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| Sixth Century Icon of Christ Pantocrator |
This blog post by Mary Katherine May of QualityMusicandBooks.com
An ICON is a representation of something or someone. In today's world people who use computers and the internet will understand icons as symbols that when clicked bring up a site, program or file that the button or icon represents. For example, here on Google Blogger, the white B inside an orange square is its icon. Facebook uses only the letter F.
LINK to ICON definition on TheFreeDictionary.com.
Another type of ICON is an object or person that has come to represent something very important in life or history. A good example is the Statue of Liberty which represents American freedom and hope. What sums up this iconic landmark the best are the lines from The New Colossus, a poem written by Emma Lazarus in 1883.
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| Emma Lazarus Author of The New Colossus |
Irving Berlin set the words to music for the 1949 musical, Miss Liberty. Since that time these passionate words set in a sentimental fashion have been been sung and recorded countless times. Click the LINK to hear the song sung by Sandi Patty with the Cincinnati Pops.
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
εἰκών prounced
ICON
Saint Paul in his letter to the Colossians, chapter 1, verses 15 through 20, wrote an inspirational, beautiful description of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that beings thus:
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the first-born over all creation.
Image is translated from the Greek word icon. Strong's Lexicon defines icon as follows:
1.2. the image of the Son of God, into which true Christians are transformed, is likeness not only to the heavenly body, but also to the most holy and blessed state of mind, which Christ possesses.
Jesus Christ testified himself to himself as the image or icon of God in the Gospel of John 14: 6, 7: Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.
Jesus Christ is not a prophet nor is He only a wise man. I do not write was, I write the verb is in the present tense. Jesus Christ who came to us in human form is the way, truth, and life meaning He is one with God and is God because to be the icon of God, the image of God he must be one with God.
How then can we understand Scripture saying that Jesus as the image of God is the Icon of God in relation to the belief that icons are no different than graven images which God doesn't allow? One answer is that graven images have to do with idols that remove God from his place and first and only to be worshiped.
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| St. Michael's and St. George's Ukrainian Orthodox Church Minneapolis, Minnesota |
The use of icons dates back to the first centuries of Christianity. I provide links for readers interested in learning more about the use of icons in the Christian Church.
LINK to article by Dr. Zakaria Wahba titled Icons: Their History and Spiritual Signficance
LINK to article on the veneration of icons on the Korennaya Hermitage site.
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