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| “We have seen him, we have contemplated him, we have touched him” (1 Jn 1:1). |
Does the Bible Prohibit the Creation of Images?
By Ariel Álvarez Valdés
Repost with permission from Claretian Publications
Excerpts from the Book:
THE BIBLE: Questions People Ask Volume 2: Old Testament
Ariel Álvarez Valdés
Claretian Publications
Does the Bible Prohibit the Creation of Images? Pages 79-87
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THE MISSING COMMANDMENT
Many Catholics oftentimes feel ashamed when talking with Christians of Protestant origin or members of some other sect, who reproach them for using images of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary or various saints in their liturgies or in their personal devotions. They say that the Law of God prohibits this in the Bible.
Is this true or not? In order to respond, we have to see what the Bible says.
The Book of Exodus relates that when Moses guided the people of Israel in the desert, he arrived at the foot of Mount Sinai. Yahweh appeared to him in the form of lightning, thunder, earthquake, and dense clouds and gave him the 10 commandments.
The 2nd commandment said: “You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God” (Ex 20:4-5).
Was it true?
WHAT DID THE LAW REALLY SAY?
The Bible seems to confirm it. It prohibited the Israelites from fabricating images and figures of either Yahweh or any other divinity. Leviticus, the third book of the Bible, commanded: “You shall not have idols, neither images, nor engraved stones and prostrate before them” (Lev 26:1).
In other parts, it says in great detail: “You shall not act corruptly by making an idol for yourselves, in the form of any figure – the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth” (Dt 4:16-18). This deed was so severe that it was considered a curse: “Cursed be anyone who makes an idol or casts an image, anything abhorrent to the Lord, the work of an artisan, and sets it up in secret” (Dt 27:15).
It is clear that the Law of God prohibited plant, animal or human representation in worship.
In line with this, many Christian churches discarded the images in their worship and criticized those who used them.
HOW THE PEOPLE LIVED
In spite of the categorical biblical exhortations, the Hebrew people could not absolutely dispense with these images. Various biblical passages show that these were tolerated and even permitted in the Old Testament. In some cases God Himself commanded the construction of sacred images.
For example, in the journey through the desert, Yahweh commanded the construction of the Ark of the Covenant, the sacred chest where the tablets of the Law were kept and protected. Then, he ordered the golden image of a cherubim, with features of half-animal and half-human, to be placed on each side (Ex 25:18). Also, the lamp stand of seven arms shaped with almond blossoms was to be set up to give light (Ex 25:33).
These works were not of human initiative. According to the Bible, God Himself filled the artist Bezalel with His spirit, knowing his ability and intelligence to design them (Ex 31:1-5).
In other episodes of the history of Israel, there were pious characters that used to worship images and representative objects without fear. Gideon, for example, one of the most important judges of Israel, made a figure of Yahweh out of earrings and other objects of gold to which the Israelites paid tribute (Jdg 8:24-27). And Micah, a fervent and faithful Yahwist, made a silvery effigy of Yahweh and established a sanctuary for worship (Jdg 18:31). Even King David, loved and blessed by God, had divine images in his house without reservation (1 Sam 19:11-13).
A TEMPLE WITHOUT PREJUDICE
There was also the majestic Temple of Jerusalem constructed by Solomon. According to biblical descriptions, it seems to have been filled with representations and sculptures, starting with its most sacred inner chamber, called the Holy of Holies, where two immense cherubs, sculptured in finest wood, were set up together with the ark of the covenant (1 K 6:23).
The interior was totally decorated with images of cherubs, palm trees and flowers (1 K 6:29). And in order to sustain the enormous deposit of water for purification at the entrance of the Temple, ten stands of bronze were constructed (1 K 7:29).
The capitals that were on the top of the pillars in the vestibule were of lily-work, and above the rounded projection were two hundred pomegranates set in rows all around (1 K 7:19-20). On the borders that were set in the frames were lions, oxen and wreaths of beveled work (1 K 7:29). All was made with the approval of God himself.
There was more. An enormous serpent of bronze which Moses made in the desert by the command of Yahweh to heal those who were bitten by snakes by looking at it was being worshipped. It was exposed for two hundred years in the Temple until King Hezekiah removed it (2 K 18:4).
When the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed in the 6th century BCE, the prophet Ezekiel had a vision of a future temple. It was going to be adorned with cherubims and palm trees (Ezk 41:18).
The quantity of images, paintings, statues, and decorations that filled the grand Temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem was prodigious.
NOT A SINGLE VOICE OF DISSENT
In spite of the 2nd commandment, no ancient prophet in the Bible disapproved of the images. They, who were the sentinels of God, who raised their voices against any sin of the people, who did not permit any minor deviation, kept silent about the images.
Not even the formidable Elias and Elijah, confirmed defenders of orthodoxy, condemned them. Not even Amos, whose unique mission was to go to preach in the temple of the city of Bethel where they had placed a statue of a bull adorning the altar of Yahweh, spoke against the images. He only complained about the lavishness, avarice and cruelty of the people, without alluding to the calf in the Temple.
What happened to the prohibition? It did not seem to be in effect. Or, it did not seem so compulsory.
Why? What was the motive or basis for overlooking the images? The Bible did not give any reason, and the people of Israel never ascertained the motive. Only one text, in the book of Deuteronomy, offered an explanation: “Since you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb (another name for Mount Sinai) out of the fire, take care and watch yourselves” (Dt 4:15). It means that when God spoke to them on the mountain, they only heard His voice without seeing any image.
But this is not a real explanation. It is a historical note that brings us back to ask why no image appeared in Mt. Sinai. We remain without an answer.
THE ASSUMED REASON
Although the Bible does not say it, we can speculate the motive for the prohibition of the images, thanks to our knowledge of the ancient religious environment.
All the people who were in contact with Israel considered the image not only as a symbol of divinity, but that the divinity itself dwelt on it. The image was a true form of the god it represented.
According to this primitive oriental mentality, a divine person resided in the image of the deity. When somebody made an image, the god came to reside in it. The image was an “epiclesis,” calling God to come and dwell in it. It was a representation or a “double” of the symbolized divinity.
The Bible narrates that when Rachel, wife of Jacob, robbed her father, Laban, of his idols, it seemed that his gods were subtracted but not the images (Gen 31:30). And in the history of the previously mentioned Micah, he accused the Danites of robbing him of his gods when they marched only with the images (Jdg 18:24).
THE DISSENTING VOICES
It was easy to fall into magical concept of the divinity. To possess the image gave one the power of the gods. It exerted a kind of dominion over him and drove him to do his will.
This seriously placed the identity of Yahweh in danger. He manifested himself freely and spontaneously when he pleased, above the forces of His creatures, directing the course of history according to his will.
At the time when this idea was not considered a threat, there was no difficulty. In the middle of the 8th century BCE, the people of Israel fell into the temptation of idol worship. Therefore the prophets had to speak.
Hosea was the first to denounce the sacrifice and incense that the people offered to the images of strange divinities, with the belief that this enabled them to obtain favors.
Isaiah, a little later, strongly ridiculed the magical cult. With the half of a tree, they made fire for a roast to satiate their need. The other half was used to make a god. They adored it and said: “You are our god if you can save us.” Isaiah really ridiculed them.
The time had not yet arrived when humans would worship God in a human form.
WHEN GOD MAKES AN IMAGE
Centuries passed. The Greek environment made the images less influential to people with the onset of philosophical and rational thinking. This diminished the fetishistic idea of divine images.
Besides, Israel maintained that Yahweh was the God of all peoples, and no other divinity existed for other nations. Therefore whatever image, altar, prayer, or worship that was celebrated in whatever place or language, was destined only for Him. The danger of adoring strange gods disappeared.
Then God Himself, who remained invisible until this moment, facing now a more mature stage of humanity provided an image to be contemplated by all. In the Old Covenant, God revealed Himself to the people without an image. In the New Covenant He made Himself visible. On the night of the Nativity, the angels gave the shepherds a sign of the new revelation: “You will see a child wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying on a manger.”
God Himself when there was no longer any danger wished to come closer to humans, mediated by Christ, in order that they can see, hear, touch, and feel Him.
NO MORE PROHIBITION
St. Paul, who lived in compliance with the Old Law, understood very well the new disposition about “Christ, the image of God” (2 Cor 4:4). In a beautiful hymn, he proclaimed that Christ “is the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15). Jesus talking to the apostle Philip, had affirmed it: “He who sees me, has seen the Father” (Jn 14:8).
Therefore, if God himself wanted to go out from his “hidden” stage, and then make Himself visible in an image, who are we to prohibit such representing Him?
The commandment about the images in the Old Testament had a pedagogical function, and therefore was temporary. With the passing of time, the age of maturity arrived and the image-danger has passed away. This is how the Christians came to understand it. They started to make images of Christ and to represent scenes of his life to help people come closer to God. The churches, temples, even cemeteries set up images for psychological reasons. They helped in prayer. In time, they were added to the Bible for children and catechumens.
When the commandments were enumerated, the 2nd commandment was kept and the last commandment was divided into two to complete the 10. The list of the commandments that reached us from the 4th century CE no longer included the prohibition of images. That is why it is surprising that modern sects want to keep it that way.
EVEN UNTIL LUTHER
The Protestants, when they separated from the Catholic Church in the 16th century, reacted against the excesses in the worship of images and caused the destruction of many of them. But Luther, the initiator of this movement, recognized the importance of the images.
In a letter of 1528 he wrote: “Images, symbols and liturgical vestments…and similar things should be left to free choice. Whoever does not like them should leave them aside. The images inspired in the Scriptures or in historical narratives, seem to me to be very useful.” And in another passage, he affirmed that images were “the gospel of the poor.”
Luther perceived very well what many Protestants refused to understand: that it was not an act of adoring an image but of adoring a God, mediated by an image. To believe that when one kneels before an image, he/she is wasting the adoration that should be given only to God indicates a primitive mentality prevalent only in the Old Testament. This mentality goes back to worship of the divinities in the Old Testament.
If we apply the 2nd commandment literally, we cannot even turn on a television because in this way we are “making” images.
THE IMAGE PAR EXCELLENCE
When Jesus, the Son of God, took on human flesh, He showed the temporal character of the commandment in question, and the usefulness of sensible representations for catechism and prayer. The contemporaries of Jesus were impressed. “We have seen him, we have contemplated him, we have touched him” (1 Jn 1:1).
There is a need to correct the misunderstanding regarding the use of images. Even though we have to avoid superstitions and error that some make with these images, the Bible can never be a basis for these prohibitions as some churches and sects do.
But most importantly, there is an image we cannot help but create: the image of Christ in us.
Paul in his letter to the Romans affirmed that “God first chose them and destined them to reproduce the image of Christ in their own lives” (8:29). Not to do it is to miss out on one’s destiny.
Every action, every work, every contribution to justice in the world, to the common good, to solidarity, will create a radiant, exact, precise image of Jesus Christ in our lives. At the end, it should be almost perfect. Jesus himself asks that from us: “Be perfect, as the Father in Heaven is perfect” (Mt 5:48).
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ARIEL ÁLVAREZ VALDÉS is an Argentinian biblical scholar. He made his doctoral study at the Franciscan Biblical University in Jerusalem. His work has already been published in Spanish, French, Portuguese, German and Flemish.
Source: splendorofthechurch.com.ph
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