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This article highlights the importance of acknowledging the underlying methodology in the interpretation of early Christian art. I raise these issues via an engagement with the frescoes at Dura Europos, as interpreted by Michael Peppard in his recent work,  The World’s Oldest Church . I demonstrate that Peppard’s ideology and archaeological methodology entail a creative, hermeneutical nexus for interpreting the initiation rituals at the Dura Europos house church. For Peppard, this nexus entails an innovative interplay between non-canonical sources, art and liturgical identity. This yields a surprising interpretation of initiation rituals at Dura Europos and, by extension, of early Christianity in Syria. After describing some problematic aspects of Peppard’s ideological and archaeological choices, I offer suggestions for a related proposal on Christology and visual exegesis at the Dura Europos house church baptistery. This proposal begins with clarification of ideological issues that foreground visual exegesis at Dura Europos, and argues for the adoption of six essential criteria when reconstructing the operative Christology in the baptistery of Dura Europos.

Visual Exegesis at ‘The World’s Oldest Church’: a Case Study for Historiography