristocratic couple on a funerary platform and a symposium with servants. No crosses are shown, as early Christians were often cautious in the imagery they used due to persecution.<\/p>\n<p>While the mural was first discovered earlier last year, it wasn&#8217;t made public until November, shortly after Pope Leo XIV visited Iznik.<\/p>\n<p>The purpose of the pontiff&#8217;s visit was to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. During his trip to Turkey, he was reportedly presented with a tile reproduction of the fresco by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan.<\/p>\n<p>Archaeologists are hoping that the discovery will provide greater insight into the lives of early Christians and plans are underway to begin restoration work on the ancient artwork.<\/p>\n<p><em>This article was originally published at Christian Today\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Christian TodayFriday, January 16, 2026A fresco inside a third century tomb in Nicaea where a rare early Christian depiction of Jesus as the \u201cGood Shepherd\u201d was discovered in Iznik, Turkey. | Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry Archaeologists in Turkey have discovered a third-century mural depicting Jesus as the good shepherd. The mural, which remains<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[1340,72,2309,143,1235,5216,481],"class_list":["post-16690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-christian-living","tag-archaeologists","tag-christian","tag-depicting","tag-early","tag-find","tag-fresco","tag-jesus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}