論聖像 第 1 章 第 5/8 段

“If anyone preach to you a gospel other than that which you received, let him be anathema.” We therefore venerate the images, not offering the veneration to the matter, but through them to those represented in them.

For the honor of the image passes over to the prototype, as the divine Basil says.

And may Christ fill you—O most holy flock of Christ, people called by Christ’s name, holy nation, body of the Church—with the joy of His resurrection, and count you worthy, as you follow the footsteps of the holy shepherds and teachers of the Church, to be led forward to attain His glory in the splendor of the saints; which may we all attain by His grace, glorifying Him eternally together with the Father who is without beginning, to whom be glory unto the ages of ages.

Having spoken of the difference between idols and images, and having taught the definition of images, it is now time to bring forward the testimonies as well, just as we promised.

Of the bishop of Athens, from his epistle to John the Apostle and Theologian:

Truly the visible things are manifest images of the invisible.

Of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, from his epistle to Titus:

We too, then, must, instead of the common opinion concerning them, apprehend in a holy manner what lies within the sacred symbols, and not dishonor them, since they are offspring and impressions of the divine characters, and manifest images of the ineffable and supernatural visions.

(Scholion) See how he said not to dishonor the images of honorable things.

Of the same author, from On the Divine Names:

In this we too have been initiated;

now indeed in a manner proportioned to us, through the sacred veils of that loving-kindness of the oracles and hierarchical traditions which enshrouds the intelligible in the sensible and the supersubstantial in things that are, and clothes with shapes and forms the formless and shapeless, and multiplies and fashions the supernatural and figureless simplicity by the variety of partial symbols.

(Scholion) If it is of loving-kindness to clothe the figureless, formless, simple, and shapeless with shapes and forms in proportion to us, how shall we not, in proportion to us, depict in images those things that were seen in form and shape, for the sake of remembrance and the movement from remembrance to zeal? Of the same author, from On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy:

But the substances and orders above us, of which I have already made sacred mention, are bodiless, and the hierarchy that pertains to them is intelligible and supramundane.

But the hierarchy that is according to us we behold multiplied, in proportion to ourselves, by the variety of sensible symbols, by which we are hierarchically led up, in measure suited to us, to the uniform deification—to God and to divine virtue. The former, as minds, understand according to what is permitted them, while we are led up by sensible images, as far as possible, to the divine contemplations.

(Scholion) If then, in proportion to ourselves, we are led up by sensible images to the divine and immaterial contemplation, and if divine Providence in its loving-kindness clothes the shapeless and figureless with forms and shapes for the sake of guiding us, what is unseemly in depicting, out of loving-kindness for our sake, in proportion to ourselves, Him who submitted to shape and form and was seen by nature as a man? A word handed down to us from of old comes down to us: that Abgar, the ruler of Edessa, kindled by report to a divine love of the Lord, sent ambassadors requesting a visit from Him.

And if He should refuse to do this, He commanded that His likeness be taken by a painter;

and the One who knows all things and is able to do all things, knowing this, took a cloth and pressed it to His face, and imprinted on it His own likeness—which is preserved even to this day.

Of Saint Basil, from the homily on the blessed martyr Barlaam, which begins:

“Formerly the deaths of the saints…”

Rise up now for me, O illustrious painters of the athletes’ noble deeds! Magnify by your arts the maimed image of the commander;

with the colors of your wisdom make resplendent the crowned victor whom I have portrayed too dimly.

Let me go away vanquished by your depiction of the martyr’s valiant feats;

I rejoice today to be overcome by such a victory of your strength;

let me see the hand’s struggle against the fire more exactly portrayed by you;

let me see the wrestler portrayed more brilliantly on your image.

Let the demons weep, smitten even now by the martyr’s valiant deeds depicted among you.

Let the hand be shown once more flaming and victorious.

Let Christ also, the Judge of these contests, be inscribed on the panel, to whom be glory unto the ages.

Of the same author, from the homily on the holy Forty Martyrs:

Since the valiant deeds of wars also—

both writers and painters often portray them, the one adorning by word, the others engraving on panels, and both have stirred up many to courage;

for what the word presents through hearing, this the silent painting shows through imitation. Of the same author, from the thirty chapters to Amphilochius On the Holy Spirit, from chapter seventeen:

Because both the king and the king’s image are called “king,” and yet there are not two kings;

for neither is the dominion divided nor the glory parted.

For just as the rule and authority that governs us is one, so also the glorification we render is one and not many, since the honor of the image passes over to the prototype.

What therefore the image is here by imitation, that the Son is there by nature.

And just as in works of art the likeness is according to the form, so also in the divine and uncompounded nature the union is in the communion of the Godhead.

(Scholion) Just as, then, he who does not honor the Son, as the Lord says, does not honor the Father who sent Him, so also he who does not honor the image does not honor the one represented.

It is necessary to honor the image of Christ—but not, surely, that of the saints also?

Hear the Lord saying to the disciples:

“He who receives you receives Me.” So that he who does not honor the saints does not honor the Lord Himself either.

(Scholion) If the image of the king is king, then the image of Christ is Christ, and the image of the saint is saint, and neither is the dominion divided nor the glory parted, but the glory of the image becomes that of the one represented.

The demons fear the saints and flee from their shadow;

and the image too is a shadow, and this I make as a driver-away of demons.

But if you should say that one must be joined to God only intellectually, then do away with all bodily things—the lights, the fragrant incense, prayer itself uttered by voice, the divine mysteries themselves accomplished from matter, the bread, the wine, the oil of anointing, the figure of the cross.

the cross, the sponge and the reed, the spear that pierced the life-bearing side.

Either do away with reverence for all these things—which is impossible—or do not refuse the honor of images either.

Divine grace is given to material things through the naming of those represented.

Just as the murex-shell by itself is humble, and the silk, and the garment woven from both, has of itself no honor, but if a king put it on, the garment shares in the honor that belongs to the wearer;

so the material things themselves are by themselves not to be venerated, but if the one represented be full of grace, they become partakers of grace in proportion to faith.

The Apostles saw the Lord with bodily eyes, and others saw the Apostles, and others the martyrs.

I too long to see these in soul and body and to have a remedy against evil, since I am fashioned twofold; and seeing, I venerate what is seen, not as God, but as an honorable image of honorable persons.

You perhaps, being lofty and immaterial and risen above the body and as it were fleshless, spit upon everything visible; but I, since I am a man and clothed with a body, long to commune with and behold the holy things bodily as well.

Condescend to my lowly mind, O lofty One, that You may preserve Your loftiness.

Christ accepts my longing toward Him and toward His own;

for a master rejoices when a grateful servant is praised, as the great Basil said in praising the Forty Martyrs.

And observe what he says also in honoring the renowned Gordius with his discourse.

Of Saint Basil, from the homily on Gordius the martyr:

The peoples are gladdened with spiritual joy at the mere recollection of the righteous deeds accomplished by the righteous, being led to zeal for and imitation of the good things they hear of;

for the history of men who lived well produces, as it were, a light for those being saved, toward the way of life.

So that, when we recount the lives of those who excelled in godliness, we first glorify the Master

through His servants, and we praise the righteous through the testimony of those we know, and we gladden the peoples through the hearing of good things.

(Scholion) See how the remembrance of the saints establishes glory for God, praise for the saints, and gladness and salvation for the peoples.

Why then do you take this away? And that this remembrance comes about through word and through images, the same divine Basil says.

From the same homily on Gordius the martyr:

For just as illumination spontaneously follows fire, and fragrance the ointment, so also benefit necessarily attends good deeds.

And yet this too is no small thing—to attain accurately the truth of those former times;

for only a dim memory has been handed down to us, preserving the man’s valiant deeds in his contests.

And somehow our situation seems to resemble that of painters;

for they too, when they copy images from images, fall short, as is likely, far from the originals; and we too, being deprived of the very sight of the events, run no small risk of diminishing the truth.

And at the end of the same homily:

For just as, ever beholding the sun, we ever marvel, so also we ever keep the memory of that man fresh.

(Scholion) It is clear that we “ever behold” both through word and through image.

And in the homily on the most honorable Forty Martyrs he says this:

What satiety of the memory of the martyrs could there ever be for one who loves the martyrs? For the honor shown to good fellow-servants is a proof of goodwill toward the common Master.

Sincerely bless the one who has been martyred, that you may become a martyr in your resolve and may depart—apart from persecution, apart from fire, apart from scourgings—deemed worthy of the very same praises as those.

(Scholion) Why then do you bar me from the honor of the saints and grudge me my salvation? And that he knew the form rendered through colors to be joined to the word, hear him saying a little later:

Come then, let us bring them into our midst through recollection, and make the benefit from them common to those present, displaying to all, as in a painting, the valiant deeds of these men.

(Scholion) Do you see how the work of image and of word is one? “As in a painting,” he said, “let us display” by word. And again, continuing his discourse:

Since both writers and painters often portray the valiant deeds of wars also, the one adorning by word, the others engraving on panels, and both have stirred up many to courage.

For what the word of history presents through hearing, this the silent painting shows through imitation.

(Scholion) What could be clearer than these words as a proof that images are books for the unlettered, and unsilenced heralds of the honor of the saints, teaching those who behold them with a soundless voice and sanctifying the sight? “I have no abundance of books, I have no leisure for reading; I enter the common infirmary of souls, the church, choked as it were with thorns by my reasonings;

the beauty of the painting draws me to gaze upon it, and like a meadow it delights my sight and imperceptibly instills the glory of God into my soul.”

I have beheld the martyr’s endurance, the recompense of the crowns, and as by fire I am kindled to zeal by his eagerness, and falling down I venerate God through the martyr and receive salvation.

Have you not heard the same God-bearing Father saying, in the homily on the beginning of the Psalms, that the Holy Spirit, knowing the human race to be hard to lead toward virtue and slothful, mingled melody with the psalmody? What do you say? Shall I not portray, both by word and by colors, the martyrs’ martyrdom, and embrace with eyes and lips that which is wondrous to angels and all creation, but grievous to the devil and dreadful to the demons, as the very luminary of the Church declared? And what he says toward the end of the homily, in praising the Forty Martyrs:

O holy chorus! O sacred assembly! O unbreakable phalanx! O

common guardians of the human race, good companions in our cares, fellow-workers in our supplications, most powerful intercessors, stars of the world, flowers of the churches (and I mean both intelligible and sensible)!

You the earth did not hide, but heaven received you.

The gates of paradise were opened to you—a sight worthy of the host of angels, worthy of patriarchs, prophets, and the righteous.

(Scholion) How shall I not long to see what angels long to see? And in harmony with these things, his brother and like-minded Gregory, the bishop of the Nyssenes, says:

Of Saint Gregory, bishop of Nyssa, from the supplementary work, that is, On the Making of Man, chapter four:

Just as, according to human custom, those who make the images of rulers both mold the features of the form and inscribe along with them the royal dignity by the surrounding purple robe, and the image too is called “king” by custom—so also human nature, since it was made for rule over the rest, was set up as a kind of living image, sharing with the archetype both in dignity and in name.

Of the same author, from the fifth chapter of the same treatise:

But the divine beauty is not made resplendent by any shape or by goodliness of form through some fairness of complexion, but is contemplated in ineffable blessedness according to virtue.

Just, therefore, as painters transfer human forms onto panels by means of certain colors, applying to the imitation the proper and suitable tints, so that the archetypal beauty might be transferred accurately to the likeness… (Scholion) See how the divine beauty is not made resplendent by any shape through some fairness of complexion, and for this reason is not depicted, whereas the human form is transferred onto panels by means of colors.

If then the Son of God came to be in the form of man, taking the form of a servant and being made in the likeness of men and found in fashion as a man, how shall He not be depicted? And if by custom the image of the king is called “king” and the honor of the image ascends to the prototype, as the divine Basil says, how shall the image not be honored and venerated—not as God, but as the image of God incarnate? Of Saint Gregory of Nyssa, from the discourse delivered at Constantinople on the Godhead of the Son and the Spirit, and concerning Abraham, discourse forty-four, which begins:

“What those who love to gaze upon them experience toward the flowery meadows…” And a little after:

Thereupon the father first binds the boy with cords.

I have often seen on a painting an image of the passion, and have not passed by the sight without tears, as art vividly brought the history before my eyes.

Isaac is set forth beside the altar itself, kneeling upon his knee and having his hands drawn back behind him; and the other, stepping up behind with his foot at the bend of the knee, and having drawn back the boy’s hair toward himself with his left hand, bends over the face that looks up at him piteously, and with his right hand armed with the sword directs it toward the slaughter.

And already the point of the sword touches the body, and then there comes to him a voice from God forbidding the deed.

Of Saint John Chrysostom, from the interpretation of the Epistle to the Hebrews:

And in a way the first is an image of the second—Melchizedek of Christ—as one might call the shadowing-out by the artist that precedes it a shadow of the painting done in colors;

for this reason the Law is called a shadow, but grace is truth, and the realities are the things to come.

So that the Law and Melchizedek are the pre-shadowing of the painting in colors, and grace and truth are the painting in colors, and the realities are those of the age to come—so that the old is a type of a type, and the new is a type of the realities.

Of Leontius of Neapolis in Cyprus, from his discourse Against the Jews, concerning the worship of the cross of Christ and of the images of the saints and of one another, and concerning…

If you accuse me again, O Jew, saying that I worship the wood of the cross as God, why do you not accuse Jacob, who worshiped upon the top of the staff? But it is evident that he did not worship in honoring the wood, but worshiped Joseph through the wood, just as we too worship Christ through the cross, but do not glorify the wood.

(Scholion) If then we venerate the figure of the cross, making an image of the cross out of any matter whatsoever, how shall we not venerate the image of the One who was crucified? And again, of the same Leontius:

Since Abraham also bowed down to the impious men who sold him the burial-place, and bent his knee to the ground, yet did not worship them as gods;

and again, Jacob blessed Pharaoh, who was impious and an idolater, yet did not bless him as God;

and again, he fell down and worshiped Esau, yet did not worship him as God.

How does God command you to worship both the earth and the mountains? For He says:

“Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at His holy mountain.”

“And worship at the footstool of His feet, for it is holy”—that is, the earth.

“For heaven is My throne,” He says, “and the earth is the footstool of My feet, says the Lord.”

And how did Moses worship Jethro, who was an idolater, and Daniel Nebuchadnezzar? How do you accuse me, because I honor and venerate those who honored and worshiped God? Is it not better, tell me, to venerate the saints rather than, like you, to stone them? Is it not better to venerate them rather than to saw them asunder and cast the benefactors into a pit of mire? If you loved God, you would surely have honored His servants as well.

And if the bones of the righteous are unclean, how were the bones of Jacob and Joseph brought up from Egypt with all honor? How did a dead man, having touched the bones of Elisha, immediately rise? And if God works wonders through bones, it is plain that He can also do so through images and stones and many other things, just as happened in the case of Elisha, who gave his own staff to his servant and bade him go and raise up the child of the Shunammite by means of it.

And Moses with a staff chastised Pharaoh, divided the sea, sweetened the water, split the rock, and brought forth water.

Blessed is the wood through which salvation comes. And Elisha, casting wood into the Jordan, brought up the iron;

and there is the tree of life, and the Sabek plant, that is, of forgiveness.

And Moses lifted up the serpent on wood and gave life to the people;

by wood that budded in the tabernacle he confirmed the priesthood.

But perhaps you, the Jew, will say to me that all the things in the tabernacle of testimony God commanded Moses to make;

and I say to you that Solomon made many and various things in the temple, carved and cast, which God neither commanded him to make, nor did the tabernacle of testimony possess them, nor the temple which God showed to Ezekiel; and Solomon was not condemned in this;

for he fashioned such forms for the glory of God—just as indeed we also do.

You too had many and various images and tokens for the remembrance of God, before you were deprived of them through your own ingratitude—that is, the staff of Moses, the God-engraved tablets, the bush dewy yet aflame, the rock dry yet flowing, the manna-bearing ark, the fire-bearing altar, the God-named plate, the God-revealing ephod, the God-shadowed tabernacle;

and if you too were to gaze upon all these night and day, saying:

“Glory to You, the only almighty God, who through all these things wrought wonders in Israel”—if through all these legal things which you once had, you fell down and worshiped God, you see that veneration is offered to God through images.

For he who sincerely loves a friend or a king, and especially a benefactor, if he behold his son, or staff, or throne, or crown, or house, or servant, he takes hold of it

and embraces and honors through these the benefactor, the king, and especially God.

For would, I say again, that you too had made images of Moses and the prophets and worshiped daily in them the Lord their God.

Whenever, then, you see the children of Christians worshiping the cross, know that they offer the worship to Christ who was crucified, and not to the wood.

For if I revered the nature of the wood, I should surely have to worship the trees and groves also, just as you, O Israel, once worshiped these, saying to the tree and the stone, “You are my god, and you have begotten me.”

But we do not speak thus to the cross, nor to the forms of the saints;

for they are not our gods, but open books, lying conspicuously in the churches for the remembrance of God and His honor, and venerated.

For he who honors the martyr honors God, to whom the martyr bore witness;

he who venerates the Apostle of Christ venerates the One who sent him;

and he who falls down before the Mother of Christ plainly offers the honor to her Son.

For there is no God except the one who is known and served in Trinity and in Unity.

(Scholion) This man is a faithful expounder of the words of the blessed Epiphanius—he who adorned the island of the Cypriots with his own discourses—or rather, they who speak from the heart.

Hear also what Severian, bishop of Gabala, says.

Of Severian, bishop of Gabala, from the homily on the dedication of the cross:

How did the image of the accursed one bring life to our forefathers? And a little after:

How then did the image of the accursed one bring salvation to the people storm-tossed by calamity? Was it not more worthy of credence to say:

“If any of you be bitten, let him look up to heaven, to God, and he shall be saved,” or to the tabernacle of God? But Moses, overlooking these, set up only the image of the serpent.

Why then did Moses do these things—he who said to the people:

“You shall not make for yourself any carved or cast thing, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth”? But why do I utter these things to the ungrateful one? Tell me, O most faithful servant of God:

what you forbid, you do? What you overthrow, you set up? You who say:

“You shall not make a carved thing”—you who beat down the cast calf, do you forge a serpent of bronze? And this not in secret, but openly and known to all? “But those things,” he says, “I ordained in order to cut off the materials of impiety and lead the people away from all apostasy and idolatry;

but now I cast the serpent profitably, as a foreshadowing of the truth.

And just as I pitched a tabernacle and all that was in it, and spread out cherubim as a likeness of invisible things in the holy place, as a type and shadow of things to come, so also I set up a serpent for the salvation of the people, that through experience of these things they might be trained beforehand in the image of the sign of the cross, and in the Savior and Redeemer in it.”

And that this word is most truthful, beloved, hear the Lord confirming it and saying:

“And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (Scholion) Understand how it was for the sake of leading the people—slippery and prone to idolatry—away from it, that He ordained not to make any likeness, and that the serpent which was lifted up was an image of the Lord’s passion.

And that the matter of images is no novel invention, but ancient and known to and customary among the holy and chosen Fathers, hear:

It is written in the Life of Basil the blessed, the one composed by Helladius, his own disciple and successor in his hierarchy, that the holy man stood before the image of the Lady, on which was also depicted the figure of Mercurius the renowned martyr;

and he stood there entreating for the slaying of Julian, the most godless and apostate tyrant.

From this image he was initiated into the revelation of it:

the martyr for a short while disappeared, and not long after was seen holding a bloodied spear.

In the Life of John Chrysostom it is written thus, word for word:

The blessed John loved the epistles of the most wise Paul exceedingly.

And he had also the likeness of the same Apostle Paul in an image, in the place where he would rest a little while on account of his bodily weakness;

for he was sleepless beyond nature.

And whenever he went through his epistles, he would gaze upon it, and as if upon a living man, so he attended to him, blessing him, and held his whole mind toward him, picturing him to himself and conversing with him through contemplation.

And when Proclus had ceased speaking, gazing intently at the image of the Apostle and beholding his figure to be like the one who had appeared to him, he made a prostration to John and said, pointing with his finger at the image:

“The one whom I saw speaking with you is like this one;

and as I suppose, it is even he himself.”

In the Life of the holy Eupraxia it is recorded that the Lord’s figure was shown to her by the abbess of the flock.

In the Life of holy Mary of Egypt it is written that she prayed to the image of the Lady and besought it as a surety, and so obtained entrance into the temple.

From the homily of Chrysostom “That the Lawgiver of the Old and the New is one,” and on the vestment of the priest:

I too have loved the wax-poured painting, full of godliness;

for I beheld an angel in an image driving back the hordes of barbarians.

I beheld the tribes of barbarians trampled, and David speaking truly:

“Lord, in Your city You shall bring their image to nought.” Of the same author, from the interpretation of the parable of the sower:

If you insult a royal garment, do you not insult the one who wears it? Do you not know that, if you insult the image of a king, you bring the insult to bear upon the prototype of his dignity? Do you not know that, if anyone drags down an image made of wood or a statue of bronze, he is judged not as one who dared against lifeless matter, but as one who employed his insult against the king? An image of a king at all, bearing its own insult, refers it to the king.

Of the same John Chrysostom, from the homily on Meletius, bishop of Antioch and martyr, and on the eagerness of those who had assembled, which begins:

“Everywhere casting my eyes about this sacred flock…” And a little after:

And what was done was a teaching of godliness;