Constantine V on Icons

How is it possible that there can be a drawing, that is an image, made of Our Lord Jesus Christ, when He is of two natures in a union of the material and the immaterial which admits no confusion ? Since He has another immaterial nature conjoined to the flesh, and with these two natures He is one, and His person or substance is inseparable from the two natures, we hold that He cannot be depicted. For what is depicted in one person, and he who circumscribes that person has plainly circumscribed the divine nature which is incapable of being circumscribed. (Nikephoros, Antiherreticus I, PG 100, 301C; trans. Bryer & Herrin 1977, pp. 182-3)

Horos, or Definition of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, 787

We define with all accuracy and care that the venerable and holy icons be set up like the form of the venerable and life-giving Cross, inasmuch as matter consisting of colours and pebbles and other matter is appropriate in the holy Church of God, on sacred vessels and vestments, walls and panels, in houses and on the roads, as well as the images of our Lord and God and saviour Jesus Christ, our undefiled Lady the Holy Mother of God, of the angels worthy of honour, and of all the holy and pious men. For the more frequently they are seen by means of pictoral representation the more those who behold them are aroused to remember and desire the prototypes (originals) and to give them greeting and worship of honour -- but not the true worship of our faith which befits only the divine nature -- but to offer them both incense and candles, in the same way as to the form  of the venerable and life-giving Cross and the holy Gospel books and to the other sacred objects, as was the custom even of the ancients. (Trans. Bryer & Herrin 1977, p. 184. See also Jenkins 1966, p. 95;  Mango 1972, pp. 172-3.)

Paul Stephenson
May 2001

Revised November 2006

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