Tuesday Bible Study (4/21/20)

The Question of Images, Pt. I

The Second Council of Nicaea

+ 787 A.D. +

6th century icon of Mary and the Christ child
surrounded by saints, St Catherine's Monastery
Sinai

Scriptural Starting Places

Exodus 20:4-5 -  "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me." 

Exodus 35:30-35 - "Then Moses said to the people of Israel, 'See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah;  and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze,  in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft.  And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan.  He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer.'"

Genesis 1:27 - "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." 

Acts 17:29 - "Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man."

Terms

Icon: a painted or carved image of Jesus, Mary, or a saint (from εἰκών (eikṓn), "figure, portrait, likeness, pattern"

Iconoclast (Iconomachist): an opponent of icons (from εἰκονοκλάστης , eikonoklástēs, "an image breaker"); from εἰκονομαχία ("fighting against icons")

Iconodule (Iconophile): a supporter or lover of icons, from icon + -dule (δοῦλος, doulos, "slave, servant"); from icon + -phile (φῐ́λος , philos, "beloved, dear")

Worship: in Greek, λατρεία (latreia), "service rendered to a god, worship" (slightly different than προσκυνέω (proskuneó) "to bow, to bend the knee in homage, to worship"

Veneration: in Greek, the verb for venerate is τῑμᾰ́ω (tīmáō), "to pay honor to, to venerate, to revere"

Background

Colorful images of Christ, his mother, and the saints adorned churches, monasteries, and shrines throughout the Christian world. Whether painted on wooden panels or plaster walls, images of holy people were part of the popular piety of virtually all Christians. Such images served more than just to decorate empty spaces; they lifted the mind of the worshiper from earthly things and directed his mind to heavenly realities. Icons served didactic purposes: teaching the faithful the stories of Bible heroes, saints, and martyrs; and they also served devotional purposes: providing focal points during worship or prayer for love, devotion, and veneration. 

Scholars are not sure when the first icons were created, but presumably they have been around since the earliest days of the Church. A handful of early Christian writers such as Eusebius voiced fears of idolatry connected to images, but for the most part, Christians in the West and East naturally took to decorating sacred spaces, vestments, and reliquaries with images of Christ and the saints. 

With the Arab Muslim invasions of Palestine, Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor, the Christian world saw the unstoppable might of a foe which rejected all images. Was it Islam that affected Byzantine Emperor Leo III the Isaurian (reigned 717 - 741)? It's unclear, but beginning in 726 Leo outlawed all images of Christ and the saints in his domain, which at this time included most of modern day Turkey, parts of modern day Greece, Crete, Ravenna, Rome, Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia. Leo's first act was to remove a large icon of Christ above the bronze doors of the imperial palace at Constantinople. This caused a riot and some palace officials were killed in the ensuing melee.  

During this time, icons were part of the popular religious imagination. While certain bishops joined Leo's iconoclasm (partly for political reasons), others, such as the patriarch of Constantinople, Germanus, strongly opposed him. Germanus famously wrote, "[S]ince the only Son... deigned to become man, we make the image of His human form and of His human aspect according to the flesh... thus showing that it is not in a purely imaginary way that He put on our nature." Germanus was forced to give up the patriarch and retreat to his family estate outside of the city.  

In the West, Leo III's iconoclasm also met with hostility. Pope Gregory III and many Latin bishops condemned iconoclasm in a synod in 731. While images were not as central to the Western religious imagination, they nevertheless adorned churches, shrines, and official buildings across Latin Christendom. 

Following St Gregory the Great, most Western theologians viewed icons as "books for the illiterate," that is, scenes illustrating Bible stories and scenes from Church history for those unable to read. In the East, images also served this didactic purpose, but they were seen less as teaching tools and more as windows or portals for the purpose of divine contemplation. In Eastern tradition, an icon was able to lift a worshiper's mind from earthly to heavenly realities.  And, as we shall see, an icon served a Christological purpose as well, being "theology in color." 

During Leo III's iconoclasm, John of Damascus wrote three key treatises defending icons. The battle against images would rage on and off for over a hundred years with iconoclast emperors and iconodule emperors, and, as we shall see, one very influential iconodule empress. 

In 754 there was an important iconoclast council, called the Council of Hieria, where 338 bishops signed decrees forbidding sacred images. The council's argument was that by depicting Christ in an icon, one was only depicting his human nature and not his divine nature. This amounted to Nestorianism and had to be denounced. They also argued that the only true image of Christ was his body and blood at the Eucharist. They noted that the usage of images at worship is redolent of pagan practices and idol worship and therefore must stop: "It is not permitted to Christians, who have the hope of the resurrection, to imitate the customs of demon-worshipers, and to insult the Saints, who shine in so great glory, by common dead matter." 

The Council of Hieria and all its decisions would be condemned by the Second Council of Nicaea, based on the careful theological arguments and spiritual reflections of John of Damascus, Germanus, and others. 

From the era of the Iconoclast Controversy, a 9th century illuminated Psalter.
Called the Chludov Psalter, it was probably created by Iconodules in secret.

Key People

Leo III the Isaurian (emperor 717 - 741): Byzantine emperor who put an end to political stability and successfully fended off the Umayyad Caliphate. In 726 he instigated a war against icons throughout his lands. He quarreled with Popes Gregory II and Gregory III over icon veneration and over the episcopal administration of Ravenna and Sicily, which he transferred over to the Constantinopolitan patriarchate. Then he sent a fleet to Italy to enforce his decree. The fleet was destroyed in a storm. 

Constantine V (emperor 741 - 775): the son of Leo, Constantine was a very successful general but continued the iconoclastic efforts of his father. He was also suspicious of monks and persecuted them during his reign. Later chroniclers called him Kopronymos - the "dung-named." 

Irene of Athens (c. 752 - 803): empress of Byzantium, the wife of Leo IV (son of Constantine V). She became regent when her husband died and the next in line, Constantine VI, was just 9 years old. An iconophile, Irene was a defender of sacred images and the monks. Advised by Paul of Constantinople to call a general council, Irene sent messengers to Pope Hadrian and secured the appointment of Tarasius to become the next patriarch. Irene and her son opened the seventh ecumenical council on August 1, 787 in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, but it was interrupted by iconoclast soldiers bursting inside. Adjourning, the council reconvened in Nicaea on September 24. 

John of Damascus (676 - 749): a theologian and monk of Jerusalem we keep running into. He wrote three treatises between 726 and 730 defending the tradition of icon veneration. John wrote, "If we made an image of the invisible God, we would certainly be in error, but we do nothing of the sort, for we are not in error if we make the image of the incarnate God, who appeared on earth in the flesh, and who, in his ineffable goodness, lived with human beings and assumed the nature, quantity, shape and color of flesh." 

Nicephorus of Constantinople (c. 758 - 828): patriarch of Constantinople from 806 to 815, Nicephorus was an iconodule writer in the latter half of the century-long iconoclast struggle. He argued that if Christ has a human body, then he can be pictured. "Where in the world has an uncircumscribed body ever been heard of?" The fact that a body can be drawn, that it has limits (i.e. is "circumscribed") means that Christ, who is the Word enfleshed in our human body, can be drawn and has "limits" according to the human nature. 

Theodore the Studite (759 - 826): theologically, probably the most sophisticated iconodule, Theodore was a monk and abbot of Stoudios, a famous monastery outside of Constantinople. The nephew of another famous iconodule abbot, Plato, Theodore wrote important works defending icons. 

An icon of St John of Damascus

The Theology of Images

In our Western context, there has never been the importance attached to images as there is in the East. For Western Christians, art served its purpose in adorning churches and aiding the understanding, but it never served the sacred and theological function it had in the East. 

Early iconodule writers like Germanus and John of Damascus pointed out that the Bible neither forbade art nor outlawed craftsmanship. Rather, it forbade the worship of images and statues as if they had some kind of essential power in and of themselves. As the Old Testament examples of Bezalel and Oholiab prove, as well as the priestly garments and temple decorations, God commands men to create beautiful objects to honor and glorify their Creator. 

John also made the point that God works through images in the world, especially through His own image within each man and woman. The material world must be honored because it is good and beautiful, and because a devaluation or rejection of the material world is heresy. 

John also made the crucial distinction between adoration (reserved for God) and honor (due to the saints). Sacred images are windows through this physical world to a spiritual world. They are the means through which Christians can be instructed in the virtues and inspired to live a God-pleasing life. Holy images thus have a kind of sacramental, grace-giving power to them. 

Theodore the Studite would develop John's icon-theology even more and bring it to bear in the Christological debates of the last few centuries. 

This brilliant theologian demonstrated that the question of icons is really a question of Christ's incarnation, his two natures, and his two wills. Theodore asserted that Christ can be depicted in icons because he is a Person, a Hypostasis, real and historical. He also argues that if Christ, post-resurrection, suddenly became indescribable and unable to be depicted, then we, his body, would also be indescribable! 

Our human nature has been lifted up - deified - in Christ's Person. The Image of God within us has been repaired by the Image of the Father (see Col. 1:15). 

The remains of the basilica at the St John Studious Monastery in Constantinople

The Council Itself

After an aborted attempt at holding the council in Constantinople, Irene convened it at the Hagia Sophia basilica in Nicaea. Around 300 bishops were present. The patriarch Tarasius opened the proceedings on Sept. 24, 787.

On Oct. 1, a long series of scriptural verses and Patristic citations were discussed. There is a paucity of iconoclast arguments from the Fathers - just scattered references in Eusebius of Caesarea, and then certain iconoclast sentences in the Monophysites Philoxenus of Mabbug and Severus of Antioch. These positions were deemed heretical by the council fathers. After reading the scriptural citations and stories of important fathers witnessing to the miraculous power of icons, the fathers decided that images should be restored. 

On Oct. 6, the long writings and decisions from the false Council of Hieria were read and condemned. 

They concluded: "To make our confession short, we keep unchanged all the ecclesiastical traditions handed down to us, whether in writings or verbally, one of which is the making of pictorial representations, agreeable to the history of the preaching of the Gospels, a tradition useful in many respects, but especially in this, that the incarnation of the Word of God is shown forth as real and not merely phantastic." 

The council also established 22 canons, mostly related to simony and ecclesiastical appointments. The ninth canon is interesting because it calls for a confiscation of all iconoclast books: "All those childish baubles and bacchic rantings, the false writings composed against the venerable icons, should be given in at the episcopal building in Constantinople, so that they can be put away along with other heretical books. If someone is discovered to be hiding such books, if he is a bishop, priest or deacon, let him be suspended, and if he is a lay person or a monk, let him be excommunicated."

Icon depicting the Empress Irene and her son, Constantine,
presiding at the Seventh Ecumenical Council

Aftermath

At the same time as the iconoclastic controversy in the East, Charlemagne in the West was waging a limited war against images. The decrees of the council had passed to Frankish lands in a badly mistranslated text, and Latin theologians misunderstood the conclusions of the council. In the West, it was mistakenly thought that Eastern Christians "adored" icons as if they had special powers. In the Libri Carolini, Charlemagne and his chief theologian called for images to be protected but not adored or venerated. The West would continue to misunderstand the Eastern practice and theology of icons for centuries. Arguably, it still misunderstands. 

The relationship between Christians and images is a bit ambiguous in our American Lutheran context. On the one hand, we have paintings of Christ in our churches, but on the other hand, we do not "adorn" our churches, bless sacred artwork, or reverence the saints.  It would be safe to say that artwork is still primarily didactic in Lutheran churches, illustrating scenes from Holy Scripture to aid the pious imagination in its understanding and faith.  

Hagia Sophia church in Iznik, Turkey, as it appears today. Built by
Justinian I in the 7th century, it was the site of Nicaea II in 787.