Posted on 04/09/2002 9:06:32 AM PDT by Wordsmith
Honoring God's Work [Against Iconoclasm]
By V. Rev. Fr. Dimitri Cozby
St. Anthony the Great Orthodox Church
San Antonio, TX
In the Orthodox Church we place great emphasis on the veneration of the Theotokos and other holy men and women. We also reverence icons of our Lord and of the saints. About twelve centuries ago a group called the “Iconoclasts” challenged the Church’s devotion to icons and her invocation of the saints. Their teaching was refuted at the Seventh Ecumenical Council, held in 787 in the city of Nicea. Each year, on October 11th or the Sunday following, we commemorate the work of that Council. Therefore, this seems an appropriate time to discuss the significance of icons and the meaning of the adoration of the saints.
The misunderstanding that most often arises in connection with icons is that they are a form of idolatry. This view asserts that paying honor to created things detracts from the devotion we owe to God. In reality, our veneration of the saints, their relics, and the holy icons does not detract from our worship of God. Indeed, in the Orthodox understanding, we affirm our faith in our Creator and Redeemer by honoring the saints and venerating the icons as testimonials of His loving care.
The Fathers assembled at the Seventh Council began by distinguishing our attitude toward God from that toward icons or saints. They went so far as to use two different Greek words to name these emotions: latreia (“worship”) was due to God alone, but proskynesis (“veneration”) could be paid to created things as well. They drew this distinction from the literal reading of Matthew 4:10: “You shall venerate (prokyneseis) the Lord your God, and Him only shall you worship (latreuseis).” The Fathers noted that the Iconoclasts ignored this distinction, when they attacked the icons through certain verses of Scripture such as the First Commandment (Exodus 20:4). The Fathers also evoked numerous passages in the Old Testament where God directed that representations of angels be made (for example, Exodus 25:18-20 and 26: 1; 1 Kings 6:23-32) and where high honor was paid to created beings, both earthly and heavenly (Numbers 21:8-9; 1 Chronicles 29:20; Hebrews 11:21; etc.).
St. Theodore the Studite sums up the Council’s position as follows: “Worship is unique and belongs to God alone; but other kinds of veneration belong to others. We venerate kings and rulers, servants venerate their masters, children their parents; but not as gods. Although veneration has the same outward form, it varies in intention. For these are human beings, and receive respect according to the honor due them, whether by law, by fear, or by affection.”
The Council Fathers did not rest there, however. They sought to show that veneration of icons and honor paid to the saints was in fact worship of the one true God, but in another form. They borrowed an idea from a great theologian and bishop, Saint Basil the Great, who had lived four centuries earlier. Saint Basil wrote, “The honor given to the image is transferred to its prototype.” In other words, when we honor a representation of something, we are really thinking about the person or thing represented, not the image itself. When we look at photographs of a loved one or of scenes taken on some occasion, we immediately turn to memories of the person or events depicted. The emotions we feel – whether joy, sadness, discomfort or pleasure – do not come from the piece of paper in our hands but from our remembrances of the person or scene represented. If we treasure such a picture, we do so because of our associations with the people or scenes preserved there, not because we attribute some value to the photo itself.
The icons are the same. When we see an icon of our Lord, the emotions we feel – penitence, thanksgiving, comfort, peace, etc. – arise because the icon recalls to us Christ’s love and His many blessings. Likewise, when we venerate saints, we do so because we see God’s image reflected in them. We recognize that the sole source of holiness in their lives was divine grace, that the miracles they performed were the working of divine power, that the purity of their teachings sprang from their openness to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. We recognize too, that the same grace, power, and purity can be ours if we give ourselves to our Lord in faith as they did.
Our veneration is distinct from the worship of idolatry, in the first place, because the pagans adored many false gods. The Christian, in all things, offers praise and petition to the one true God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The pagans worshipped personifications of the forces of nature and of human character or endeavor, the gods of the storm and the sea, or of love or the harvest. They had no true concept of God as the great Creator Who is Himself totally distinct from His creation. Thus, it was easy for their minds to be trapped in the material representations, to honor the idol for its own sake and forget that there should be something behind it. The Christian, however, knows that his God is not identified with any part of His creation. Therefore, even when he uses material things or pays homage to a creature, the Christian’s mind is drawn upward to the Source of all things, of life and of holiness. As Saint Theodore notes, “The mind does not remain with the materials, because it does not trust them: that is the error of the idolaters. Through the materials, rather, the mind ascends toward the prototypes: this is the faith of the Orthodox.” In pagan materialism thoughts and prayers would be trapped in the world; for the Orthodox Christian, material things impel our thoughts and prayers beyond the material into the spiritual realm, toward our Creator and Redeemer.
Thus the Fathers’ vision embraced a whole way of looking at the world and its relationship to God. They saw in the icons and the saints, concrete proof that God had changed that relationship when He became man. With the Fall, sinful man had broken the link between the Creator and His creation. He had also shattered the unity of creation. The material universe would no longer be a blessing to man but a hindrance in his pursuit of life and virtue. “...cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return (Genesis 3:17-19).
Christ, however, became man and took to Himself our whole nature, both a spiritual soul and a material body. Thus, He took back to Himself all His creation. In His baptism He sanctified the waters; in His miracles and healing He annulled the Genesis curse and blessed anew the ground and the fruit which it bore. In His death and resurrection He opened to us the way of salvation. By sending the Holy Spirit He poured out upon all who accept Him the assurance of new life in this world and eternal life in the age to come.
A bishop at the Seventh Council called Iconoclasm “the worst of heresies for it subverts the incarnation of our Savior.” The Word of God became man in order to reclaim His creation, to reassert His Lordship, and to make His world again a repository of grace and love. In honoring the icons and the saints we honor God’s great work of restoring and saving the world. Denying the icons denies that He has done these things. Iconoclasm says, in effect, that material is unredeemed and unredeemable, that all it can do is weigh us down and obstruct our vision of God. It says that veneration of the saints can only draw us away from devotion to our Savior. The Gospel tells us something quite different. The Gospel affirms that Christ, having taken to Himself a physical Body, has sanctified matter and made it again a way to knowledge of Him and means by which His grace flows to us. The Gospel shows us men and women whose lives were transfigured and illumined by the power of the incarnate, crucified and risen Christ. The Gospel offers us these same men and women as models of the Christian life and intercessors before our common Lord.
The formal decision of the Council, proclaims that we venerate the icons “...so that through the representations, we may be able to be led back in memory and representation to the prototype, and have a share in their holiness.” When our soul rises to God, He reaches out to us in return. Thus, by directing us toward God, the icons become channels by which His grace flows into us. Let us then allow the icons and the saints to fulfill their purpose in life. When we see the icons of our Savior, let us remember what He has done and has promised to do for us. When we see the icons of the saints, let us be assured through them that the life-renewing power and grace of Christ are truly present even in this age. When we venerate the icons and invoke the saints, let us do so in faith and love. By the honor we pay them, let us worship our one Lord and show our gratitude for all that our Savior has given us.
For your consideration and commentary.
Christ Bless. <><
Do you know from which translation of the Bible this passage is quoted?
And, by extension, his resurrection, through which man begins to recover his proper relationship to creation: no longer predator, but participant in a eucharist.
I don't know, but my guess is that he's working from the Greek. The author says, "They drew this distinction from the literal reading of Matthew 4:10 “You shall venerate (prokyneseis) the Lord your God, and Him only shall you worship (latreuseis).”" I don't know how to access Greek Scripture online, so if anyone does they could check to see if these are the terms that are used.
The Orthodox use the RSV liturgically. The only other English versions that are endorsed (and these are endorsed with reservation) are the KJV and the NKJV. There is a project currently underway to produce an authoritative Orthodox English translation, using the Septuagint as the OT source. From the little I know of it, the project won't be completed for some time. There was Orthodox representation on the committee that oversaw the translation of the NRSV, but when the translation was finally released it was examined and found unacceptable. I could link to a couple of articles if you'd like more detail.
I would really be interested in seeing someone's analysis of the translations of prokyneseis and latreuseis from the Greek. If there really is the distinction, as demonstrated in the article, it would provide a good basis for the argument about veneration/worship.
Ex. 25:18 - And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat. 25:19 - And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof. 25:20 - And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be.
Ex. 26:1 - Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them.
1 Kings 6:23 - And within the oracle he made two cherubims of olive tree, each ten cubits high. 6:24 - And five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub: from the uttermost part of the one wing unto the uttermost part of the other were ten cubits. 6:25 - And the other cherub was ten cubits: both the cherubims were of one measure and one size. 6:26 - The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so was it of the other cherub. 6:27 - And he set the cherubims within the inner house: and they stretched forth the wings of the cherubims, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house. 6:28 - And he overlaid the cherubims with gold. 6:29 - And he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers, within and without. 6:30 - And the floor of the house he overlaid with gold, within and without. 6:31 - And for the entering of the oracle he made doors of olive tree: the lintel and side posts were a fifth part of the wall. 6:32 - The two doors also were of olive tree; and he carved upon them carvings of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold, and spread gold upon the cherubims, and upon the palm trees.
Numbers 21:8 - And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. 21:9 - And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
1 Chron. 29:20 - And David said to all the congregation, Now bless the LORD your God. And all the congregation blessed the LORD God of their fathers, and bowed down their heads, and worshipped the LORD, and the king.
Heb. 11:21 - By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff
Any referrals to online Greek NT?
1990 pastoral letter to the OCA on the NRSV. Mentions state of other English translations.
Thank you for the reminder. I agree completely.
Don't they all?
OK, here's a first stab at the two terms according to angelo's source. Don't know how to make the Greek letters come through.
prokyneseis; v {pros-koo-neh'-o}
1) to kiss the hand to (towards) one, in token of reverence 2) among the Orientals, esp. the Persians, to fall upon the knees and touch the ground with the forehead as an expression of profound reverence 3) in the NT by kneeling or prostration to do homage (to one) or make obeisance, whether in order to express respect or to make supplication 3a) used of homage shown to men and beings of superior rank 3a1) to the Jewish high priests 3a2) to God 3a3) to Christ 3a4) to heavenly beings 3a5) to demons
latreuseis; v {lat-ryoo'-o}
1) to serve for hire 2) to serve, minister to, either to the gods or men and used alike of slaves and freemen 2a) in the NT, to render religious service or homage, to worship 2b) to perform sacred services, to offer gifts, to worship God in the observance of the rites instituted for his worship 2b1) of priests, to officiate, to discharge the sacred office
Exodus 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth
A couple of chapters later, God orders the making of images of Cherubim. So obviously, some images are pleasing to Him. The important point is to understand which are pleasing and which are not. The distinction between the two is the prime motivation for the essay above.
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