christian symbol

christian symbol Latest

Jesus’s crucifixion displayed on the fifth-century C.E. wooden doors of the Basilica of Santa Sabina in Rome. Photo: Jim Forest

Jan 26 Blog

Jesus and the Cross

By: Steven Shisley

Most scholars believe that early Christians did not use the cross as an image of their religion. So how did the cross become modern Christianity’s most popular symbol?

Nov 21 Blog

The Tomb of Jesus? Wrong on Every Count

By: Craig Evans and Steven Feldman

Back to “Jesus Tomb” Controversy Erupts—Again Rarely does the world of Biblical archaeology make as much news as when filmmakers James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici […]

Sep 24 Blog

The Staurogram

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

The staurogram, a crucifixion symbol made out of the Greek letters tau-rho, is 200 years older than the oldest previously-known images of Jesus on the cross.

Jul 16 Blog

The Enduring Symbolism of Doves

By: Dorothy Willette

Few symbols have a tradition as long and as rich as the dove. Read about what it represents and how its use has been shared, adapted and reinterpreted across cultures and millennia to suit changing belief systems.

Jul 24 Blog

Hidden Christian Cross at Hippos-Sussita

By: Megan Sauter

A brass weight that had concealed a Christian cross was discovered in a Byzantine church at Hippos-Sussita in Israel.

Feb 17 Blog

Early Christian Art Symbols Endure after Iconoclast Attack

By: Robin Ngo

Depictions of fish and fishermen can be found in the colorful floor mosaics at the sixth-century C.E. basilica at Horvat Beit Loya, but they were defaced by iconoclasts in the eighth century.

Jan 4 Blog

Hanukkah Discovery: Ancient Menorah and Cross Carvings

By: Robin Ngo

Cave explorers in the Judean Shephelah found ancient carvings of a seven-branched menorah and a cross during the Hanukkah holiday.

May 5 Blog

Found After 1400 Years—The Magnificent Nea

By: Meir Ben-Dov

Byzantine Jerusalem was Christian Jerusalem—par excellence. The Byzantine era began when the Emperor Constantine—soon to convert to Christianity—became master of Palestine in 324 A.D. It did not end in Jerusalem until the Patriarch Sophronius surrendered the city to the Moslem caliph Omar in the spring of 638.

Oct 29 Blog

Jordanian Inscriptions Indicate Local Christian Military Population

By: Noah Wiener

University of Tennessee, Knoxville excavations at ‘Ayn Gharandal in southern Jordan have uncovered a late Roman/early Byzantine complex including a Roman fort, a bathhouse and an aqueduct system.

Apr 23 Blog

Prison Makes Way for the Holy Land’s Oldest Church

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

Despite the great deal of fanfare surrounding its discovery, the third century C.E. Christian prayer hall discovered at Megiddo looks like anything but an archaeological […]

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