THEOSISDimitri of Rostov
The untainted blood of Abel, dear Orthodox believers, once cried out fervently to God, as the Almighty Himself declared to Cain: "The voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me" (Gen. 4:10). The blood of numerous martyrs who valiantly suffered in our Orthodox Church for the sacred icons also resonates; it does not raise a different cry, but rather this one: "To Thy pure image we bow, O Blessed One, asking forgiveness for our trespasses, O Christ God." Let us, as Orthodox Christians and all children of the Eastern Church, unite in this profound expression of the holy martyrs. We must also be prepared to endure suffering and even shed our blood for the sacred icons, continuously singing: "To Thy pure image we bow, O Blessed One, asking forgiveness for our trespasses, O Christ God." What shall we say to you, O seven-headed serpent of the iconoclastic heresy, who rejects the sacred icons? I perceive your words, you offspring of the echidna, as you spew forth your venomous rhetoric, condemning us Orthodox as idolaters and labeling the holy icons as mere idols—deceived as you are by falsehood.
First, I will pose this question to you, you poisonous serpent: what constitutes an idol, what is a holy icon, and how do the two differ? Are you not aware, you wretched teacher of Israel? An image or icon is a representation and likeness of a genuine entity, whether it currently exists, existed, or will exist. If someone portrays the Holy Trinity as three angels, that indeed occurred when the angels visited Abraham at the oak of Mamre (Gen. 18:1). If someone depicts God the Father in the form of an esteemed elder, that reflects the truth of what was seen by the prophets Daniel and Isaiah: "the Ancient of Days" "sitting on a throne of high exaltation, and the seraphim around Him" (Dan. 7:9; Is. 6:1). When one portrays God the Son, who was incarnate, lived among humanity, "suffered and was buried, and rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sat at the right hand of the Father, and is coming again with glory to judge the living and the dead," all this was, is, and will indeed remain true. If someone depicts God the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, it truly reflects the moment when the Spirit descended as a dove. Each sacred icon consistently relates to its original image and is a likeness of authentic realities.
Now, what is an idol? How distinctly different it is from an icon! An icon represents a genuine reality, while an idol embodies empty allure. What do idols signify? They reflect deities like Dia, Hermias, Apollo, Artemis, and countless other demonic entities. What do idols represent? They depict the sun, the moon, Kupala, Lada, Perun. You might argue they are images of gods. But here lies the question: are the deities portrayed by pagans true gods? Who would dare label Bacchus, the embodiment of drunkenness, as a true God? Who would call the true goddess Artemis, or Venus, the epitome of immorality, a deity? All the gods of the Gentiles are, as Scripture asserts, demons; "But our Lord made heaven and earth" (Psalm 95:5), as the apostle Paul affirms in his correspondence to the Corinthians: "If there be any gods either in heaven or on earth... But to us there is one God the Father, from whom are all things, and we are with Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him" (1 Cor. 8:5, 6), along with one Holy Spirit, through whom are all things, and we in Him.
I express it thus: behold how the idol, which claims to represent God, in reality signifies nothing but emptiness and deception; for it embodies a deity that is not God, but a demon, not the Creator, but rather the created. This is categorically not the case with holy icons, which consistently convey the truth, as I have stated. This clearly illustrates the vast difference between truth and mere falsehood. Who else would dare call holy icons idols? Do you not heed the thunderous declaration emanating from the seventh ecumenical council, which proclaims with great authority, "To those who assert that the holy icons are idols, anathema, anathema, anathema!" If holy icons cannot be classified as idols, how can those who honor them be deemed idolaters? How audacious of you, O seven-headed serpent of the iconoclastic heresy, to unleash your venom against holy icons and against those who honor them? I will respond, and in my response, I will draw from Divine Scriptures.
Have you never read, you lawless iconoclasts, of how the Lord commanded Moses to create two golden cherubim on the ark and to place them upon it? The act of bowing before the ark also involved reverence for the cherubim, yet such devotion did not label them as idolaters; they remained the chosen people of God. Have you not encountered in Scripture the account of the brass serpent that Moses raised upon a pole, which brought healing to those who looked upon it and worshiped it, a prefiguring of our Saviour, who was crucified, as He proclaimed: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up" (John 3:14)? Have you not explored historical accounts revealing that Christ our Saviour, leaving the likeness of His pure face on a cloth, sent it to King Abgar, who sought to see Jesus and receive healing—an image we now refer to as the Uncreated icon? Have you not read that Christ, as attested in the words of Paul, is named the image of "the eternal Father, who is the radiance of the Father’s glory and the image of His essence" (Hebrews 1:3)? Have you not noted in Scripture that humanity itself is called the image of God, according to the declaration: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26)? Why do you label the images of God as idols? Is humanity, who is created as God's image, an idol?
I shall answer you: you rightly illustrate your own predicament, for it is unbecoming to refer to yourselves as divine images; instead, you resemble idols. You are idols, northern iconoclasts, for though you possess eyes, you fail to perceive God as depicted in His sacred icons, unable to witness the miracles that manifest from the holy icons of the Theotokos, which Saint Luke himself painted and through which many wonders occur. You possess ears but do not heed the commandments of Scripture: "Exalt the Lord our God; worship at His footstool, for it is holy" (Psalm 98:5). The holy fathers regard the footstool as the holy cross, which you refuse to acknowledge in reverence. You hear not what St. John of Damascus, along with the holy fathers and the whole council, profess about images: the honor accorded to an image is directed to the one who is represented within it; he who honors the image honors the one depicted.
Thus, the iconoclasts were decisively challenged by Stephen the Holy Martyr, whose life is chronicled in his hagiography. He was led before the chief of the iconoclasts, Leo the Isaurian, who commanded him to trample the icon of the Saviour underfoot. Yet what did this holy man do? He requested a tax coin and asked: whose image and inscription are these? When they replied, "Caesar's," he cast the coin to the ground, trampling it and despising Caesar's likeness, thus dishonoring it before Caesar himself. Witnessing this act, the king and all his council were filled with rage, and the holy man boldly proclaimed: "You are angered because I have trampled upon the image of your earthly king, who is but dust and ashes; how much more should the King of kings and Lord of lords be enraged, whose image you trample upon with filthy feet? Have you not read the apostolic precept: 'Do not do to others what you do not wish to be done to you'? You wish not to have your own images trampled upon; why, then, do you, the offspring of the foul Kopronim, trample upon the sacred icons that represent our Saviour and His holy saints?" What do you retort, you lawless iconoclasts? Speak, slander, roar, you beasts of the asylum! We shall listen and, as possible, answer. Your abominable doctrine can be divided into two principal arguments.
To the first, you claim that those who honor holy icons are idolaters. To this, I assert again the clear distinction between an icon and an idol that I have previously detailed. An icon cannot be categorized as an idol; it is a likeness of reality, whereas an idol represents mere empty charm. Observe, trembling Copronymus, how vastly different we remain from idolaters. They worshipped deities embodied in their idols—demons that dwell within them; yet we bow down to our true God as manifested in the icon of the Saviour, and to the true Mother of God, the pure Virgin Mary, as represented in the icon of the Theotokos. Idolaters regarded their idols as divine; we do not perceive images as deities, nor have any desire to do so: we know that there is only one God, venerated and glorified in the Holy Trinity, and the icon serves solely as a reminder of Him.
The idolaters believed their deities reside in lifeless idols, just as a soul dwells within a body, but we Orthodox faithful do not subscribe to that belief. We recognize that God is indescribable; He permeates all things and exists everywhere. He does not exist within icons as the soul does in the body, nor can He. Idolaters place all their trust in idols, conversely, we Orthodox place our faith in Him who is depicted in the icon. Idolaters worship the very idols themselves—be they wood or gold—but we do not adopt such views. When we honor the icons, we do not revere the representations themselves, nor the materials they are crafted from, nor the colors and artistry, but we honor the images concurrently and inseparably with their original forms. We honor the image of the Saviour, but our minds focus on Him, the Saviour Himself. We honor the image of the Mother of God, but in our hearts, we envision her as she is.
In summary, we Orthodox, while venerating icons, never separate the image from its primary form, but instead honor both image and essence together and indivisibly. I repeat this insistently: we do not bow to the images themselves, divorced from their original forms, nor do we wish to; rather, we bow to the proffered image along with its true representation. Is this not what St. John of Damascus conveys: "The honor received by the image is returned to the original image"? You, despicable and cowardly Copronymus, also argue that by honoring sacred icons, we violate God's commandment, which states: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any idol, or any likeness" (Deuteronomy 5:8). We hear, O Copronymists, we heed with faith and love, we acknowledge and uphold the Ten Commandments of the Lord. Yet you stand corrupted, feigning understanding of neither Scriptures nor the might of God.
First, I shall reply by affirming that we do not create idols, nor do we honor them, for one is an image, and the other is an idol, as previously delineated. Next, consider why Moses, who had received the Lord’s commandments—one of which was "Thou shalt not make unto thee any idol, beneath any likeness”—still orchestrated the creation of cherubim upon the ark and fashioned the brass serpent to manifest Christ who was to be crucified. Was Moses in the right, or did he err in this? If he acted wickedly, then denounce his actions; but if rightly, how can you reproach us who do the same?
Furthermore, I assert this: the commandment "Thou shalt not make for thyself an idol, beneath any likeness" pertains to idols, not icons. The Almighty knew well the Jews' susceptibility to idolatry, for they mingled with Gentiles, practiced their deeds, fashioned a golden calf at Horeb, worshipped statues, and traded the glory of God for the likeness of a calf that consumed grass. When God noticed this gravitation towards idolatry among the Jews, He provided the commandments through Moses, stating, "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt; you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth" (Deuteronomy 5:6-8).