Warm-Up Question #2
Truth or Myth: The first Christians did
not use images of Christ or the saints.
A.
Truth
B.
Myth
The Answer is…..B….Myth….The first
Christians, of course, had images.
As any archeology
student knows, the first Christians loved to adorn their catacombs with
paintings of Christ, Mary, the saints, and tableaus of Bible stories.
According
to Catholic Encyclopedia:
“That
Christians from the very beginning adorned their catacombs with paintings of
Christ, of the saints, of scenes from the Bible and allegorical groups is too
obvious and too well known for it to be necessary to insist upon the fact. The
catacombs are the cradle of all Christian art. Since their discovery in the
sixteenth century -- on 31 May, 1578, an accident revealed part of the catacomb
in the Via Salaria -- and the investigation of their contents that has gone on
steadily ever since, we are able to reconstruct an exact idea of the paintings
that adorned them. That the first Christians had any sort of prejudice against
images, pictures, or statues is a myth (defended amongst others by Erasmus)
that has been abundantly dispelled by all students of Christian archaeology.”
Read these Catholic Encyclopedia articles: Veneration of Images, Religious Painting, & Religious Art.
Also,
be sure to check out Portraits
of the Apostles
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Below are excerpts from “Beginning
Apologetics I” by Fr. Frank Chacon
“The Catholic Church teaches that only God is to be worshipped: to worship
anything created is to commit the serious sin of idolatry. In Exodus 20:4-5,
God prohibits the making of images for the purpose of worshipping them.
BUT GOD DOES NOT PROHIBIT IMAGE-MAKING ALTOGETHER. In Ex 25:18-19, God commands
Moses to make statues of angels (cherubim). In Num 21:8, God tells Moses to
make a bronze serpent (seraph), which the Israelites had to look upon in order
to be healed. The Jews also used many carved images in the Temple, including
cherubim, oxen, lions, palm trees, and flowers (1 Kings 6 and 7).”
“Catholics use statues and other images to call
to mind the holy people they represent: Jesus, the angels, and the saints. For
the same reason, Protestants use Christmas nativity scenes to depict the same
holy people: Jesus, the angels, and the saints. Catholics simply use statues
and images in devotions all year around.”
“The rejection of statues and other images in
Church devotional life is a heresy known as “iconoclasm.” It was first seen in
Christianity in the 8th Century when the wicked Emperor Leo the
Isaurian, influenced by the new religion of Islam (founded in 622 A.D.), began
attacking the use of statues and icons in the Church. In the Second Council of
Nicea in 787 A.D., the Church condemned this heresy. It did not resurface in
Christianity until the Reformation.” (Father Frank Chacon and Jim Burnham: Beginning Apologetics 1: How to Explain and Defend the
Catholic Faith San Juan Catholic Seminars 1998) p.34
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www.catholic.com/library/Do_Catholics_Worship_Statues.asp
(do Catholics worship
statues?)
www.scripturecatholic.com/sacramentals.html (Images and Statues)
home.nyc.rr.com/mysticalrose/ex204.html
(Do Catholics worship graven
images?)
www.catholicherald.com/saunders/03ws/ws030904.htm
(Graven
Images)
www.envoymagazine.com/backissues/1.4/nutsandbolts.html
(The Biblical reasons why statues
and icons are okay in God’s Book)
jloughnan.tripod.com/statues.htm (images were used by the first
Christians…just check out the catacombs)
www.newadvent.org/cathen/03417b.htm
(The Roman Catacombs)
www.catholicculture.org/docs/doc_view.cfm?recnum=2981
(Madonna
and Child: one of the very first images used by the first Christians)
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THE USE
OF IMAGES BY CHRISTIANS AND JEWS: OLD TESTAMENT TO NEW TESTAMENT
Below
are excerpts from THIS
ROCK magazine Volume 12,
Number 4, April 2001:
“Early in Israelite history the Jews were forbidden to make
pictures of God because he had not revealed himself to them in a visible form.
Had the Israelites made images of God, they might have been tempted to worship
them, much as the pagans around them worshiped images. God later revealed
himself under visible forms. One instance is found in Daniel 7:9-10: "As I
looked, thrones were placed and one that was ancient of days took his seat; his
raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne
was fiery flames, its wheels were burning fire."
“The
Holy Spirit revealed himself under two visible forms--that of a dove, at the
baptism of Jesus (Matt. 3:16, Mark 1:10, Luke 3:22, John 1:32) and as tongues
of fire, on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4).
“Most
notably, God the Son visibly revealed himself in the Incarnation: "[A]nd
going into the house they [the magi] saw the child with Mary his mother"
(Matt. 2:11).
“Since God
has revealed himself in the above forms, he can now be depicted under these
forms. Keep in mind that Protestants have pictures of Jesus in Bible story
books, that they depict the Holy Spirit as a dove, and that they depict the
Father as an old man sitting on a throne. They do all these without the least
temptation to worship these images as God.” [This Rock magazine Volume 12,
Number 4, April 2001]
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BELOW IS FROM CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA
“The idea that the
Church of the first centuries was in any way prejudiced against pictures and
statues is the most impossible fiction. After Constantine (306-37) there was of
course an enormous development of every kind. Instead of burrowing catacombs Christians began to build
splendid basilicas. They adorned them with costly mosaics, carving, and
statues. But there was no new principle. The mosaics represented more
artistically and richly the motives that had been painted on the walls of the
old caves, the larger statues continue the tradition begun by carved sarcophagi
and little lead and glass ornaments. From that time to the Iconoclast Persecution
holy images are in possession all over the Christian world. St.
Ambrose (d. 397) describes in a letter how St. Paul appeared to him one night,
and he recognized him by the likeness to his pictures (Ep. ii, in P. L., XVII,
821). St. Augustine (d. 430) refers several times to pictures of our Lord and
the saints in churches (e. g. "De cons. Evang.", x in P. L., XXXIV,
1049; "Contra Faust. Man.", xxii 73, in P. L., XLII, 446); he says
that some people even adore them ("De mor. eccl. cath.", xxxiv, P.
L., XXXII, 1342). St. Jerome (d. 420) also writes of pictures of the Apostles
as well-known ornaments of churches (In Ionam, iv). St. Paulinus of Nola (d.
431) paid for mosaics representing Biblical scenes and saints in the churches
of his city, and then wrote a poem describing them (P. L., LXI, 884). Gregory of Tours (d. 594)
says that a Frankish lady, who built a church of St. Stephen, showed the
artists who painted its walls how they should represent the saints out of a
book (Hist. Franc., II, 17, P. L., LXXI, 215). In the East St. Basil (d. 379),
preaching about St. Barlaam, calls upon painters to do the saint more honour by
making pictures of him than he himself can do by words ("Or. in S.
Barlaam", in P. G., XXXI). St. Nilus in the fifth century blames a friend
for wishing to decorate a church with profane ornaments, and exhorts him to
replace these by scenes from Scripture (Epist. IV, 56). St. Cyril of Alexandria
(d. 444) was so great a defender of icons that his opponents accused him of
idolatry (for all this see Schwarzlose, "Der Bilderstreit" i, 3-15). St. Gregory the Great (d.
604) was always a great defender of holy pictures (see below).” [source www.newadvent.org/cathen/07664a.htm ]
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