![]() They sinned primarily because they created an image of God from their own imagination: the God of the Israelites, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, has never revealed Himself in the form of a calf. Therefore, the Israelites sinned greatly in casting a gold statue of a calf, calling it the God Who “brought them out of Egypt” and worshiping it. Clearly physical, outward, accuracy is a factor when describing physical, outward, events and people – whether it be in the written word or in pictures. When I said that a Icon must be a “true” depiction to be called holy, then I chose the word carefully. Some are given below, with brief explanations as to why – I believe – they are just variations of the above two reasons for the holiness of icons.įresco of the worship of the Golden Calf, from a synagogue in Syria, 244 A.D. There are other “conditions” sometimes given to describe what makes a picture “Holy” rather than merely beautiful or religious. In the same way, a Holy Icon must, ultimately, be derived from divine revelation and not from the human imagination. Accounts not derived from these early testimonies do not present to us Christ but an idol: a product of the human imagination. The Gospels come from the eye-witness accounts of the disciples who were there when Jesus Christ walked the earth: they are the result of divine revelation. They disagreed with the Apostolic teaching on Jesus Christ, largely due to them not being written by disciples living at the time of Christ (despite their claims), and had no part within the Church, even though some had a pious intention to present Christ to the faithful. The reasons for this were all largely along the same line: the description of Jesus Christ given in these Gospels was not true. A number of so-called gospels were rejected by the early Church. The four Gospels are not the only writings in the world that claim to describe Jesus Christ. Icons are holy where they depict holy things/persons and holy revelation: primarily in the person of Jesus Christ. The Bible is Holy because it describes holy things and holy revelation. For Christians, other books which concern themselves with other things, or strange “divine” revelations not related to Jesus Christ are not holy. The Old Testament prefigures Him and prophesies His incarnation, whilst the New Testament describes Him fully and His life-saving death, burial and resurrection. ![]() To continue the parallel with Holy Scripture: the Bible is “Holy” because it concerns itself with the revelation of God to man, specifically in the person of Jesus Christ. It depicts Jesus Christ, or other Persons of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Angels, the Holy People (Saints), or other Holy things (e.g.The same is true of “Holy Images”: a picture is described as holy because of what or who the picture depicts, and the source of that depiction. In this sense, what makes the Bible “Holy” is its content, and the source of its content. Therefore a “scripture” means anything that is written, whereas the “Holy Scriptures” refer specifically to the writings divinely revealed to Christians: the Holy Bible (Bible coming for the Greek word for “book”). Everything else, which is not divine by nature, can be set apart from the fallen world by God and be rightly described as “holy” (which means “set apart”). Holiness is a characteristic of the Divine: the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, Who are Holy by nature. Nevertheless, “Icon” is simply the Greek word for an image or picture – any image – and therefore it’s worth exploring why some pictures are given the specific description: “Holy”. Perhaps most people reading this already know what “Icons” are within the Orthodox faith. A subtitle for this post could well be: “What is a Holy Icon?”, and as a topic it probably should have been dealt with before now.
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