Images: The British Museum
Clavis number: ECMA 127
Other descriptors: museum number 1856,0623.9
Category: reliquaries
Related literature: Acts of Paul and Thecla; Martyrdom of Blessed Peter the Apostle, by Pseudo-Linus; Passion of Processus and Martinianus
Featured characters and locations: Iconium, Joppa, Paul (apostle), Peter (apostle), Mamertine, Rome, Tabitha (Dorcas), and Thecla.
1. DESCRIPTION
Material: ivory
Size: 42 × 98 mm; weight: 41 grams
Images: these Roman-style ivory panel reliefs depict three scenes involving the apostle Peter as well as the apostle Paul, taken from the canonical Acts of the Apostles and apocryphal texts. It is believed these panels adorned a sarcophagus or relic box. The panels show evidence of drill holes. The panels are framed by carvings of leaves.
Date: 430 CE
Provenance: created in Rome; purchased from Rev. William Maskell in 1856 and currently on exhibit in the British Museum in London.
2. RELATION TO APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE
The top panel depicts the apocryphal story of the Water Miracle of Peter. In this story, Peter, while incarcerated in Rome at the Mamertine prison, strikes a rock, and baptizes two of the Roman guards with the water that gushes forth from the stones. On the left side of the scene a witness to the miracle holds a scroll while standing near a gate. The water miracle of Peter is mentioned in the Martyrdom of Blessed Peter the Apostle, attributed to Linus, and the Passion of Processus and Martinianus:
But the guards of the prison, Processus and Martinianus, together with the other magistrates and those associated by way of their office, appealed to him, saying, “Lord, go where you wish, because we believe that the emperor has now forgotten about you. But that most wicked Agrippa, enflamed by lust for his concubines and the intemperance of his passion is eager to destroy you. If an order from the king were accusing you, then we would have a command concerning your execution from Paulinus—a very prominent man to whom you were handed over and from whom we received the order to guard you. After we believers in this region of the Mamertine prison were baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity in a spring brought forth from stone by prayers and the glorious sign of the cross, you went around as freely as you pleased. No one bothered you or would be doing so now, if the demonic fire that troubles the city had not taken over Agrippa so violently. For this reason we beg you, minister of our salvation, to do us this favor in return. Because you freed us from the chains of sin and demons, now depart free from prison and being fettered with chains—a cruelty that we are charged to enforce—not just with our permission but our request, for the salvation of so great a multitude.” (Lin. Mart. Pet. 5; trans. David L. Eastman, The Ancient Martyrdom Accounts of Peter and Paul [WGRW 39; Atlanta: SBL Press, 2015], 139–69).
The middle panel depicts the events of Acts 9:36-43 where Peter raises Tabitha from the dead, and she is seen reaching out to the apostle. According to Acts, Tabitha (her name in Greek is Dorcas) is a disciple of Christ in Joppa when she gets ill and dies. Peter is asked by other Christians to come to the house where Tabitha has died. Peter consents and prays alone in the room where Tabitha has been lain and she awakens at Peter’s command to get up. In the panel above, a woman is shown bowing at Peter’s feet.
The bottom panel shows two scenes from Paul’s life as recounted in the Acts of Paul and Thecla. On the left, he is seen reading as Thecla listens from a tower. The relevant passage from the Acts of Paul and Thecla is here:
While Paul was saying these things in the midst of the church in Onesiphorus’s house, there was a certain virgin named Thecla, daughter of Theocleia and engaged to a man named Thamyris, who was sitting at the window of the house next door. Day and night Thecla heard what Paul said about chastity, and she did not budge from the window, but was drawn to faith with great joy. (7; trans. Bart D. Ehrman, Lost Scriptures: Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003]).
On the right side of the panel, Paul is shown being stoned. This story likely is a legend which builds on the events of Acts 14:19, which states, “But Jews came there from Antioch and Iconium and won over the crowds. Then they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.”
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cartlidge, David R., and J. K. Elliott. Art and the Christian Apocrypha. New York, NY: Routledge, 2001 (pp. 145, 148).
Dresken-Weiland, Jutta. “The Role of Peter in Early Christian Art: Images from the 4th to the 6th Century.” Pages 115–34 in The Early Reception an Appropriation of the Apostle Peter (60–800 CE): The Anchors of the Fisherman. Edited by Roald Dijkstra. Euhormos 1. Leiden: Brill, 2020 (pp. 116–19).
Hoek, Annewies van den. “The Saga of Peter and Paul: Emblems of Catholic Identity in Christian Literature and Art.” Pages 301–306 in Pottery, Pavements, and Paradise. Edited by Annewies van den Koek and John Joseph Hermmann. VC Supp. 122. Leiden: Brill, 2013.
Huskinson, Janet M. Concordia apostolorum: Christian Propaganda in Rome in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1982 (pp. 44–46).
Kessler, Herbert L. “Scenes from the Acts of the Apostles on Some Early Christian Ivories.” Gesta 18.1 (1979): 109–19.
Nauerth, Claudia, and Rüdiger Warns. Thekla: Ihre Bilder in der Frühchristlichen Kunst. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1981 (pp. 1–8 and fig. 1).
Spier, Jeffrey. Picturing the Bible: The Earliest Christian Art. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007 (pp. 237–38).
Weitzman, Kurt, ed. Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979 (pp. 507–508).
4. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Entry created by Matthew Gruchow, under the supervision of Christy Cobb, University of Denver, 26 July 2023.