Replies

They would be drawing on theme long used by Christians in the catacombs and other burial sites. Your assumption that the early Christians shared your phobia for images is simply not the case

REALLY? Why then is there NO MENTION WHATSOEVER in Acts or any of the Epistles of ANY images of Jesus being made? C'mon the Apostles actually SAW Jesus, if He had intended them to make idols of Him He would have said so or they would have recorded that they did.

Why should the Apostles do that when they expected him to come again soon and in a fashion that would leave no doubt as to his identity? We haven't a clue as to what he looked like, or sounded like. I think the Apostles were even indifferent to his exact way of saying things? He himself wrote nothing, so far as we know. As to the question of images, the picture we have of Jesus, with the long hair, short beard and fine features as no more than an imagining. That doesn't keep many Protestant homes from having such a picture on the wall. This very act pays homage to him.