Baptism is also portrayed in a more literal representation. Both spoke of baptism into Christ, and therefore into eternal life. Baptism fresco in the Catacomb of Callistus.

However, the earliest known representations reflect the roman shepherd in style, pose and attributes, the assimilation, within fifty years, of the closely allied personage of Orpheus would indicate either that a Christian ...

As for the charge of idolatry this representative of humanitas was not seen as an idol but rather as a symbol. In Christian literature God's love was portrayed in the symbol of the shepherd of the psalms while Christ ...

Fresco of Adam and Eve in the catacomb of Pietro e Marcellino.

The Christian saw in the resurrection of Lazarus the promise of his own resurrection and oneself as a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem. The heavenly Jerusalem, four square, fresco from the tomb of the Aurelii.

Pagan iconography and roman style weave in and out of one another. In so solidly an Old Testament symbol as that of Noah, we find him saved from the flood in an ark.

Another example of an inscription with the symbols of an anchor, fish, and ☧ (Chi Rho).

Scenes of the Lord's Supper apparently began as something of a conflation with the Roman custom of the refrigeria, a memorial meal at the site of the grave. Refrigeria/Eucharist, fresco from the Catacomb of Callistus.

Below Christ enthroned as lawgiver, four local martyrs stand around a second representation of Christ as the lamb who stands upon a mountain from which flow rivers of living water. The image, Biblical in origin, emphasizes ...

Fresco of the Good Shepherd, catacomb of Priscilla.