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Icon
An icon (from Greek , eikon, "image") is an image, picture, or representation; it is a sign or likeness that stands for an object by signifying or representing it, or by analogy, as in semiotics; in computers an icon is a symbol on the monitor used to signify a command; by extension, icon is also used, particularly in modern popular culture, in the general sense of symbol — i.e. a name, face, picture or even a person readily recognized as having some well-known significance or embodying certain qualities.
In Eastern Orthodoxy and other icon painting Christian traditions, the icon is generally a flat panel painting depicting a holy being or object such as Jesus, Mary, saints, angels, or the cross. Icons may also be cast in metal, carved in stone, embroidered on cloth, done in mosaic work, printed on paper or metal, etc.
Images in Religion
Throughout history religion has often made use of images, whether in two dimensions or three. Some, such as Hinduism, have a very rich iconography called murti, while others, such as Islam, severely limit the use of visual representations. The function and degree to which images are used or permitted, and whether they are for purposes of ornament, instruction, inspiration, or treated as sacred objects of veneration or worship, thus depends upon the tenets of a given religion.
Icons in Christianity
Christianity originated as a movement within Judaism during a time when there was great concern about idolatry.
There is no evidence of the making and use of painted icons or of similar religious images by Christians within the New Testament writings. However, Eastern Orthodox theologian Rev. Dr. Steven Bigham writes (Early Christian Attitudes Toward Images, Orthodox Research Institute, 2004), "The first thing to note is that there is a total silence about Christian and non-idolatrous images. It is important to note that the silence is in the New Testament texts, and this silence should not be interpreted as describing all the activities of the Apostles or 1st century Christians. St. John himself said that 'Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book...' (Jn 20.30). We could easily add that the Apostles also did and said many things not recorded in the New Testament. It is obvious, therefore, that we do not have a complete account of the activities and sayings of the Apostles. So, if we want to find out if the first Christians made or ordered any kind of figurative art, the New Testament is of no use whatsoever. The silence is a fact, but the reason given for the silence varies from exegete to exeget depending on his assumptions." In other words, relying only upon the New Testament as evidence of no painted icons amounts to an argument from silence.
Though the word eikon is found in the New Testament (see below), it is never in the context of painted icons.
The earliest written records available of Christian images treated like icons are in a pagan or Gnostic context. Alexander Severus (A.D. 222–235) kept a domestic chapel for the veneration of images of deified emperors, of portraits of his ancestors, and of Christ, Apollonius, Orpheus and Abraham (Lampridius, Life of Alexander Severus xxix.). Irenaeus, in his Against Heresies 1:25;6, says of the Gnostic Carpocratians, “They also possess images, some of them painted, and others formed from different kinds of material; while they maintain that a likeness of Christ was made by Pilate at that time when Jesus lived among them. They crown these images, and set them up along with the images of the philosophers of the world that is to say, with the images of Pythagoras, and Plato, and Aristotle, and the rest. They have also other modes of honouring these images, after the same manner of the Gentiles [pagans].”
A criticism of image veneration is found in the apocryphal Acts of John (generally considered a gnostic work), in which the Apostle John discovers that one of his followers has had a portrait made of him, and is venerating it:
(27) “...he [John] went into the bedchamber, and saw the portrait of an old man crowned with garlands, and lamps and altars set before it. And he called him and said: Lycomedes, what do you mean by this matter of the portrait? Can it be one of thy gods that is painted here? For I see that you are still living in heathen fashion.” Later in the passage John says, "But this that you have now done is childish and imperfect: you have drawn a dead likeness of the dead."
In addition to the legend that Pilate had made an image of Christ, the 4th Century bishop Eusebius, in his Church History, provides another reference to a “first” icon of Jesus. He relates that King Abgar of Edessa sent a letter to Jesus at Jerusalem, asking Jesus to come and heal him of an illness. In this version there is no image. Then, in the later account found in the Syriac Doctrine of Addai, a painted image of Jesus is mentioned in the story; and even later, in the account given by Evagrius, the painted image is transformed into an image that miraculously appeared on a towel when Christ pressed the cloth to his wet face (Veronica and her Cloth, Kuryluk, Ewa, Basil Blackwell, Cambridge, 1991). Further legends relate that the cloth remained in Edessa until the 10th century, when it was taken to Constantinople. In 1204 it was lost when Constantinople was sacked by Crusaders.
Elsewhere in his Church History, Eusebius reports seeing what he took to be portraits of Jesus, Peter and Paul, and also mentions a bronze statue at Banias / Paneas, of which he wrote, "They say that this statue is an image of Jesus" (H.E. 7:18); further, he relates that locals thought the image to be a memorial of the healing of the woman with an issue of blood by Jesus (Luke 8:43-48), because it depicted a standing man wearing a double cloak and with arm outstretched, and a woman kneeling before him with arms reaching out as if in supplication. Some scholars today think it possible to have been a misidentified pagan statue whose true identity had been forgotten; some have thought it to be Aesculapius, the God of healing, but the description of the standing figure and the woman kneeling in supplication is precisely that found on coins depicting the bearded emperor Hadrian reaching out to a female figure symbolizing a province kneeling before him (see John Francis Wilson's Caesarea Philippi: Banias, the Lost City of Pan; I.B Taurus, London, 2004).
When Christianity was legalized by the emperor Constantine within the Roman Empire in the early 4th Century, huge numbers of pagans became converts. This created the opportunity for the transfer of allegiance and practice from the old gods and heroes to the new religion, and for the gradual adaptation of the old system of image making and veneration to a Christian context. "By the early fifth century, we know of the ownership of private icons of saints; by c. 480-500, we can be sure that the inside of a saint's shrine would be adorned with images and votive portraits, a practice which had probably begun earlier" (Pagans and Christians, Robin Lane Fox, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1989).
Images from Constantine to Justinian
Constantine to Justinian (337-430)
After the legalization of Christianity under Constantine, and its adoption as the Roman state religion under Theodosius I, Christian art began to change remarkably not only in quality and sophistication, but also in nature. This was in no small part due to Christians being free for the first time to express their faith openly without persecution from the state, in addition to the faith spreading to the non-poor segments of society. Paintings of martyrs and their feats began to appear, and early writers commented on their lifelike effect, one of the elements a few Christian writers criticized in pagan art — the ability to imitate life. The writers mostly criticized that the pagan works of art pointed to false gods, and thusly constituted idolatry. Nilus of Sinai, in his Letter to Heliodorus Silentiarius, records a miracle in which St. Plato of Ankyra appeared to a Christian in a dream. The Saint was recognized because the young man had often seen his portrait. This recognition of a religious figure from likeness to an image was also a characteristic of pagan pious accounts of appearances of gods to humans. However, in the Old Testament we read of prophets having dreams of various heavenly figures, including a vision of God who appeared to Daniel as an elderly man, the "Ancient of Days".
It is also in this period that the first mention of an image of Mary painted from life appears, though earlier paintings on cave walls bear resemblance to modern icons of Mary. Theodorus Lector, in the History of the Church 1:1 (excerpted by Nicephorus Callistus Xanthopoulos) stated that Eudokia (wife of Theodosius II , died 460) sent an image of “the Mother of God” from Jerusalem to Pulcheria, daughter of the Emperor Arcadius (this is by some considered a later interpolation). The image was specified to have been “painted by the Apostle Luke.” In later tradition the number of icons of Mary attributed to Luke would greatly multiply.
The first depictions of Jesus were generic rather than portrait images, generally representing him as a beardless young man. It was some time before the earliest examples of the long-haired, bearded face that was later to become standardized as the image of Jesus appeared. And when they began to appear there was still variation. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) said that no one knew the appearance of Jesus or that of Mary (De Trinitatis 8:4-5), though it should be noted that Augustine wasn't a resident of the Holy Lands and therefore wasn't familiar with the local populations and their oral traditions. Gradually, paintings of Jesus took on characteristics of portrait images.
At this time the manner of depicting Jesus was not yet uniform, and there was some controversy over which of the two most common forms was to be favored. The first or “Semitic” form showed Jesus with short and “frizzy” hair; the second showed a bearded Jesus with hair parted in the middle, the manner in which the god Zeus was depicted. Theodorus Lector remarked (Church History 1:15) that of the two, the one with short and frizzy hair was “more authentic.” He also relates a story (excerpted by John of Damascus) that a pagan commissioned to paint an image of Jesus used the “Zeus” form instead of the “Semitic” form, and that as punishment his hands withered.
Though their development was gradual, we can date the full-blown appearance and general ecclesiastical (as opposed to simply popular or local) acceptance of Christian images as venerated and miracle-working objects to the 6th century, when, as Hans Belting writes, "We first hear of the church's use of religious images...(Likeness and Presence, University of Chicago Press,1994). "...As we reach the second half of the sixth century, we find that images are attracting direct veneration and some of them are credited with the performance of miracles" (Patricia Karlin-Hayter, The Oxford History of Byzantium, Oxford, 2002). Cyril Mango writes, "In the post-Justinianic period the icon assumes an ever increasing role in popular devotion, and there is a proliferation of miracle stories connected with icons, some of them rather shocking to our eyes" (The Art of the Byzantine Empire 312-1453, University of Toronto Press, 1986). However, the earlier references by Eusebius and Irenaeus indicate veneration of images and reported miracles associated with them as early as the second century. It must also be noted that what might be shocking to our contemporary eyes may not have been viewed as such by the early Christians. In Acts 5:15 of the New Testament, it is written that "people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by."
The Iconoclast Period
Main article: Iconoclasm
There was a continuing opposition to misuse of images within Christianity from very early times. "Whenever images threatened to gain undue influence within the church, theologians have sought to strip them of their power" (Belting, Hans; Likeness and Presence, Chicago and London, 1994). Further,"there is no century between the fourth and the eighth in which there is not some evidence of opposition to images even within the Church (Kitzinger, Ernst; The Cult of Images in the Age before Iconoclasm, Dumbarton Oaks, 1954; repeated by Pelikan, Jaroslav; The Spirit of Eastern Christendom 600-1700, University of Chicago Press, 1974). Nonetheless, popular favoritism for icons guaranteed their continued existence, while as yet no systematic apologia for or against icons, or doctrinal authorization or condemnation of icons existed.
The use of icons was seriously challenged by Byzantine Imperial authority in the 8th century. Though by this time opposition to images was strongly entrenched in Judaism and in the rising religion of Islam, attribution of the impetus toward an iconoclastic movement in Eastern Orthodoxy to Muslims or Jews "seems to have been highly exaggerated, both by contemporaries and by modern scholars" (see Pelikan, The Spirit of Eastern Christendom).
Though significant in the history of religious doctrine, the Byzantine controversy over images is not seen as of primary importance in Byzantine history. "Few historians still hold it to have been the greatest issue of the period..." (Patricia Karlin-Hayter, Oxford History of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, 2002).
The Iconoclastic Period began when images were banned by Emperor Leo III sometime between 726 and 730. Under his son Constantine V, an ecumenical council forbidding image veneration was held at Hieria near Constantinople in 754. Image veneration was later reinstated by the Empress Regent Irene, under whom another ecumenical council was held reversing the decisions of the previous iconoclast council and taking its title as Seventh Ecumenical Council. The council anathemized all who hold to iconoclasm, i.e. those who held that veneration of images constitutes idolatry. Then the ban was enforced again by Leo V in 815. And finally icon veneration was decisively restored by Empress Regent Theodora.
Empress Regent Theodora
Icons in Greek-speaking regions
Icons are used particularly among Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Coptic and Eastern-rite Catholic populations.
The icon painting tradition developed in Byzantium, with Constantinople as the chief city. Few icons from early Constantinople have survived, first because of the Iconoclastic reforms during which many were destroyed, second because of plundering by Venetians in 1204 during the Crusades, and finally the taking of the city by the Islamic Turks in 1453. Still, both some panel paintings and mosaics, etc. still exist. Early icons such as those preserved at the Monastery of St. Catherine at Sinai are realistic in appearance, in contrast to the later stylization. They are very similar to the mummy portraits done in encaustic wax and found at Faiyum in Egypt.
In the Comnenian Period (1081-1185), religious sculpture was abandoned in favor of panel painting. The style of the time was severe, hieratic and distant. In the late Comnenian period this severity softened, and emotion, formerly avoided, entered icon painting. This was particularly evident in outlying regions influenced by Byzantine culture, now in Macedonia and the former Yugoslavia.
The tendency toward emotionalism in icons continued in the Paleologan Period, which began in 1261. Paleologan art reached its pinnacle in paintings such as those of the Kariye Camii (former Chora Monastery). In the last half of the 1300s, Paleologan saints were painted in an exaggerated manner, very slim and in contorted positions.
After the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453, the Byzantine tradition was carried on in regions previously influenced by its religion and culture--the Balkans and Russia, Georgia, and in the Greek-speaking realm, on Crete.
Crete, at that time, was under Venetian control and became a thriving center of art of the Scuola di San Luca, the "School of St. Luke," an organized guild of painters. Cretan painting was heavily patronized both by Catholics of Venetian territories and by Eastern Orthodox. For ease of transport, Cretan iconographers specialized in panel paintings, and developed the ability to work in many styles to fit the taste of various patrons. In 1669 the city of Heraklion, on Crete, which at one time boasted at least 120 painters, finally fell to the Turks, and from that time Greek icon painting went into a decline, with a revival attempted in the 20th century by art reformers such as Photios Kontoglou, who emphasized a return to earlier styles.
Icons in Russia
Main article: Russian icons
Russian icons are typically paintings on wood, often small, though some in churches and monasteries may be as large as a table top. Many religious homes in Russia have icons hanging on the wall in the krasny ugol, the "red" or "beautiful" corner. There is a rich history and elaborate religious symbolism associated with icons. In Russian churches, the nave is typically separated from the sanctuary by an iconostasis (Russian ikonostás) a wall of icons.
The use and making of icons entered Kievan Rus' (which later expanded to become the Russian Empire) following its conversion to Orthodox Christianity in 988 A.D. As a general rule, these icons strictly followed models and formulas hallowed by usage, some of which had originated in Constantinople. As time passed, the Russians widened the vocabulary of types and styles far beyond anything found elsewhere. The personal, improvisatory and creative traditions of Western European religious art are largely lacking in Russia before the 17th century, when Russian icon painting became strongly influenced by religious paintings and engravings from both Protestant and Catholic Europe. In the mid-1600s changes in liturgy and practice instituted by Patriarch Nikon resulted in a split in the Russian Orthodox Church. The traditionalists, the persecuted "Old Ritualists" or Old Believers," continued the traditional stylization of icons, while the State Church modified its practice. From that time icons began to be painted not only in the traditional stylized and nonrealistic mode, but also in a mixture of Russian stylization and Western European realism, and in a Western European manner very much like that of Catholic religious art of the time.
Icon Traditions in Other Regions
In Romania, icons painted as reversed images on glass and set in frames were common in the 19th century and are still made. "In the Transylvanian countryside, the expensive icons on panels imported from Moldavia, Wallachia, and Mt. Athos were gradually replaced by small, locally produced icons on glass, which were much less expensive and thus accessible to the Transylvanian peasants..." (Romanian Icons on Glass, Dancu, Juliana and Dumitru Dancu, Wayne State University Press, 1982).
The Egyptian Coptic Church and the Ethiopian Church also have distinctive, living icon painting traditions.
The Protestant Reformation
The abundant use and veneration historically accorded images in the Roman Catholic Church was a point of contention for Protestant reformers, who varied in their attitudes toward images. In the consequent religious struggles many statues were removed from churches, and there was also destruction of images in some cases.
Though followers of Zwingli and Calvin were more severe in their rejection, Lutherans tended to be moderate with many of there parishes having displays of statues and crucifixes. A joint Lutheran-Orthodox statement in Helsinki reaffirmed the Ecumenical Council decisions on the nature of Christ and the veneration of images:
"The Seventh Ecumenical Council, the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, which rejected iconoclasm and restored the veneration of icons in the churches, was not part of the tradition received by the Reformation. Lutherans, however, rejected the iconoclasm of the 16th century, and affirmed the distinction between adoration due to the Triune God alone and all other forms of veneration. Through historical research this council has become better known. Nevertheless it does not have the same significance for Lutherans as it does for the Orthodox. Yet, Lutherans and Orthodox are in agreement that the Second Council of Nicaea confirms the christological teaching of the earlier councils and in setting forth the role of images (icons) in the lives of the faithful reaffirms the reality of the incarnation of the eternal Word of God, when it states: "The more frequently, Christ, Mary, the mother of God, and the saints are seen, the more are those who see them drawn to remember and long for those who serve as models, and to pay these icons the tribute of salutation and respectful veneration. Certainly this is not the full adoration in accordance with our faith, which is properly paid only to the divine nature, but it resembles that given to the figure of the honored and life?giving cross, and also to the holy books of the gospels and to other sacred objects" (Definition of the Second Council of Nicaea)."
Icons and Images in Contemporary Christianity
Today attitudes can vary even from church to church within a given denomination, whether Catholic or Protestant. Protestants generally use religious art for teaching and for inspiration, but such images are not venerated as in Orthodoxy, and many Protestant church sanctuaries contain no imagery at all.
After the Second Vatican Council declared in the 1960s that the use of statues and pictures in churches should be moderate, most statuary was removed from many Catholic Churches. Eastern Orthodoxy, however, continues to give such strong importance to the use and veneration of icons that they are often seen as the chief symbol of Orthodoxy. Catholicism has a long tradition of valuing the arts and patronized a significant number of famous artists. Present-day imagery within Roman Catholicism varies in style from traditional to modern, and is often affected by trends in the art world in general.
Ethiopian
Ethiopian
Icons are often illuminated with a candle or jar of oil with a wick. (Beeswax for candles and olive oil for oil lamps are preferred because they burn very cleanly, although other materials are sometimes used.) The illumination of religious images with lamps or candles is an ancient practice pre-dating Christianity.
Historically and even today among conservative Eastern Orthodox there are reports of miraculous icons that exude a fragrant, healing oil. When these reports are verified by Orthodox clergy, they are still explained as miracles performed by God through the prayers of the saint, rather than being magical properties of the painted wood itself.
Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic teaching about Icons
Icons are used particularly in Eastern Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern-rite Catholic churches.
The Eastern Orthodox view of the origin of icons is quite different from that of some secular scholars and from some in contemporary Roman Catholic circles: "The Orthodox Church maintains and teaches that the sacred image has existed from the beginning of Christianity" (Leonid Ouspensky, Theology of the Icon," St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1978). Accounts that some non-Orthodox writers consider legends are, within Eastern Orthodoxy, accepted as history, because they are a part of Church Tradition. Thus accounts such as that of the miraculous "Image Not Made by Hands," and the weeping and moving "Mother of God of the Sign" of Novgorod are accepted as fact: "Church Tradition tells us, for example, of the existence of an Icon of the Savior during His lifetime (the "Icon-Made-Without-Hands") and of Icons of the Most-Holy Theotokos [Mary] immediately after Him." (These Truths we Hold, St. Tikhon's Seminary Press, 1986). Eastern Orthodox further believe that "a clear understanding of the importance of Icons" was part of the church from its very beginning, and has never changed, although explanations of their importance may have developed over time. This is due to the fact that iconography is rooted in the theology of the Incarnation (Christ being the eikon of God) which didn't change, though its subsequent clarification within the Church occurred over the period of the first seven Ecumenical Councils. Also, icons served as tools of edification for the faithful during most of the history of Christendom when most couldn't read nor write.
Eastern Orthodox find the first instance of an image or icon in the Bible when God made man in His own image (Septuagint Greek eikona), recorded in Genesis 1:26-27. In Exodus, God commanded that the Israelites not make any graven image; but soon afterwards, he commanded that they make graven images of cherubim and other like things, both as statues and woven on tapestries. Later, Solomon included still more such imagery when he built the first temple. Eastern Orthodox believe these qualify as icons, in that they were visible images depicting heavenly beings and, in the case of the cherubim, used to indirectly indicate God's presence above the Ark.
In Numbers it is written that God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and hold it up, so that anyone looking at the snake would be healed of their snakebites. In John 3, Jesus refers to the same serpent, saying that he must be lifted up in the same way that the serpent was. John of Damascus also regarded the brazen serpent as an icon. Further, Jesus Christ himself is called the "image of the invisible God" in Colossians 1:15, and is therefore in one sense an icon. As people are also made in God's images, people are also considered to be living icons, and are therefore "censed" along with painted icons during Orthodox prayer services.
According to John of Damascus, anyone who tries to destroy icons "is the enemy of Christ, the Holy Mother of God and the saints, and is the defender of the Devil and his demons." This is because the theology behind icons is closely tied to the Incarnational theology of the humanity and divinity of Jesus, so that attacks on icons typically have the effect of undermining or attacking the Incarnation of Jesus himself as elucidated in the Ecumenical Councils.
The Eastern Orthodox teaching regarding veneration of icons is that the praise and veneration shown to the icon passes over to the archetype (Basil of Caesarea,On the Holy Spirit 18:45: "The honor paid to the image passes to the prototype"). Thus to kiss an icon of Christ, in the Eastern Orthodox view, is to show love towards Christ Jesus himself, not mere wood and paint making up the physical substance of the icon. Worship of the icon as somehow entirely separate from its prototype is expressly forbidden by the Seventh Ecumenical Council; standard teaching in the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches alike conforms to this principle. The Catholic Church accepts the same Councils and the canons therein which codified the teaching of icon veneration.
The Latin Church of the West, which after 1054 was to become separate as the Roman Catholic Church, accepted the decrees of the iconodule Seventh Ecumenical Council regarding images. There is some minor difference, however, in the Catholic attitude to images from that of the Orthodox. Following Gregory the Great, Catholics emphasize the role of images as the Biblia Pauperum, the “Bible of the Poor,” from which those who could not read could nonetheless learn. This view of images as educational is shared by most Protestants.
Catholics also, however, accept in principle the Eastern Orthodox veneration of images, believing that whenever approached, images of the cross, saints, etc. are to be reverenced. Though using both flat wooden panel and stretched canvas paintings, Catholics traditionally have also favored images in the form of three-dimensional statuary, whereas in the East statuary is much less widely employed.
Eikon in the Septuagint
The Greek word eikon means an image or likeness of any kind. Anything that represents something else is an eikon. Nothing is implied about sanctity or its absence, or veneration or its absence by the word itself.
The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures used by the early Christians, and Eastern Orthodox consider it the only authoritative text of those Scriptures. In it the word eikon is used for everything from man being made in the divine image to the "molten idol" placed by Manasses in the Temple. The word eikon is found in:
#Genesis 1:26-27;
#Genesis 5:1-3;
#Genesis 9:6;
#Deuteronomy 4:16
#1 Samuel (1 Kings) 6:11 (Alexandrian manuscript);
#2 Kings 11:18;
#2 Chronicles 33:7;
#Psalm 38:7
#Psalm 72:20;
#Isaiah 40, 19-20;
#Ezekiel 7:20;
#Ezekiel 8:5 (Alexandrian manuscript);
#Ezekiel 16:17;
Ezekiel 23:14;
Daniel 2:31,32,34,35;
Daniel 3:1,2,3,5,7,11,12,14,15,18;
Hosea 13:2
Be aware that Septuagint numberings and names and the English Bible numberings and names are not uniformly identical.
Eikon in the New Testament
In the New Testament the term is used for everything from Jesus as the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15) to the image of Caesar on a Roman coin (Matthew 22:20) to the image of the Beast in the Apocalypse (Revelation 14:19). Here is a complete listing:
#Matthew 22:20;
#Mark 12:16
#Luke 20:24
#Romans 1:23
#Romans 8:29;
#1 Corinthians 11:7;
#1 Corinthians 15:49
#2 Corinthings 3:18;
#2 Corinthians 4:4;
#Colossians 1:15;
#Colossians 3:10;
#Hebrews 10:1;
#Revelation 13:13;
#Revelation 13:15;
#Revelation 14:9;
#Revelation 14:11
#Revelation 15:2
#Revelation 16:2
#Revelation 19:20;
#Revelation 20:4.
Icons in Hinduism
In Hinduism, the icon is called murti.
See also
- Simulacrum
- Crucifix
- Templon
- Proskynetarion
- John Climacus
- Eastern Orthodoxy
- Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church
- Andrei Rublev
- Symbolism
- Religious symbolism
- Jewish symbolism
- Christian symbolism
- Anthropology of religion
- List of religious topics
- Emblem
- Iconoclasm
- Iconography
- Iconostasis
- Ideogram
- Idolatry
- Image
- Ishta-Deva
- Lingam
- Logotype
- Masking
- Murti
- Saligrama
- Sign
- Symbol
- Veneration
External links; various points of view
- [http://www.angelfire.com/pa3/OldWorldBasic/NewQ_Anew.html#Icon What is an icon?]
- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07664a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia:]"Veneration of Images" (The C.E. avoids an entry "Icon")
- [http://www.arcadianart.fi/eng/ Religious Icons Gallery]
- [http://passmoore.com/pictures.php?S=ic Some examples of orthodox iconography]
- [http://www.fisheaters.com/images.html The Use of Statues and Other Icons in the Latin Church]
- [http://www.instaplanet.com/icon.html Icons and links to Russian lacquerware, etc.]
- [http://www.xpucmoc.org/icon.htm Theology of Icons: a Protestant Perspective]
- [http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/general/icon_faq.aspx The Icon Faq; an Eastern Orthodox perspective]
- [http://www.icon-art.info/index.php?lng=en Russian Icons Gallery] and a [http://www.icon-art.info/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=9 forum] on this site (both links in English).
- [http://www.pressiechurch.org/Theol_2/eastern_orthodoxy.htm Eastern Orthodoxy, Icons, and Christology; a Protestant perspective]
- [http://www.monasteryicons.com/ Contemporary Byzantine style Icons and articles on iconography] at monasteryicons.com.
Category:Religious objects
Category:Art genres
ja:イコン
Symbol:For the Romanian choir, see Symbol (choir)
A symbol, in its basic sense, is a conventional representation of a concept or quantity; i.e., an idea, object, concept, quality, etc. In more psychological and philosophical terms, all concepts are symbolic in nature, and representations for these concepts are simply token artifacts that are allegorical to (but do not directly codify) a symbolic meaning, or symbolism.
Spoken language, for example, consists of distinct auditory tokens for representing symbolic concepts (words), arranged in an order which further suggests their meaning.
Nature of symbols
word]A symbol can be a material object whose shape or origin is related, by nature or convention, to the thing it represents: for instance, the cross is the main symbol of Christianity, and the scepter is a traditional symbol of royal power.
A symbol can also be a more or less conventional image (i.e. an icon), or a detail of an image, or even a pattern or color: for example, the olive branch in heraldry represents peace, the halo is a conventional symbol of sainthood in Christian imagery, tartans are symbols of Scottish clans, and the color red is often used as a symbol for socialist movements, especially communism.
More often, a symbol is a conventional written or printed sign (specifically, a glyph), usually standing for anything other than a sound (symbols for sounds are usually called graphemes, letters, logograms, diacritics, etc.). Thus mathematical symbols such as π and + represent quantities and operations, currency symbols represent monetary units, chemical symbols represent elements, and so forth.
Symbols can also be immaterial entities like sounds, words and gestures. The ringing of gongs and bells, and the banging of a judge's gavel, often have conventional meanings in certain contexts; and bowing is a common way to indicate respect. In fact, every word in a natural language is a symbol for some concept or relationship between concepts.
A symbol is usually recognized only within some specific culture, religion, or discipline, but a few hundred symbols are now recognized internationally. See list of common symbols and List of symbols.
Use of symbols
Human beings' ability to manipulate symbols allows them to explore the relationships between ideas, things, concepts, and qualities - far beyond the explorations of which any other species on earth is capable. The discipline of semiotics studies symbols and symbol systems in general; semantics is specifically concerned with the main meaning of words or other linguistic units.
Literary works are often admired for their artful use of symbolism, i.e. the use of words, phrases and situations to evoke ideas and feelings beyond their plain interpretations; these uses are the subject of literary semiotics. Religious and metaphysical writings are also known for their use of esoteric symbolism. Alchemical writings made extensive use of symbols for spiritual and chemical processes (which they also saw as symbols of each other). The interpretation of dreams as symbols of one's experiences is a main feature of Freudian psychoanalysis and Jungian analytical psychology.
Etymology
The word "symbol" came to the English language, by way of Middle English, Old French, and Latin, from the Greek σύμβολον súmbolon from the root words σύμ- (sym-) meaning "together" and βολή bolḗ "a throw", having the approximate meaning of "to throw together", so "sign, ticket, or contract".
See also
- Alchemy
- Check (mark)
- Dramatic symbol
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- Interpretation of dreams
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Mary, the mother of Jesus
:Saint Mary and Saint Mary the Virgin both redirect here. See Saint Mary's for entities named after St. Mary. See Blessed Virgin Mary for a discussion of the Catholic Veneration of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
In Christianity according to the New Testament, Mary (Judeo-Aramaic מרים Maryām "Bitter"; Septuagint Greek Μαριαμ, Mariam, Μαρια, Maria; Arabic: Maryam, مريم) was the mother of Jesus of Nazareth and at the time of his conception was the betrothed wife of Joseph (cf. Matt 1:18-20, Luke 1:35). Most Christians and Muslims understand the Gospel accounts in this respect to mean that Mary was a virgin when she conceived Jesus through a miracle of God.
Mary is the subject of much veneration in the Christian faith, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Church, and is also highly regarded by Muslims. The area of Christian theology concerning her is Mariology. The feast of the nativity of Mary is celebrated both in the Orthodox and in the Roman Catholic (and also Anglican) churches on 8 September.
Titles given to Mary
Mary's most common titles include the Blessed Virgin Mary or Our Lady (this latter, in French, Spanish, and Italian, is rendered Notre Dame) or "La Virgen de Guadalupe" in Mexico.
Historical records
Christian Scriptures
Blessed Virgin Mary to Mary. Painting by El Greco (1575)]]
Little is known of Mary's personal history from the New Testament. She was a relative of Elizabeth, wife of the priest Zechariah of the priestly division of Abijah, who herself was of the lineage of Aaron (Luke 1:5; 1:36). By tradition, she was the daughter of Anne and Joachim. Mary resided at Nazareth in Galilee, presumably with her parents, while betrothed to Joseph of the House of David (Luke 1:26). It has sometimes been argued that she, too, must have been a descendant of King David. During their betrothal – the first stage of a Jewish marriage, during which the couple are not ever permitted to be alone together under one roof, hence may not yet cohabit, despite already being husband and wife in legal terms – the angel Gabriel announced to her that she was to be the mother of the promised Messiah by conceiving him through the Holy Spirit, the power of the Most High (the Annunciation, Luke 1:35). When Joseph was told of her conception by the Holy Spirit, he was afraid; but "an angel of the Lord" commanded him in a dream to be unafraid and take his wife to his home, which Joseph obediently did, thereby formally completing the wedding rites (Matthew 1:18-25). Since the angel had told Mary that Elizabeth, having previously been barren, was now herself pregnant by the power of the word of God, Mary then hurried to visit her relation, who was living with her husband Zechariah in a city of Judah in the hill country (probably at Juttah, Joshua 15:55; 21:16, in the neighbourhood of Maon), at a considerable distance (about 160 km) from Nazareth (Luke 1:39). Immediately on entering the house she was saluted by Elizabeth as the mother of her Lord, and then forthwith gave utterance to her hymn of thanksgiving (Luke 1:46-56; comp. 1 Samuel 2:1-10) commonly known as the Magnificat. After three months Mary returned to her house. Shortly before her own confinement a decree of Augustus (Luke 2:1) required that Mary and Joseph should proceed to Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), some 80 or 90 miles (about 130 kilometers) from Nazareth; and while there they found shelter in the inn (a shelter-place provided for strangers, cf. Luke 2:6,7). But as the inn was crowded, Mary had to retire to a place among the cattle.
There Mary gave birth to her son, whom Joseph in accordance with the angel's instruction called Jesus, because he was to save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). This was followed by Jesus's circumcision, his presentation to the Lord, the visit of the Magi, the family's flight into Egypt, their return after the death of King Herod the Great about 2/1 BCE and taking up residence in Nazareth (Matthew 2). Mary apparently remained in Nazareth for thirty uneventful years. She is involved in an incident during the only event in Jesus's early adult life that is recorded: his going up to Jerusalem when twelve years of age, where he was found among the teachers in the temple (Luke 2:41-52). Probably some time between this event and the opening of Jesus's public ministry Mary was widowed, for Joseph is not mentioned again.
After Jesus's baptism by His cousin, John "the Baptist" (in which the Holy Spirit came down and rested upon Jesus "like a dove"), and His temptations by the Devil in the desert wilderness, Mary was present at the marriage in Cana, where Jesus worked his first public miracle, at her intercession (John 2:1-11). After this event, there are some events with Mary present along with her other sons (James, Joseph, Simon and Judas) and sometimes her daughters (never named)[Matthew 13:54-56; Mark 6:3; Acts 1:14; Roman Catholics do not believe these to be Mary's children, but perhaps some relatives or some others.] We find her at the Cross along with her sister Mary, and Mary Magdalene, Salome and other women (John 19:26). Mary, cradling the dead body of her Son, is a common motif in art, called a "pietà" or "piety".
After the Ascension, of about 120 people gathered in the Upper Room on the occasion of the election of Matthias to the vacancy of Judas, Mary is the only person mentioned by name other than the eleven Apostles and the candidates (Acts 1:12-26, especially v. 14 though it is said that Jesus's brothers were there as well in this verse). From this time, she wholly disappears from the historical, Biblical accounts, although it is held by some Christian groups that she is again portrayed as the heavenly Woman of Revelation (Revelation 12:1).
Her death is not recorded in Scripture.
Later Christian writings and traditions
According to the Gospel of James, which, though not part of the New Testament, contains biographical material about Mary considered "plausible" by some Orthodox and Catholic Christians, she was the daughter of Joachim and Anna. Before Mary's conception, Anna had been barren, and her parents were quite old when she was conceived. They took her to live in the Temple in Jerusalem when she was three years old, much like Hanna took Samuel to the Tabernacle, as recorded in the Old Testament (Tanakh, Hebrew Bible).
Old Testament]]
According to Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox tradition, between three and fifteen years after Christ's Ascension, in either Jerusalem or Ephesus, Mary died; while surrounded by the apostles. Later, when the apostles opened her tomb, they found it empty, and concluded that she had been bodily assumed into Heaven. ("Mary's Tomb" - a tomb in Jerusalem is attributed to Mary, but it was unknown until the 6th century.)
Mary in The Qur'an
And We Made son of Mary and his mother a Sign ... (23.50)
Mary, mother of Jesus, enjoys a singularly distinguished and honored position amongst women in The Qur'an:
She is the only woman directly named in The Book; declared (uniquely along with Jesus) to be a Ayat Allah or Sign of The God to mankind (23.50); as one who "guarded her chastity" (66.12); an obedient one (66.12); chosen of her mother and dedicated to Allah whilst still in the womb to the-God (3.36); uniquely (amongst women) Accepted into service by Allah (3.37); cared for by (the High Priest) Zakariya (Zecharias) (3:37); that in her childhood she resided in the Temple and uniquely had access to Al-Mihrab (understood to be the Holy of Holies), and was provided with heavenly 'provisions' by Allah (3:37); a Chosen One (3.42); a Purified One (3.42); a Truthful one (5.75); a fulfillment of Prophecy (66.12); a vessel for the Spirit of The-God breathed into her (66.12); her child conceived through "a Word from The-God" (3.45); and "exalted above all women of The Worlds/Universes" (3.42).
The Qur'an relates detailed narrative accounts of Maryam (Mary) in two places: 3:35-47 and 19:16-34.
The account given in (Sura 19 of) The Qur'an is nearly identical with that in The Gospel according to Luke, and it should be noted that both of these (Luke, Sura 19) begin with an account of the visitation of an angel upon Zakariya (Zecharias) and Good News of the birth of Yahya (John), followed by the account of the annunciation.
It should also be noted that the account in (Sura 3 of) The Qur'an tracks the accounts in Apocrypha, namely the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and infancy gospel of James the Just, regarding the use of 'rods' to determine a guardian/husband after she reached the age of puberty (3.44), and, the account of the scandal caused upon the discovery of her with child (19.27-28), both of which are not recorded in the canonical Gospels.
Finally, the Qur'an describes Mary (Maryam) as "sister of Harun" (19.28-29) and "daughter of Imran" (66.12). Harun is the Arabic form of the Hebrew Aaron, while Imran is an Arabic form of the Hebrew Amram. Amran was the father of "Aaron, Moses and Miriam" in the Old Testament (Numbers 26.59). The title "sister of Aaron" is further given to Miriam in the Old Testament. Based on this, some commentators have posited a confusion in the Qur'an between Mary, mother of Jesus and Miriam, sister of Moses. This is denied by other commentators, who argue that the similarity in family names is either coincidental or metaphorical.
Christian and Muslim beliefs about Mary
Immaculate Conception of Mary
: Main article: Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception is the doctrine that states that Mary was filled with grace from the very moment of her conception in her mother's womb. While it might be permitted for Orthodox Christians to believe the doctrine, only the Roman Catholic Church has officially adopted this teaching, and the title "Immaculate Conception" is one used only by Catholics.
Most Protestants reject the idea that Mary was saved by God from her very first moment, since they consider it unscriptural.
While it is technically true to say that Orthodox believe Mary was conceived immaculate, Orthodox do not believe in the same idea of original sin as the West, and they believe all babies are born immaculate. Sin is not considered ontological in Orthodoxy, only the tendency toward it. (This tendency is referenced by the phrase, "ancestral curse," which sometimes leads to confusion on the Orthodox view of the fall.) Mary is considered sinless in the Orthodox Church because it is believed that the grace of God allowed her not to sin, thereby remaining immaculate. So in the Orthodox view, it seems Mary was conceived immaculately but her conception was not out of the ordinary in any way.
Mary's age
Whilst the teaching of the Catholic Church that Mary was a virgin is not accepted by a number of liberal Christian scholars who argue that the Greek term parthenos in Luke 1:27 does not necessarily have to mean "virgin [intacta]" but that there is also evidence for it signifying any "young woman", it is generally agreed that Mary was very young when she conceived Jesus. On the other hand, the "young woman" evidence is based on the Isaiah prophecy hundreds of years prior and is taken from the Hebrew language. Other Christian scholars point out that Joseph "kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son" in Matthew 1:25, and it is difficult for the meaning to be "young woman" and not "virgin," as well as the fact that a young woman conceiving would not be much of a sign as a virgin conceiving. Some insight into traditions concerning her later life, e.g., that she died between three and 15 years after the crucifixion of Jesus, can be found in the New Testament Apocrypha. Assuming that Jesus died in his 30s, there is also little reason to doubt that his mother could still be alive at the time of his death, or that she could have witnessed it (cf. Jn 19:25).
Virgin birth, Egypt, 16th century.]]
: Main article: Nativity
The Apostles' Creed and Nicene Creed both refer to Mary as "the Virgin Mary". This alludes to the belief that Mary conceived Jesus through the action of God the Holy Spirit, and not through intercourse with Joseph or anyone else. That she was a virgin at this time is affirmed by Eastern Christianity, Roman Catholicism and by many (though not all) Protestants. Denial of this is considered heretical by Catholics and Eastern Orthodox (and Evangelicals) alike.
Historic Christianity, including modern-day Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, teaches that she was a virgin before, during, and after giving birth to Jesus. Islam also takes this position, which is stated explicitly in the Quran (3:47). Some Protestants also hold this view, while many others believe that she was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus, but that she later was not and had other children with her husband, Joseph. Catholics and Orthodox explain references to Jesus' brothers as either cousins, or as step-brothers who were Joseph's children by a prior marriage. Pope Boniface VIII denied the virginity of Mary.
Persons who are neither Christians nor Muslims generally doubt that Mary was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus. A common view by non-Christian sources speculates that Mary had relations with a Roman soldier and then married Joseph who protected her from the harsh Jewish laws of the time which would have sentenced her to death by stoning for such an act. This version is recorded by Origen in the third century and attributed to Celsus of the second century, who said he heard it from a Jew, in Origen's Contra Celsum 1.28-32. Also see: Illegitimacy of Jesus: A Feminist Theological Interpretation of the Infancy Narratives (Biblical Seminar Series, No 28), Jane Schaberg, ISBN 1850755337.
The Gospel of Matthew describes Mary as a virgin who fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14. The Hebrew word almah that appears in this verse, and the Greek word parthenos that Jews used to translate it in the Greek Septuagint that Matthew quotes here, have been the subjects of dispute for almost two millennia. This disagreement is related to the question of whether Isaiah 7:14 is a prophecy of Jesus' birth. Regardless of the meaning of this verse, it is clear that the authors of the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke asserted that Mary had "no relations with man" before Jesus' birth.
Virgin birth of Jesus in the Qu'ran
The Qur'an quite decisively declares that Jesus was the result of a virgin birth, but that neither she nor her son were divine, but merely "honoured servants" (21.26). The most detailed account of the annunciation and birth of Jesus is provided in Sura 3 and 19 of The Qur'an wherein it is written that Allah/The-God sent an angel to announce that she could shortly expect to bear a son, despite being a virgin:
(Remember) When the angels said O Mary! Allah Gives thee Good News of a son through a Word from Him! His name shall be the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, honoured in this world and in the next, and of those who Are Granted Nearness to Allah! (3.45)
And he shall speak to the people in the cradle, and when of middle age, and he shall be of The Righteous (3.46)
She said My Lord! How shall I have a son when no man has touched me ? He Said, That is as it shall be. Allah Creates what He Pleases. When HE decrees a thing HE says to it "Be" and it is! (3.47)
The Qur'an also declares that one of the reasons (amongsts many listed) for the punishments of The-God upon the People of The Book -- "Allah has sealed their hearts" (4.155) -- is for their "uttering a monsterous lie against Mary" (4.156). This is generally understood to refer to the accusations of wanton unchastity which was directed by some against Mary in her lifetime and which remain recorded in the Talmud.
Sura 5 Signs 116-119 of The Qur'an includes the Prophecy of the Judgement Day where "Jesus son of Mary" will be questioned by Allah as regards to those who worship him and Mary, and that Jesus will deny them:
And when ALLAH will say O Jesus, son of Mary, didst thou say to men: Take me and my mother for two gods beside ALLAH ? He will answer Holy art Thou! I could never say that which I had no right. If I had said it, Thou wouldst have surely known it. Thou knowest what is in my mind, and I know not what is in Thy mind. It is Thou alone Who Art the Knower of all hidden things
I said nothing to them except that which Thou didst command me - Worship Allah (The-God), my Lord and your Lord. And I was a witness over them as long as I remained among them, but since Thou didst cause me to die, Thou, hast been the Watcher over them, and Thou art Witness over all things
If Thou punish them, they are Thy servants; and if Thou forgive them, Thou surely art the Mighty, the Wise.
Allah Will Say This is a Day when only The Truthful shall profit by their truthfulness. For them are Gardens beneath which streams flow; therein shall they abide forever. Allah Is well Pleased with them, and they are well pleased with HIM! That indeed is the Supreme Triumph!
Theotokos ("Mother of God")
: Main article: Theotokos
At the Third Ecumenical council, the Council of Ephesus (against the Nestorians), A.D. 431, it was decided that it was entirely appropriate to refer to Mary as the Theotokos, to emphasize that Mary's child, Jesus Christ, was in fact God (Denziger §111a). That Council clarified that the Church Fathers "did not hesitate to speak of the holy Virgin as the Mother of God" (ibid.), thus affirming what had always been held as true: e.g. St. Ignatius of Antioch, ca. A.D. 110 (Jurgens §42); Alexander of Alexandria, A.D. 328 (Jurgens §680); among other references from similar sources. She is often referred to as "Theotokos" in Eastern Orthodox hymns.
The Qur'an quite decisively declares that neither Mary nor her son Jesus were divine, but merely "honoured servants" (21.26).
Perpetual virginity
: Main article: Perpetual virginity of Mary
That Mary remained a virgin after the birth of Jesus is a doctrinal stance of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Of the early fathers of the Church, only Tertullian seems to have questioned the teaching.
The question of Mary's virginity is related to the interpretation of the New Testament references to Jesus' "brothers". Those who defend the doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity point out that Aramaic, the language spoken by Christ and his disciples, lacked a specific word for "cousin," so that the word "brother" was used instead. This is also true in Hebrew, and there are several places in the Old Testament that use the word "brother" to mean nephew or cousin. Others argue that Jesus' "brothers" were sons of Joseph by a previous wife - and thus Jesus' stepbrothers, who would have been regarded as his half-brothers by the people Jesus and Mary lived alongside, who were unaware of Jesus' divinity and assumed him to be the son of Joseph. (For more details, see this section of the article on James the Just.)
The most prominent leaders of the Reformation, Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin also defended the perpetual virginity of Mary against those who questioned it. But by the 17th century, the Catholic and Protestant churches came to see Mary as a major point of division, and Protestant theologians began arguing that Mary did not remain a virgin and that the "brothers" of Jesus were indeed his half-brothers, sons of Mary and Joseph. Today most Protestants reject the doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity.
Islam teaches that Mary conceived Jesus as a virgin, but that Jesus had a single parent (Mary) and was not the Son of God. Muslims also believe that Mary remained a virgin for her entire life.
Dormition and Assumption
Calvin
: Main article: Assumption of Mary
For Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics alike, Mary's assumption, i.e., the lifting up of her body into Heaven after her death, is seen as a concrete and present instance of the resurrection of the body, a belief integral to Christian theology and found in the creeds.
The doctrine in Roman Catholicism
The belief in the corporeal assumption of Mary was formally declared to be dogma by Pope Pius XII in 1950; Roman Catholics must therefore hold the doctrine as true. Pope Pius XII states in Munificentissimus Deus [http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/P12MUNIF.HTM]: "[W]e pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory. Hence if anyone, which God forbid, should dare willfully to deny or to call into doubt that which we have defined, let him know that he has fallen away completely from the divine and Catholic Faith." This is an example of an invocation of papal infallibility. The Feast of the Assumption is celebrated on August 15.
The promulgated dogma is not worded so as to force the issue as to whether she experienced death prior to her Assumption, as there is no theological basis for doing so. Ludwig Ott (Bk. III, Pt. 3, Ch. 2, §6) states that "the fact of her death is almost generally accepted by the Fathers and Theologians, and is expressly affirmed in the Liturgy of the Church," to which he adduces a number of helpful citations, and concludes that "for Mary, death, in consequence of her freedom from original sin and from personal sin, was not a consequence of punishment of sin. However, it seems fitting that Mary's body, which was by nature mortal, should be, in conformity with that of her Divine Son, subject to the general law of death." In keeping with the historical consensus of the Church, Pius XII himself almost certainly rejected the notion of Mary's "immortality" (the idea that she never suffered death) in favor of the more widely accepted understanding that her assumption took place after her physical death.
The doctrine in Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy
The tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church holds that Mary died, and that after her death and burial, she was not resurrected but that her body was miraculously transposed into heaven, as was the body of Enoch, Moses and Elijah. This two-fold event is celebrated as the Dormition ("falling asleep") of the Theotokos. The Feast of the Dormition is celebrated on August 15, and is preceded by a fourteen day fast from meat and dairy products, the third longest fast of the liturgical year after Great Lent and Winter Lent. Despite the great importance of this feast in the Orthodox liturgical calendar, it is not considered a matter of dogma as in the Catholic Church (dogmatization of the Dormition for the Roman Catholic Church was formalized by a Roman Catholic pope after the Great Schism, whose authority Eastern Orthodox did not recognize).
Religious attitudes towards Mary
Veneration of Mary: Divisions Among Christians
Great Schism]]
Roman Catholic, Orthodox and many Anglican Christians venerate Mary, as do the non-Chalcedonian or Oriental Orthodox, a communion of churches that has been traditionally deemed monophysite (such as the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt and the Ethiopian Tewahedo Church). This veneration especially takes the form of prayer for intercession with her Son, Jesus Christ. Additionally it includes composing poems and songs in Mary's honor, painting icons or carving statues representing her, bowing or kneeling before such images as a token of respect to the one portrayed by them, and conferring titles on Mary that reflect her exalted position among the saints. She is also one of the most highly venerated saints in both the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Church; several major feast days are devoted to her each year. (See Liturgical year.) Protestants have generally been less enthusiastic about the veneration of the Virgin than their Catholic and Orthodox cousins, often arguing that if too much attention is focused on Mary, there is a danger of detracting from the worship due to God alone. By contrast, certain documents of the Second Vatican Council, such as chapter VIII of the dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium [http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html] describe Mary as higher than all other created beings, even angels: "she far surpasses all creatures, both in heaven and on earth"; but still in the final analysis, a created being, solely human - not divine - in her nature. On this showing, Catholic traditionalists would argue that there is no conflation [http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=conflation] of the human and divine levels in their veneration of Mary.
Liturgical year shows the apparition in the Burning Bush as the Blessed Virgin in a bower of flaming roses.]]
The major origin and impetus of veneration of Mary comes from the Christological controversies of the early church - many debates denying in some way the divinity or humanity of Jesus Christ. So not only would one side affirm that Jesus was indeed God, but would assert the conclusion that Mary was the mother of God.
Both Roman Catholics and Orthodox make a clear distinction between such veneration (which is also due to the other saints) and adoration which is due to God alone. (The term worship is used by some theologians to subsume both sacrificial worship and worship of praise, e.g. Orestes Brownson in his book Saint Worship. The word "worship", while commonly used in place of "adoration" in the modern English vernacular, strictly speaking implies nothing more than the acknowledgement of "worth-ship" or worthiness, and thus means no more than the giving of honor where honor is due [e.g. the use of "Your Worship" as a form of address to judges in certain English legal traditions]. "Worship" is sometimes used in this sense in Catholic literature when referring to the veneration of the Blessed Virgin and other saints). Mary, they point out, is not of herself divine, and has only such powers to help as are granted to her by God in response to her prayers. Such miracles as may occur through Mary's intercession are ultimately the result of God's love and omnipotence. Roman Catholicism distinguishes three forms of honor: latria, due only to God, and usually translated by the English word adoration; hyperdulia, accorded only to the Blessed Virgin Mary, usually translated simply as veneration; and dulia, accorded to the rest of the saints, also usually translated as veneration. The Orthodox distinguish between worship and veneration but do not accept a sort of "hyper"-veneration only for the Theotokos.
The surge in the cult of Mary in the High Middle Ages owes some of its initial impetus to Bernard of Clairvaux. Bernard expanded upon Anselm of Canterbury's role in transmuting the sacramental ritual Christianity of the Early Middle Ages into a new, more personally held faith, with the life of Christ as a model and a new emphasis on the Virgin Mary. In opposition to the rational approach to divine understanding that the schoolmen adopted, Bernard preached an immediate faith, in which the intercessor was the Virgin Mary. "the Virgin that is the royal way, by which the Savior comes to us." "Bernard played the leading role in the development of the Virgin cult, which is one of the most important manifestations of the popular piety of the twelfth century. In early medieval thought the Virgin Mary had played a minor role, and it was only with the rise of emotional Christianity in the eleventh century that she became the prime intercessor for humanity with the deity." (Cantor 1993 p 341)
Some early Protestants venerated and honored Mary. Martin Luther said Mary is "the highest woman," that "we can never honour her enough," that "the veneration of Mary is inscribed in the very depths of the human heart," and that we should "wish that everyone know and respect her." John Calvin said, "It cannot be denied that God in choosing and destining Mary to be the Mother of his Son, granted her the highest honor." Zwingli said, "I esteem immensely the Mother of God," and, "The more the honor and love of Christ increases among men, so much the esteem and honor given to Mary should grow." Thus the idea of respect and high honour was not rejected by the first Protestants; but, they came to criticize the Catholics for blurring the line, between high admiration of the grace of God wherever it is seen in a human being, and religious service given to another creature. The Roman Catholic practice of celebrating saints' days and making intercessory requests addressed especially to Mary and other departed saints they considered (and consider) to be idolatry. With the exception of some portions of the Anglican Communion, Protestantism usually follows the reformers in rejecting the practice of directly addressing Mary and other saints in prayers of admiration or petition, as part of their religious worship of God. Protestants will not typically call the respect or honor that they may have for Mary veneration because of the special religious significance that this term has in the Catholic practice.
- Norman F. Cantor, The Civilization of the Middle Ages 1993
Joint Anglican/Roman Catholic document Anglican Communion
On May 16, 2005, the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches issued a joint 43-page statement, "[http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/articles/39/75/acns3978a.cfm Mary: Hope and Grace in Christ]" (also known as the Seattle Statement) on the role of the Virgin Mary in Christianity as a way to uphold ecumenical cooperation despite differences over other matters. The document was released in Seattle, Washington, by Alexander Brunett, the local Catholic Archbishop, and Peter Carnley, Anglican Archbishop of Perth, Western Australia, co-chairmen of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC).
The joint document is said to seek a common understanding to help both churches agree on the theological reasoning behind the Catholic dogmas, despite Anglicans not accepting the papal authority that underpins them. Carnley has reportedly said that Anglican concerns, that dogmas about Mary are not provable by scripture, would "disappear", with the document discussing that Anglicans would stop opposition to Roman Catholic teachings of the Immaculate Conception (defined in 1854) and the Assumption of Mary (defined in 1950) as being "consonant" with the Biblical teachings.
Non-Abrahamic worship of Mary
Some followers of non-Abrahamic religions, particularly followers of Wicca, link Mary to the Earth Mother of various Neo-pagan traditions. Some Buddhists have even been known to link Mary to Kwan-Yin, a Bodhisattva of compassion venerated by various Chinese Buddhist faiths. Followers of Santería identify Mary (as Our Lady of Regla) with the goddess Yemaja.
Mary and Shakespeare
In sixteenth-century England, veneration of Mary was a central issue in public controversy about the sense of Scriptural text, religious images, and religious practices in Christian life. Some leading figures in sixteenth-century England considered pilgrimages to Marian shrines and praying the rosary to be un-Scriptural, "superstitious", and/or idolatrous. From 1535 to 1538, under orders from Henry VIII, all Christian shrines in England were destroyed. Most of these shrines were Marian shrines, and they included the highly-popular shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, as well as other popular shrines at Ipswich, Worcester, Doncaster, and Penrise.
At the same time, "Mary" rose dramatically in popularity, as a given name for baby girls in sixteenth-century England. About 1500, in Warwick County, England, perhaps only 1% of baby girls were named Mary. By 1600, the share of baby girls named Mary had risen to about 10%.[http://www.galbithink.org/sense-s8.htm] This change is remarkable, in light of extensive government efforts during that same time-period to extirpate veneration of Marian images, and to direct Christian worship to the written word.
William Shakespeare had keen appreciation for the controversy over the "sense of Mary" in Christian life. Concern about the relationship between words and images, and players, shadows, and real persons, pervades Shakespeare's work. His play, Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5, includes a dialogue, formally organized as a sonnet, that uses Marian pilgrimage to figure Romeo's wooing of Juliet. The last scene in The Winter's Tale includes instructions from Paulina, that place Perdita in the position of asking the statue of Hermione for intercessory prayer, much as a pilgrim to a Marian shrine might have prayed before an image of Mary. Turmoil about the sense of Mary in sixteenth-century English history is closely-related to the development of Shakespeare's theatre, according to some critics.
Portrayals
Mary has been portrayed in several films:
- Linda Darnell, The Song of Bernadette, 1943
- Angela Clarke, The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima, 1951
- Siobhán McKenna, King of Kings, 1961
- Olivia Hussey, Jesus of Nazareth, 1977
- Verna Bloom, The Last Temptation of Christ, 1988
- Maia Morgenstern, The Passion of the Christ, 2004
See also
- Prayer to Mary, the mother of Jesus
- Blessed Virgin Mary
- Theotokos
- Immaculate Conception
- Assumption of Mary
- The Madonna
- Our Lady of Sorrows
- Marian apparitions
- The Virgin Mary shrines
- Our Lady of Guadalupe
- Joy of all who Sorrow
Further reading
- Orestes Brownson, Saint Worship and the Worship of Mary, [http://www.sophiainstitute.com Sophia Institute Press], 2003, ISBN 1928832881
- Chantal Epie, The Scriptural Roots of Catholic Teaching, [http://www.sophiainstitute.com Sophia Institute Press], 2002, ISBN 1928832539
- William A. Jurgens, The Faith of the Early Fathers
- Jaroslav Pelikan, Mary Through the Centuries: Her Place in the History of Culture, [http://www.yale.edu/yup/ Yale University Press], 1998, hardcover, 240 pages ISBN 0300069510; trade paperback, 1998, 240 pages, ISBN 0300076614
Hilda Graef, Mary: A History of Doctrine and Devotion, London: Sheed & Ward, 1985, ISBN 0722052219
External links
- [http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/beliefs/mary.htm Christian Beliefs about Mary]
- [http://www.insecula.com/contact/A004142.html/ 632 pictures of the Virgin]
- [http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/P12MUNIF.HTM Munificentissimus Deus]
- [http://www.catholic.net/rcc/Periodicals/Homiletic/2001-10/orchard.html Bernard Orchard, The Betrothal and Marriage of Mary to Joseph, Part 1;] [http://www.catholic.net/rcc/Periodicals/Homiletic/2001-11/orchard.html Part 2]
- [http://uk.geocities.com/ducatumevangelii@btinternet.com/Maryandjoseph1a.htm Bernard Orchard, Summary of The Betrothal and Marriage of Mary to Joseph and chronological chart]
- [http://www.niranamchurch.com/StMary.asp St Mary in Indian Orthodox tradition]
- [http://www.fisheaters.com/mary.html Traditional Catholic View of the Blessed Virgin Mary]
- [http://www.galbithink.org/sense-s5.htm The Sense of Mary and Shakespeare in Sixteenth-Century England]
- [http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/Mary.asp American Catholic - Blessed Virgin Mary - The First Disciple]
- [http://followchrist.info/e_mary.html Criticism of the veneration of Mary by "Josef", a non-denominational Christian]
- [http://www.atmajyoti.org/ul_unknown_lives_forward.asp The Unknown Lives of Jesus and Mary] from the Apocrypha and other little known sources.
- [http://www.fisheaters.com/marygardens.html Mary Gardens] the Catholic customs of making gardens in honor of Mary
Footnotes
- 1[http://www.mariology.com/ See Mariology.com: A Study of the Blessed Virgin in the Scriptures]
Category:1st century BC births
Category:1st century deaths
Category:Blessed Virgin Mary
Category:Jesus
Category:Saints
Mary
ja:イエスの母マリア
Angels
that she will bear Jesus (El Greco, 1575)]]
An angel is an ethereal being found in many religions, whose duties are to assist and serve God or the gods.
Etymology
The English word originated from Latin, angelus, which is itself derived from the Greek αγγελος, ángelos, meaning "messenger" (double gamma "γγ" is pronounced "ng" in Greek). The closest Hebrew word for angel is מלאך, mal'ach , also meaning "messenger". "Angel" is also used in the English Version of the Bible for the following three Hebrew words:
- אביר, abbir , Psalms 78:25 (lit. "mighty")
- אלהים, Elohim , Psalms 8:5
- the obscure שנאן, shin'an , in Psalms 68:17
Angels in the Tanakh
Tanakh in Metairie, Louisiana.]]
The Biblical name for angel, מלך (melekh, "king"), obtained the further signification of "angel" only through the addition of God's name, as "angel of the Lord," or "angel of God" (Zech. xii. 8). Other appellations are "Sons of God", (Genesis vi. 4; Job, i. 6 [R. V. v. 1]) and "the Holy Ones" (Psalms lxxxix. 6, 8).
According to Jewish interpretation, Elohim is almost entirely reserved for the one true God; but at times 'Elohim (powers), bnē 'Elohim, bnē Elim (sons of gods)(i.e. members of the class of divine beings) were general terms for beings with great power (i.e. judges or alternately, some kind of super powerful human beings). Hence they came to be used collectively of super-human beings, distinct from Yahweh and, therefore, inferior and ultimately subordinate (e.g. Genesis 6:2; Job 1:6; Psalms 8:5).
See also: Names of God in Judaism
Angels are referred to as "holy ones" (Zechariah 14:5) and "watchers" (Daniel 4:13). They are spoken of as the "host of heaven" (Deuteronomy 17:3) or of "Yahweh" (Joshua 5:14). The "hosts," צבאות Sebaoth in the title Yahweh Sebaoth, Lord of Hosts, were probably at one time identified with the angels. The identification of the "hosts" with the stars comes to the same thing; the stars were thought of as being closely connected with angels. However, YHWH is very jealous of the distinction between Himself and angels, and consequently, the Hebrews were forbidden by Moses to worship the "host of heaven". It is probable that the "hosts" were also identified with the armies of Israel, whether this army is human, or angelic. The New Testament often speaks of "spirits," πνεύματα (Revelation 1:4).
Prior to the emergence of monotheism in Israel the idea of an angel was the Mal'akh Yahweh, Angel of the Lord, or Mal'akh Elohim, Angel of God. The Mal'akh Yahweh is an appearance or manifestation of Yahweh in the form of a man, and the term Mal'akh Yahweh is used interchangeably with Yahweh (cf. Exodus 3:2, with 3:4; 13:21 with 14:19). Those who see the Mal'akh Yahweh say they have seen God (Genesis 32:30; Judges 13:22). The Mal'akh Yahweh (or Elohim) appears to Abraham, Hagar, Moses, Gideon, &c., and leads the Israelites in the Pillar of Cloud (Exodus 3:2). The phrase Mal'akh Yahweh may have been originally a courtly circumlocution for the Divine King; but it readily became a means of avoiding anthropomorphism, and later on, when angels were classified, the Mal'akh Yahweh meant an angel of distinguished rank. The identification of the Mal'akh Yahweh with the Logos, or Second Person of the Trinity, is not indicated by the references in the Hebrew scriptures; but the idea of a Being partly identified with God, and yet in some sense distinct from him, illustrates a tendency of Jewish religious thought to distinguish persons within the unity of the deity. Christians think that this foreshadows the doctrine of the Trinity, whereas Kabbalist Jews would show how it developed into kabbalistic theological thought and imagery.
In earlier literature the Mal'akh Yahweh or Elohim is almost the only angel mentioned. However, there are a few passages which speak of subordinate superhuman beings other than the Mal'akh Yahweh or Elohim. There are the cherubim who guard Garden of Eden. In Genesis 18, 19. (J) the appearance of Yahweh to Abraham and Lot is connected with three, afterwards two, men or messengers; but possibly in the original form of the story Yahweh appeared alone (Cf. 18:1 with 18:2, and note change of number in 19:17). At Bethel, Jacob sees the angels of God on the ladder (Genesis 28:12), and later on they appear to him at Mahanaim (Genesis 32:1). In all these cases the angels, like the Mal'akh Yahweh, are connected with or represent a theophany. Similarly the "man" who wrestles with Jacob at Peniel is identified with God (Genesis 32:24, 30). In Isaiah 6 the seraphim, superhuman beings with six wings, appear as the attendants of Yahweh. Thus, the pre-exilic literature rarely mentions angels, or other superhuman beings other than Yahweh and manifestations of Yahweh; the pre-exilic prophets hardly mention angels. An angel of I Kings 13:18 might be the Mal'akh Yahweh, as in 19:5, cf. 7, or the passage, at any rate in its present form, may be exilic or post-exilic. Nevertheless we may well suppose that polytheists in ancient Israel believed in superhuman beings other than Yahweh, but that the inspired writers have mostly suppressed references to them as unedifying.
Once the doctrine of monotheism was formally expressed, in the period immediately before and during the Exile (Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Isaiah 43:10), we find angels prominent in the Book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel, as a prophet of the Exile, may have been influenced by the hierarchy of supernatural beings in the Babylonian religion, and perhaps even by the angelology of Zoroastrianism (it is not, however, certain that these doctrines of Zoroastrianism were developed at so early a date). Ezekiel 9 gives elaborate descriptions of cherubim (a class, or type of angels); and in one of his visions, he sees seven angels execute the judgment of God upon Jerusalem. As in Genesis, they are styled "men"; mal'akh, for "angel", does not occur in Ezekiel. Somewhat later, in the visions of Zechariah, angels play a great part; they are sometimes spoken of as "men", sometimes as mal'akh, and the Mal'akh Yahweh seems to hold a certain primacy among them (Zecharias 1:11). The Satan also appears to prosecute (so to speak) the High Priest before the divine tribunal (Zecharias 3:1). Similarly in the Job the bne Elohim, sons of God, appear as attendants of God, and amongst them, Satan (Hebrew ha satan), again in the role of public prosecutor, the defendant being Job (Job 1, 2. Cf. I Chronicles 21:1). Occasional references to "angels" occur in the Psalter (Pss. 91:11, 103:20 &c.); they appear as ministers of God.
In Psalms 78:49 the "evil angels" of the Authorized Version conveys a false impression; it should be "angels of evil", i.e. angels who inflict chastisement as ministers of God.
The seven angels of Ezekiel may be compared with the seven eyes of Yahweh in Zecharias 3:9, 4:10. The latter have been connected by Ewald and others with the later doctrine of seven chief angels (Tobit 12:15; Revelations 8:2), parallel to and influenced by the Ameshaspentas (Amesha Spenta), or seven great spirits of the Persian mythology.
In the Priestly Code, c. 400 BC, there is no reference to angels, apart from the possible suggestion in the plural in Genesis 1:26.
During the Persian and Greek periods, the doctrine of angels underwent a great development, partly, at any rate, under foreign influences. In Daniel, c. 160 BC, 71 angels, usually spoken of as "men" or "Angel-princes", appear as guardians or champions of the individual nations, defending them as God sits in council with them over the world; grades are implied, there are "princes" and "chief" or "great princes"; and the names of some angels are known, Gabriel, Michael; the latter is pre-eminent (Dan. 8:16; 10:13, 20-21), he is the guardian of Israel's leading Kingdom of Judah. Again in Tobit a leading part is played by Raphael, "one of the seven holy angels". (Tob. 12:15.)
In Tobit, too, we find the idea of the demon or evil angel. In the canonical Hebrew/Aramaic scriptures, angels may inflict suffering as ministers of God, and Satan may act as accuser or tempter; but they appear as subordinates to God, fulfilling His will, and not as independent, morally evil agents. The statement (Job 4:18) that God "charged his angels with folly" applies to all angels. In Daniel, the princes, or guardian angels, of the heathen nations oppose Michael, the guardian angel of Judah. But in Tobit, we find Asmodeus the evil demon, τὸ πονηρὸν δαιμόνιον, who strangles Sarah's husbands, and also a general reference to "a devil or evil spirit", πνεῦμα (Tobit 3:8, 17; 6:7).
The Fall of the Angels is not properly a scriptural doctrine, though it is based on Gen. 6:2, as interpreted by the Book of Enoch. It is true that the bnē Elohim of that chapter are subordinate superhuman beings (cf. above), but they belong to a different order of thought from the angels of Judaism and of Christian doctrine; and the passage in no way suggests that the bne Elohim suffered any loss of status through their act.
The guardian angels of the nations in Daniel probably represent the gods of the heathen, and we have there the first step of the process by which these gods became evil angels, an idea expanded by Milton in Paradise Lost. The development of the doctrine of an organized hierarchy of angels belongs to the Jewish literature of the period 200 BC to A.D. 100. In Jewish apocalypses especially, the imagination ran riot on the rank, classes and names of angels; and such works as the various books of Enoch and the Ascension of Isaiah supply much information on this subject.
Appearance of angels
In the Hebrew Bible, angels often appear to people in the shape of humans of extraordinary beauty, and often are not immediately recognized as angels (Gen. xviii. 2, xix. 5; Judges, vi. 17, xiii. 6; II Sam. xxix. 9); some fly through the air; some become invisible; sacrifices touched by them are consumed by fire; and they may disappear in sacrificial fire, like Elijah, who rode to heaven in a fiery chariot. Angels, or the Angel, appeared in the flames of the thorn bush (Gen. xvi. 13; Judges, vi. 21, 22; II Kings, ii. 11; Ex. iii. 2). They are described as pure and bright as Heaven; consequently, they are said to be formed of fire, and encompassed by light (Job, xv. 15), as the Psalmist said (Ps. civ. 4, R. V.): "Who makes winds his messengers; his ministers a flaming fire."
Though superhuman, angels can assume human form; this is the earliest conception. Gradually, and especially in post-Biblical times, angels came to be bodied forth in a form corresponding to the nature of the mission to be fulfilled—generally, however, the human form. Angels bear drawn swords or other destroying weapons in their hands—one carries an ink-horn by his side—and ride on horses (Num. xxii. 23, Josh. v. 13, Ezek. ix. 2, Zech. i. 8 et seq.). It is worth noting that these angels carry items that are contempory to the time in which they visit (perhaps angels are bound by the technology which humans have achieved). A terrible angel is the one mentioned in I Chron. xxi. 16, 30, as standing "between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand". In the Book of Daniel, reference is made to an angel "clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz: his body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in color to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude" (Dan. x. 5, 6). This imagery is very similar to the description of Jesus in the book of Revelation. Angels are thought to possess wings (Dan. ix. 21), as they are described in the Bible, and depicted in Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian art. They are commonly depicted with halos.
Images of angels in Christian art are identical to prior depictions of gods such as Zeus, Eos, Eros, Thanatos and Nike, in pre-Christian classical art, and some divine beings in Mesopotamian art. The use of wings suggests an original artistic convention merely intended to denote the figure as a spirit.
Angels are portrayed as powerful and dreadful, endowed with wisdom and with knowledge of all earthly events, correct in their judgment, holy, but not infallible: they strive against each other, and God has to make peace between them. When their duties are not punitive, angels are beneficent to man (Ps. ciii. 20, lxxviii. 25; II Sam. xiv. 17, 20, xix. 28; Zech. xiv. 5; Job, iv. 18, xxv. 2).
The number of angels is enormous. Jacob meets a host of angels; Joshua sees the "captain of the host of the Lord"; God sits on His throne, "all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right hand and on his left"; the sons of God come "to present themselves before the Lord" (Gen. xxxii. 2; Josh. v. 14, 15; I Kings, xxii. 19; Job, i. 6, ii. 1; Ps. lxxxix. 6; Job, xxxiii. 23). The general conception is the one of Job (xxv. 3): "Is there any number of his armies?" In the book of Revelation, the number is "a thousand thousands, and many tens of thousands".
Though the older writings usually mention one angel of the Lord, embassies to men as a rule comprised several messengers. The inference, however, is not to be drawn that God Himself or one particular angel was designated: the expression was given simply to God's power to accomplish through but one angel any deed, however wonderful.
Angels are referred to in connection with their special missions as, for instance, the "angel which hath redeemed," "an interpreter," "the angel that destroyed," "messenger of the covenant," "angel of his presence," and "a band of angels of evil" (Gen. xlviii. 16; Job, xxxiii. 23; II Sam. xxiv. 16; Mal. iii. 1; Isa. lxiii. 9; Ps. lxxviii. 49, R. V.). When, however, the heavenly host is regarded in its most comprehensive aspect, a distinction may be made between cherubim, seraphim, ḥayyot ("living creatures"), ofanim ("wheels"), and arelim (another name for Thrones). God is described as riding on the cherubim and as "the Lord of hosts, who dwelleth between the cherubim"; while the latter guard the way of the Tree of Life (I Sam. iv. 4, Ps. lxxx. 2, Gen. iii. 24). The seraphim are described by Isaiah (vi. 2) as having six wings; and Ezekiel describes the ḥayyot (Ezek. i. 5 et seq.) and ofanim as heavenly beings who carry God's throne.
In post-Biblical times, the heavenly hosts became more highly organized (possibly as early as Zechariah [iii. 9, iv. 10]; certainly in Daniel), and there came to be various kinds of angels; some even being provided with names, as will be shown below.
Purpose
In the Bible, angels are a medium of God's power; they exist to execute God's will. Angels reveal themselves to individuals as well as to the whole nation, in order to announce events, either good or bad, affecting humans. Angels foretold to Abraham the birth of Isaac, to Manoah the birth of Samson, and to Abraham the destruction of Sodom. Guardian angels were mentioned, but not, as was later the case, as guardian spirits of individuals and nations. God sent an angel to protect the Hebrew people after their exodus from Egypt, to lead them to the promised land, and to destroy the hostile tribes in their way (Ex. xxiii. 20, Num. xx. 16).
In Judges (ii. 1) an angel of the Lord—unless here and in the preceding instances (compare Isa. xlii. 19, Ḥag. i. 13, Mal. iii. 1), a human messenger of God is meant—addressed the whole people, swearing to bring them to the promised land. An angel brought Elijah meat and drink (I Kings, xix. 5); and as God watched over Jacob, so is every pious person protected by an angel, who cares for him in all his ways (Ps. xxxiv. 7, xci. 11). There are angels militant, one of whom smites in one night the whole Assyrian army of 185,000 men (II Kings, xix. 35); messengers go forth from God "in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid" (Ezek. xxx. 9); the enemy is scattered before the angel like chaff (Ps. xxxv. 5, 6).
Avenging angels are mentioned, such as the one in II Sam. xxiv. 15, who annihilates thousands. It would seem that the pestilence was personified, and that the "evil angels" mentioned in Ps. lxxviii. 49 are to be regarded as personifications of this kind. "Evil" is here to be taken in the causative sense, as "producing evil"; for, as stated above, angels are generally considered to be by nature beneficent to man. They glorify God, whence the term "glorifying angels" comes (Ps. xxix. 1, ciii. 20, cxlviii. 2; compare Isa. vi. 2 et seq.).
They constitute God's court, sitting in council with Him (I Kings, xxii. 19; Job, i. 6, ii. 1); hence they are called His "council of the holy ones" (Ps. lxxxix. 7, R. V.; A. V. "assembly of the saints"). They accompany God as His attendants, when He appears to man (Deut. xxxiii. 2; Job, xxxviii. 7). This conception was developed after the Exile; and in the Zechariah, angels of various shapes are delegated "to walk to and fro through the earth" in order to find out and report what happens (Zech. vi. 7).
In the prophetic books, angels appear as representatives of the prophetic spirit, and bring to the prophets God's word. Thus the prophet Haggai was called God's messenger (angel); and it is known that "Malachi" is not a real name, but means "messenger" or "angel". It is noteworthy that in I Kings, xiii. 18, an angel brought the divine word to the prophet.
In some places, it is implied that angels existed before the Creation (Gen. i. 26; Job, xxxviii. 7). The earlier Biblical writings did not speculate about them; simply regarding them, in their relations to man, as God's agents. Consequently, they did not individualize or denominate them; and in Judges, xiii. 18, and Gen. xxxii. 30, the angels, when questioned, refuse to give their names. In Daniel, however, there occur the names Michael and Gabriel. Michael is Israel's representative in Heaven, where other nations—the Persians, for instance—were also represented by angelic princes. More than three hundred years before the Book of Daniel was written, Zechariah graded the angels according to their rank, but did not name them. The notion of the seven eyes (Zech. iii. 9, iv. 10) may have been affected by the representation of the seven archangels and also possibly by the seven amesha spentas of Zoroastrianism (compare Ezek. ix. 2).
Jewish views
Angels appear in several Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) stories, in addition to the ones previously mentioned above. These include the warning to Lot of the imminent destruction of Sodom. Many Bible chapters mention an "angry God" who sends His angel to smite the enemies of the Israelites. Traditional Jewish biblical commentators have a variety of ways of explaining what an angel is. The earliest Biblical books present angels as heavenly beings created by God, some of whom apparently are endowed with free will. Later biblical books in the Tanakh present a stunningly different view of angels, as the Jewish beliefs about such things developed over the many years covered in the Bible. Such a differing perspective on angels is discovered in the Book of Ezekiel, where these angels bear no relation whatsoever to the former understanding of what an angel was.
The archangels named in post-exile Judaism are Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, Uriel, Raguel, Sariel, and Jerahmeel. Gabriel and Michael are mentioned in the book of Daniel, Raphael in the book of Tobit (from the Protestant Apocrypha or Catholic and Orthodox Deuterocanon) and the remaining four in the book of Enoch from the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox).
Maimonides and rationalism
In the Middle Ages, some Jews developed a rationalist view of angels that is still accepted by many Jews today. The rationalist view of angels, as held by Maimonides, Gersonides, Samuel Ibn Tibbon, etc., states that God's actions are never mediated by a violation of the laws of nature. Rather, all such interactions are by way of angels. Even this can be highly misleading: Maimonides harshly states that the average person's understanding of the term "angel" is ignorant in the extreme. Instead, he says, the wise man sees that what the Bible and Talmud refer to as "angels" are actually metaphors for the various laws of nature, or the principles by which the physical universe operates, or kinds of platonic eternal forms. This is explained in his Guide of the Perplexed II:4 and II:6.
:II:4
:: "...This leads Aristotle in turn to the demonstrated fact that God, glory and majesty to Him, does not do things by direct contact. God burns things by means of fire; fire is moved by the motion of the sphere; the sphere is moved by means of a disembodied intellect, these intellects being the 'angels which are near to Him', through whose mediation the spheres [planets] move....thus totally disembodied minds exist which emanate from God and are the intermediaries between God and all the bodies [objects] here in this world."
:II:6
:: "...Aristotle's doctrine that these disembodied spheres serve as the nexus between God and existence, by whose mediation the sphere are brought into motion, which is the cause of all becoming, is the express import of all the Scriptures. For you will never in Scripture any activity done by God except through an angel. And "angel", as you know, means messenger. Thus anything which executes a command is an angel. So the motions of living beings, even those that are inarticulate, are said explicitly by Scripture to be due to angels.
::...Our argument here is concerned solely with those "angels" which are disembodied intellects. For our Bible is not unaware that God governs this existence through the mediation of angels...(Maimonides then quotes discussions of angels from Genesis, Plato, and Midrash Bereshit Rabbah)...the import in all these texts is not—as a primitive mentality would suppose—to suggest any discussion or planning or seeking of advice on God's part. How could the Creator receive aid from the object of his creation? The real import of all is to proclaim that existence—including particular individuals and even the formation of the parts of animals such as they are—is brought about entirely through the mediation of angels.
::For all forces are angels! How blind, how perniciously blind are the naïve?! If you told someone who purports to be a sage of Israel that the Deity sends an angel who enters a woman's womb and there forms an embryo, he would think this a miracle and accept it as a mark of the majesty and power of the Deity—despite the fact that he believes an angel to be a body of fire one third the size of the entire world. All this, he thinks, is possible for God. But if you tell him that God placed in the sperm the power of forming and demarcating these organs, and that this is the angel, or that all forms are produced by the Active Intellect—that here is the angel, the "vice-regent of the world" constantly mentioned by the sages—then he will recoil. For he [the naïve person] does not understand that the true majesty and power are in the bringing into being of forces which are active in a thing although they cannot be perceived by the senses.
::The sages of blessed memory state clearly—to those who are wise themselves— | | |
