Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/339

 X] ANTIQUE CHRISTIAN PAINTING 321 lifted up; " Paul made an allegorical application of the incident of Moses and the rock — " and the Rock was Christ." ^ After apostolic times, the Fathers set out upon that course of allegorical interpretation which resulted in treating the whole of the Old Testament as prefigurative of Christ and the events of his earthly- life. This mode of interpretation reached general acceptance in the Christian Church. The question is : Were the Old Testament incidents in the catacombs depicted for what they were and for their comforting assurance of God's unfailing deliver- ance of His faithful servants; or were they intended as allegorical representations of the incidents and import of Christ's life and the specific elements of the Christian faith? Catacomb painters, and sculp- tors of Christian sarcophagi after them, selected — or were given — scriptural events which most strikingly set forth the miraculous saving power of God. It was largely this same series that Christian writers most frequently refer to from the time of Roman Clement ' on through every successive generation of men.* They contained a wealth of significance and hope. Chris- tians drew such consolation from them as accorded with their faith. The fact that they were so fre- quently represented in the catacombs affords evidence, which is confirmed in early Christian literature, of the U Cor. X. 4. s Cf. Hennecke, op. cit., pp. 15&-180; Schaltze, Archaeologie, etc., pp. 180-185. funeral lltur^es; Le Blant, £tud« ntr let aaroophagtt Chr^tiennrs antiques de la ville d*Arlet, Introduction, §§ 4 and 5; Ptfratd, L'Ar- chiologie ChritUnne, pp. 70-74. T
 * In especial they were also the oocnrrenoes referred to in ancient