Some of ancient Rome is in you by sniggie

Shh, I'm talking. Er, I mean, I'm blessing you. And I don't need to talk. That in a nutshell explains the progression of this gesture. I was looking for a little color to photograph on another rainy, dreary winter's day. I found it at an old Catholic church in a nearby town. Inside the chapel, the hand gesture of baby Jesus sitting on Joseph's arm caught my attention. It's not a very natural pose. Here is an ancient Roman motif from over two millennia ago at play on this stained glass found in the chapel of Bardstown's Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, built in 1854. The infant Jesus' thumb, index and middle fingers are held up while his pinky and ring fingers are held down. That is not an easy gesture for an adult to make let alone a baby. But then again, baby Jesus was no ordinary baby. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gestures" rel="nofollow">Wikipedia reports</a> that this gesture &quot;is taken from Ancient Roman iconography for speaking (an example is the Augustus of Prima Porta where the emperor Augustus assumes the pose of an orator in addressing his troops)&quot;. That gesture of ancient Rome was continued by Roman Christians, where it would eventually become the benediction gesture. As it moved into Catholic art, the three raised fingers would be adapted to be symbolic of the holy trinity. The infant Jesus seems to be blessing others with simply a hand gesture. He hasn't even opened his mouth to say a prayer or blessing, which would also be very remarkable for an infant.