論聖像 第 1 章 第 4/8 段

“Swear to me that you will tell no one what I am about to tell you, and I will war against you no longer.” And the old man swore to him: “By him who dwells in the highest, I will not tell anyone what you say to me.” Then the demon said to him:

“Do not venerate this image, and I will war against you no more.” Now the image bore the imprint of our Lady, the holy Mary the Theotokos, carrying our Lord Jesus Christ.

See whom those who forbid the veneration of images imitate, and whose instruments they are;

the demon of fornication chose rather that the image of our Lady should not be venerated than that the old man should fall into the impurity of fornication, knowing this to be a greater sin than fornication. But since the subject is the image and veneration, let us treat of these things more fully and say:

first, what is an image? second, for what purpose did the image come to be? third, how many kinds of images are there? fourth, what is depicted and what is not depicted? fifth, who first made images? Then concerning veneration also:

first, what is veneration? second, how many modes of veneration are there? third, how many objects of veneration do we find in Scripture? fourth, that all veneration is for the sake of God, who alone is by nature to be venerated;

fifth, that the honour of the image passes over to the prototype.

First, what is an image? An image, then, is a likeness and pattern and imprint of something, showing in itself the thing depicted; yet the image is by no means like the prototype—that is, the thing depicted—in every respect, for the image is one thing and the thing depicted another, and a difference is necessarily seen between them, since this is not that.

The image of a man, even if it represents the form of the body, does not possess the powers of the soul;

for it neither lives nor reasons nor speaks nor feels nor moves a limb.

And the Son, though he is the natural image of the Father, has something that differs from him;

for he is Son and not Father.

Second, for what purpose is the image? Every image is a disclosure and a pointing-out of what is hidden.

Since man has not bare knowledge of the invisible (his soul being covered by the body), nor of things to come after him, nor of things separated and distant in place (being himself circumscribed by place and time), the image was devised to guide knowledge, and to make manifest and publish what is hidden—wholly for benefit and beneficence and salvation, that, the deeds being set up as on a pillar and held up in triumph, we may discern what is hidden, and may desire and emulate the good things, while turning away from and hating the contrary, that is, the evil.

Third, how many kinds of images are there? There are several kinds of images.

The first, then, is the natural image.

In every matter the natural must come first, and then that which is by position and imitation; for instance, there must first be a man by nature, and then one by position, according to imitation.

The first, then, is the natural and unchangeable image of the invisible God: the Son of the Father, showing the Father in himself.

“No one has ever seen God,” and again, “Not that anyone has seen the Father.” That the Son is the image of the Father, the Apostle says:

“He is the image of the invisible God,” and in Hebrews, “who is the radiance of his glory and the imprint of his hypostasis.” And that he shows the Father in himself, in the Gospel according to John, when Philip said:

“Show us the Father, and it is enough for us,” the Lord says:

“Have I been so long with you, and you have not known me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father.” The Son, then, is the natural image of the Father, unchangeable, in all things like the Father except in unbegottenness and fatherhood;

for the Father is the unbegotten begetter, while the Son is begotten and not Father.

And the Holy Spirit also is the image of the Son;

for “no one can say ‘Lord Jesus’ except in the Holy Spirit.” Through the Holy Spirit, then, we know Christ to be the Son of God and God, and in the Son we behold the Father;

for by nature the word is the messenger of the mind, and the breath is the revealer of the word.

The Holy Spirit is the like and unchangeable image of the Son, differing only in being proceeding;

for the Son is begotten, but not proceeding.

And the son of every father is the natural image of his father.

And this is the first kind of image, the natural.

The second kind of image is the conception in God of the things that are to come to be by him, that is, his pre-eternal will, which is ever the same;

for the divine is unchangeable, and his will is without beginning, by which—just as he willed from before the ages—at the time foreordained by him the things determined come to be;

for the conception concerning each of them is the images and patterns of the things to come to be by him, which by the holy Dionysius are also called predeterminations.

For in his counsel were characterized and imaged, before their coming into being, the things foreordained by him and surely to come to pass.

The third kind of image is that which came to be by God according to imitation, that is, man.

For how shall the created be of the same nature as the uncreated, except by imitation? For just as mind (the Father) and word (the Son) and the Holy Spirit are one God, so mind and word and spirit are one man, also in respect of self-determination and rule;

“Let us make man according to our image and likeness,” and at once he added:

“And let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven,” and again, “and rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven and all the earth, and subdue it.” The fourth kind of image is that of Scripture fashioning shapes and forms and types of invisible and incorporeal things, bodily represented for a dim apprehension of God and of the angels, since we cannot contemplate incorporeal things without shapes corresponding to us, as the great divine Dionysius the Areopagite says.

“That the types are fittingly set forth for the typeless and the shapes for the shapeless, one might say is caused not only by our analogical capacity, which is unable to rise immediately to intelligible contemplations and needs appropriate and kindred uplifting aids.”

“If, then, the divine Word, providing for our analogical capacity and furnishing us on every side with what uplifts, clothes even the simple and formless things with certain types, how shall it not image things that are by their own nature formed with shapes and longed for, yet, because they are not present, cannot be seen?” The God-uttering Gregory says that the mind, however much it labours, is wholly unable to go beyond bodily things;

“But the invisible things of God, since the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made.” And in created things too we see images that dimly intimate to us the divine reflections, as when we say that the supra-original Holy Trinity is imaged by the sun and light and ray, or by a welling fountain and the water it pours forth and the outflow, or by our own mind and word and spirit, or by a rose-plant and flower and fragrance.

The fifth kind of image is that which prefigures and foreshadows things to come, as the bush and the dew upon the fleece prefigure the Virgin and Theotokos, and the rod and the jar; and as the serpent prefigures those who through the Cross abolished the bite of the original serpent, author of evil; and the sea, the water, and the cloud prefigure the Spirit of baptism.

The sixth kind of image is that for the remembrance of things that have happened—whether a miracle or a virtue—for the glory and honour and commemoration of those who fought valiantly and excelled in virtue, or of vice for the shaming and disgrace of the most wicked men, for the benefit of those who behold them afterward, that we may flee evils and emulate virtues.

This is done both by the word written in books—for the letter images the word, as God engraved the Law on the tablets and commanded that the lives of God-loving men be recorded—and by sensible contemplation, as he commanded the jar and the rod to be placed in the ark for an everlasting memorial, and the names of the tribes to be engraved on the stones of the ephod, and indeed the twelve stones to be taken up from the Jordan as a type of the priests (O the mystery! how great it is to the faithful in truth) who bore the ark, and

So now too we inscribe the images of virtuous men who have lived, for our emulation and remembrance and longing.

Either, then, do away with every image and oppose with a counter-law him who commanded these things to be done, or receive each according to the reason and manner befitting it.

Fourth chapter: what is depicted and what is not depicted, and how each is depicted.

Bodies, as having shape and bodily circumscription and colour, are fittingly depicted.

An angel, a soul, and a demon, though not bodily and gross, yet according to their own nature are shaped and circumscribed—for, being intelligible, they are believed to be present and to act intelligibly in intelligible places—and so they are depicted bodily, as Moses depicted the cherubim and as they were seen by the worthy, the bodily image disclosing a certain incorporeal and intelligible contemplation.

But the divine nature alone is uncircumscribable, and altogether formless and shapeless and incomprehensible, even though the divine Scripture clothes God with types that seem bodily, so that shapes are seen, yet they too are incorporeal;

for they were seen not with bodily eyes but with the eyes of the mind by the prophets and by those to whom they were revealed—for they were not seen by all.

To put it simply, we can make images of all the shapes we have seen;

and we understand these things as they were seen.

For even if at times we apprehend shapes from words, yet it is from the things we have seen that we come to the apprehension of these.

So too with each of the senses: from what we have smelled or tasted or touched, we come through words to the apprehension of these.

We know, then, that it is impossible to behold the nature of God, or of an angel, or of a soul, or of a demon; but these are contemplated in a certain transfiguration, divine providence clothing with types and shapes the incorporeal and typeless things that have no bodily shape, in order to lead us by the hand to a partial and gross knowledge of them, lest we be in total ignorance of God and of the incorporeal creatures.

For God is by nature wholly incorporeal;

but an angel and a soul and a demon, compared with God who alone is incomparable, are bodies, yet compared with material bodies are incorporeal.

Since, then, God did not wish us to be wholly ignorant of incorporeal things, he clothed them with types and shapes and images according to the analogy of our nature—bodily shapes seen in the immaterial vision of the mind; and these we shape and image, even as the cherubim were shaped and imaged.

But Scripture has shapes and images even of God.

Who first made an image? God himself first begot the only-begotten Son and his Word, his living, natural, unchangeable image, the imprint of his eternity; and he made man according to his own image and likeness.

And Adam saw God and heard the sound of his feet as he walked in the evening, and hid himself in the garden; and Jacob saw and wrestled with God—plainly God appeared to him as a man; and Moses saw as it were the back parts of a man; and Isaiah saw as a man seated on a throne; and Daniel saw a likeness of a man, and one like a son of man coming to the Ancient of Days.

And no one saw the nature of God, but the type and image of him who was to be;

for the Son and Word of God, who is invisible, was to become man in truth, that he might be united to our nature and be seen upon earth.

All those, then, who saw the type and image of him who was to be, venerated, as Paul the Apostle says in the Epistle to the Hebrews:

“In faith all these died, not having received the promises, but having seen them from afar and greeted them.” Shall I, then, not make an image of him who for my sake was seen in the nature of flesh, and

venerate and honour him through the honour and veneration of his image? Abraham saw not the nature of God (for no one has ever seen God), but an image of God, and falling down he venerated.

Joshua the son of Nun saw not the nature of an angel, but an image (for the nature of an angel is not seen with bodily eyes), and falling down he venerated; likewise Daniel also—yet an angel is not God but a creature and servant and attendant of God—and he venerated, not as God, but as God’s attendant and minister.

And shall I not make an image of the friends of Christ, and venerate them—not as gods, but as images of the friends of God? For neither Joshua nor Daniel venerated the angels they saw as gods, nor do I venerate the image as God; but through the image and the saints I offer veneration and honour to God, for whose sake I also reverence his friends and treat them with respect.

God was not united by nature with angels, but he was united by nature with men.

God did not become an angel, but God became man by nature and in truth.

“For surely it is not angels that he takes hold of, but he takes hold of the seed of Abraham.” The Son of God did not become the nature of angels in hypostasis, but he became the nature of man in hypostasis.

Angels did not partake of, nor become partakers of, the divine nature, but of its energy and grace; whereas men do partake and become partakers of the divine nature—all those who receive the holy body of Christ and drink his precious blood;

for it is united in hypostasis to the Godhead, and the two natures in the body of Christ partaken of by us are united in hypostasis inseparably; and we partake of both natures—of the body bodily, of the Godhead spiritually—or rather of both in both, not being identified in hypostasis (for we first subsist and then are united), but according to the commingling of his body and blood.

And how are not those greater than the angels who, by keeping the commandments, preserve the union unalloyed? Our nature, though made a little lower than the angels because of death and the grossness of the body, has yet, by the good pleasure and conjunction of God, become greater than the angels;

for the angels stand by it with fear and trembling as it is seated on the throne of glory in Christ, and they will stand trembling at the judgment;

they are not said by Scripture to sit together with, nor to be sharers of, the divine glory (for they are all ministering spirits, sent forth to serve for the sake of those who shall inherit salvation), nor that they shall reign together, nor be glorified together, nor sit at the Father’s table; but the saints are sons of God, sons of the kingdom, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.

I therefore honour the saints and glorify together the servants and friends and joint-heirs of Christ—servants by nature, friends by choice, and sons and heirs by divine grace—as the Lord says to the Father.

Having spoken, then, of the image, let us speak also of veneration; and first, what is veneration?

Concerning veneration—what is veneration? Veneration, then, is a sign of submission, that is, of subjection and humbling.

And there are very many modes of veneration.

How many modes of veneration are there? The first mode of veneration is that of latria (worship), which we offer to God alone, who is by nature to be venerated; and this too is according to different modes.

First, according to that of servitude;

for all creatures venerate him as servants their master, since “all things,” he says, “are your servants”; and some willingly, others unwillingly.

Some venerate willingly, with knowledge, as do the pious; others, recognizing him yet unwilling, venerate unwillingly, as do the demons;

others, not knowing the God who is by nature, venerate unwillingly him whom they do not know.

The second mode is that of wonder and longing, by which we venerate God on account of his natural glory;

for he is glorified, having his glory not from anything else, but being himself the cause of all glory and of every good—light incomprehensible, sweetness beyond compare, beauty inconceivable, an abyss of goodness, wisdom unsearchable, power infinite in might, alone worthy for his own sake to be wondered at and venerated and glorified and longed for.

The third mode is that of thanksgiving for the good things that have come to us;

for all beings owe thanksgiving to God and the offering of ceaseless veneration, both because they have their being from him and subsist in him, and because he imparts to all his gifts without grudging and without their asking, and wills all to be saved and to partake of his goodness, and is long-suffering toward us when we sin, and makes his sun to rise upon the just and the unjust and sends rain upon the wicked and the good, and because the Son of God for our sake became as we are and made us partakers of the divine nature, that we shall be like him, as John the Theologian says in his catholic epistle.

The fourth mode is that of need and hope of benefits, by which, recognizing that we can do nothing nor have any good apart from him, we venerate, each asking of him what he feels himself to lack and what he longs for—to be delivered from evils and to obtain good things.

The fifth mode is that of repentance and confession;

for when we have sinned we venerate and fall down before God, beseeching him to forgive our trespasses, as grateful servants.

And this mode is threefold;

for one is grieved either out of love, or lest he fail to obtain God’s benefits, or out of fear of punishments.

And the first is from gratitude and longing for God himself and a filial disposition; the second is mercenary; and the third is servile.

How many objects of veneration do we find in Scripture, and according to how many modes do we offer veneration to created things? First, those in whom God, who alone is holy and rests in the holy ones, has come to rest—as in the holy Theotokos and all the saints.

These are they who, so far as possible, have been made like to God both by their own choice and by God’s indwelling and cooperation, who are also truly called gods—not by nature, but by position, as red-hot iron is called fire, not by nature, but by position and participation in fire;

“You shall be holy, for I am holy.” This is first—the choice.

Then God cooperates unto good with everyone who chooses the good; then, “I will dwell in them and walk among them,” and “we are temples of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in us”; then, “he gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out and to heal every disease and every sickness,” and “the works that I do, you also shall do, and greater than these shall you do”; then, “As I live, says the Lord, I will glorify those who glorify me,” and “if indeed we suffer together, that we may also be glorified together,” and “God stood in the assembly of gods,

and in the midst he judges gods.” As, then, they are truly gods, not by nature, but as partakers of the God who is by nature, so they are objects of veneration, not by nature, but as having within themselves him who is by nature to be venerated—just as red-hot iron is not by nature untouchable and burning, but as partaking of that which is by nature burning.

They are venerated, then, as glorified by God, as having been made by God terrible to adversaries and benefactors to those who draw near in faith—not as gods and benefactors by nature, but as attendants and ministers of God, who have obtained boldness toward him out of love.

We venerate them, then, since the king is gratified when he sees the servant beloved by him venerated—not as a king, but as an obedient minister and a well-disposed friend.

And those who draw near in faith receive their requests, whether the servant asks this of the king, or the king accepts the honour and faith of the one who seeks it from the servant.

Thus, through the apostles, those who drew near obtained healings.

Thus the shadow and the handkerchiefs and aprons of the apostles welled forth healings.

But those who, in rebellion and apostasy, wish to be venerated as gods—these are unworthy of veneration and deserving of eternal fire.

And those who, out of contempt and a proud spirit, do not venerate the servants of God, as arrogant and proud men, are condemned as impious toward God.

And the children of Elisha bear witness, who scornfully jeered at him and became food for the bears.

The second mode, according to which we venerate created things, is that through which and in which God worked our salvation—whether before the Lord’s coming or after his incarnate economy—such as Mount Sinai and Nazareth, the manger in Bethlehem and the cave, holy Golgotha, the wood of the Cross, the nails, the sponge, the reed, the holy and saving spear, the robe, the tunic, the linen cloths, the swaddling clothes, the holy tomb, the fountain of our resurrection, the stone of the sepulchre, Mount Zion the holy mountain, again the Mount of Olives, the Sheep Pool, and the blessed precinct of Gethsemane.

These and such things I reverence and venerate, and every holy temple of God, and everything over which the name of God is called—not on account of their own nature, but because they are receptacles of divine energy, and through them and in them God was pleased to accomplish our salvation.

For angels too and men and all matter that partakes of the divine energy and ministered to my salvation, I reverence and venerate on account of the divine energy.

But I do not venerate the Jews; for they are not partakers of the divine energy, nor did they crucify the Lord of glory, my God, with the aim of my salvation, but rather, being smitten with envy and hatred toward God and the Benefactor.

“Lord, I have loved the beauty of your house,” says David, “and the place of the dwelling of your glory,” and “venerate at the place where his feet stood,” and “venerate at his holy mountain.” The holy Theotokos is God’s living holy mountain; the apostles are God’s rational mountains;

“the mountains skipped like rams, and the hills like lambs of the flock.” The third mode, according to which we venerate the things dedicated to God—I mean the holy Gospels and the rest of the books;

for they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. And the patens and chalices, censers, lampstands, and tables—for it is plain that all these are venerable;

for see, when Belshazzar caused the people to be served with the sacred vessels, how God overthrew his kingdom.

The fourth mode, according to which the images seen by the prophets are venerated (for in an iconic vision they saw God), and the images of things to come, as Aaron’s rod imaging the mystery of the Virgin, and the jar and the table;

and Jacob too venerated upon the top of the rod, which was a type of the Saviour.

And further, the images of things that have happened, for remembrance;

for the tabernacle itself was a universal image (for, he says to Moses, the pattern shown to you on the mountain), and the cherubim of gold, a work of cast metal, and the cherubim on the veil, a woven work.

Thus we venerate the precious type of the Cross, and the likeness of the bodily form of my God, and of her who according to the flesh bore him, and of his servants.

The fifth mode, according to which we venerate one another, as having a portion of God and as having been made according to the image of God, humbling ourselves to one another and fulfilling the law of love.

The sixth mode is that toward those in authority and power (“Render to all their dues,” he says, “honour to whom honour is due”), as Jacob venerated Esau as his elder brother and Pharaoh as a ruler appointed by God.

according to which servants venerate their masters, and the benefited their benefactors, and those in need those from whom they would obtain what they need, as Abraham venerated the sons of Hamor when he bought the double cave.

And to put it simply, veneration is a symbol of fear and longing and honour, of submission and humbling; but one must venerate no one as God except him alone who is by nature God, and yet render to all what is due, for the Lord’s sake.

See how great is the power and what divine energy is given to those who draw near to the images of the saints in faith and with a pure conscience.

Therefore, brethren, let us stand on the rock of faith and the tradition of the Church, not removing the boundaries which our holy fathers set, not giving place to those who wish to innovate and to destroy the building of the holy, catholic, and apostolic Church of God;

For if license be granted to everyone who wishes, little by little the whole body of the Church will be dissolved.

No, brethren, no! Children of the Church who love Christ, do not put your mother to shame, do not tear down her adornment.

Receive her as she intercedes through me.

Learn what God says concerning her:

“You are wholly fair, my beloved, and there is no blemish in you.” Let us worship and serve the Creator and Maker alone, as God who is by nature to be worshiped.

Let us also venerate the holy Mother of God, not as God, but as the Mother of God according to the flesh.

Further, let us venerate the saints also, as chosen friends of God who have gained boldness before Him.

For if men render veneration to corruptible kings—often even to impious and sinful ones—and to the rulers appointed by them, and to their standards, according to the divine saying of the Apostle:

“Be subject to principalities and powers, and render to all their dues: honor to whom honor, fear to whom fear,” and “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,” as the Lord says, “and to God the things that are God’s”—how much more ought we to worship the King of kings as the only Sovereign by nature, and His servants and friends who have reigned over the passions and been set up as rulers over all the earth (“you will appoint them,” says David, “rulers over all the earth”), who have received authority over demons and diseases, and shall reign together with Christ in an incorruptible and indissoluble kingdom—whose very shadow alone drove away diseases and demons? Let us not, then, reckon the image weaker and less honorable than a shadow;

for it truly sketches in shadow the prototype.

Brethren, the Christian is faith;

therefore he who approaches in faith gains much, but he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind, who shall receive nothing;

for all the saints were well-pleasing to God through faith.

Let us then receive the tradition of the Church with uprightness of heart, and not with many reasonings;

for God made man upright, but they sought out many devices.

Let us not consent to learn a new faith, as though the tradition of the holy Fathers stood condemned;

for the divine Apostle says: