Angel with a Millstone (re: Halos)

This week’s “Straight Dope Classic” about halos contained this gem of a line:

I’d always been intrigued by this bit of humor, and I wanted to see how bad it was. A little digging and the Power of the Interwebs came through. So, if anybody wants to see the painting Cecil is referring to…well, here it is, in all its “glory.” Cecil wasn’t kidding.

Nevertheless, Cecil is being silly. The illustration in question goes with: “And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.”

It looks more like the angel is rolling the millstone, and the stone clearly has a hole in the middle as it should…and the angel is wearing his own halo…so I think maybe Cecil should hold off on the schnapps while perusing the Encyclopedia!

The angel has obviously just done a rollover catch and is preparing to zing the Aerobie (not Frisbee) back to JC with an underhand flick throw.

I have a problem with this column. How did

when

Was it just by description, so the Buddhists were the first to actually depict it?

The vague comment about “time of the Greeks and Romans” is usually taken to mean some time BC, so neither the Christians nor the Buddhists were first. The lack of specifics leads me to believe Cecil does not know where it actually started.

“Greek invaders” does not equal “Christians”.

There’s this whole group of art that predates Christianity.