ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the significance of Jesus’s initial presentation as a miracle worker, healer, and raiser of the dead and what the popularity of those images reveals about early Christian beliefs regarding Jesus’s divine nature and earthly works. It especially interrogates the often-made argument that these early depictions of Jesus confirm the perception, even accusingly levelled by ancient detractors, that Jesus was regarded as a magician or, worse, some type of conjurer or trickster. The chapter explains the shift to representations of Jesus as a teacher and lawgiver. It also discusses the late fourth- and early fifth-century iconography of Jesus enthroned and examines of such scenes as the adoration of the magi and Christ’s entrance to Jerusalem to ask whether these images had specific imperial resonance or were intended to present him as a cosmic ruler rather than an earthly one.
