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For more than fifteen years, the Mystagogy Resource Center has provided thousands of free Orthodox Christian articles, translations, lives of saints, theological studies, and spiritual resources for readers throughout the world. Your support helps sustain and expand this one-man ministry and its ongoing work for the Church. Currently we are in hiatus from posting new material. Daily publishing will resume once our fundraising goal of $5,000 has been reached. Thank you for your generous support.
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July 21, 2010

Solomon, Socrates and Aristotle


In Earliest Biblical Painting, Greek Philosophers Admire King’s Wisdom

by Theodore Feder
July 21, 2010
Biblical Archaeology Review

Is it possible that the earliest existing picture of a scene from the Bible also includes the philosophers Socrates and Aristotle as onlookers? It is not only possible; I believe that is the case.

The earliest depiction of a Biblical scene comes from a site that is perhaps better known to some for its erotic art than for its religious devotions: Pompeii. The city was buried in volcanic ash in 79 A.D. following the eruption of nearby Mt. Vesuvius. It was a devastating tragedy for Pompeii’s residents but a boon to modern scholars and art historians.

In the building known as the House of the Physician, excavators found a wall painting clearly depicting King Solomon seated on a raised tribunal and flanked by two counselors.

Read the rest of the article here.
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