Christ Pantocrator of Sinai by Byzantine Icon

Christ Pantocrator of Sinai (c. 550)

This is one of the oldest Byzantine icons in the world and the earliest known picture of Christ as Pantocrator, "ruler of all." It was painted in hot wax in the mid-500s, probably in Constantinople, and has been kept for centuries at a desert monastery in the Sinai. Look closely: the two halves of the face don't match. One side is calm and gentle, the other stern and shadowed, and many people read it as Christ's two natures, human and divine, in a single face.