Early Christians held the Jewish view that making images of people was idolatrous, so we have found no early depictions of Jesus of Nazareth. Irenaeus and Eusebius did not approve.
Until now, the earliest image we have found has been from around 235 AD in the excavated baptistery if the Dura-Europos Church in Syria. A beardless Jesus with short hair in Roman garb heals a paralytic.
Then there’s Jesus the Good Shepherd, painted on the ceiling of a burial chamber in Rome catacombs, also looking like a beardless Roman.
The article below explores an excavated church in Iznik, Turkey that might be older than the 235 AD depiction. Another Christ as the Good Shepherd who seeks the lost looking like a Roman. It is certainly the most well-preserved.
Earlier than these images is a piece of graffiti from the Palatine Hill in Rome, perhaps 200 AD. This image is a parody, depicting him as an ass on a cross, with the words, “ALEXAMENOS WORSHIPS HIS GOD.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexamenos_graffito). Indeed the cross was foolishness as Paul said. The idea of a vulnerable, loving, suffering, servant God was absurd in Roman theology.
