An archaeological team in Turkey had recently uncovered an ancient image beneath layers of plaster inside a church near Iznik. This image of Christ, portrayed as the Good Shepherd, was among the five oldest surviving depictions of Jesus as an adult ever found anywhere in the world. It dated from the early-to-mid third century AD and was the best-preserved early image of Jesus ever discovered.

Because it had been sealed inside an exceptionally well-preserved, oxygen-depleted underground chamber, the fresco’s pigments remained almost exactly as they had been painted some eighteen hundred years earlier. The image was so complete that Christ’s facial features, the individual folds of his tunic, his hands, and the distinct outline of the ram across his shoulders remained clearly visible and sharp.

The newly discovered painting gave historians a remarkably detailed glimpse into how some early Christians perceived Jesus.

Short-cropped hair.

Middle-class Roman clothing.

And beardless.

Professor Buck zoomed in on the fresco, this work that seemed to solidify a lifelong thesis.

He smiled to himself.

And that felt like enough.