Tag: Icons

Symbolism: Simon’s Grapes

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So a couple of weeks ago at Matins, I looked up into the dome of our church and saw the icon of Simon the Zealot. In the icon, you can see that he’s holding some grapes. Why is this symbol associated with this Apostle?
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Fortunately, I recently spent some time with an iconographer and I asked him about their significance. He pointed out that Simon “the Zealot” is also known as Simon “the Canaanite” and that there is a tradition in the East that this Simon was the groom at the wedding in Cana towards the beginning of John’s Gospel. The grapes are a reference to the miracle the Lord performed there, turning water into wine.

With more probability, Baronius, following Nicephorus (Hist. l. 8. c. 30), thinks that the bridegroom at this marriage was the Apostle Simon, who was surnamed the Cananite from Cana.

– Cornelius La pide

The commentator Cornelius then goes on to make a very interesting comment which I think has some interesting implications:

As soon as Simon had seen this miracle of Christ at his wedding, he bade farewell to his bride and the world, and followed Him, and was chosen to be one of His twelve Apostles. This was the reason why Christ came to this wedding; and by coming, indeed, honoured marriage; but by calling him to Himself, He showed that celibacy and the apostolate were better than marriage.

– Cornelius La pide

Weird stuff I find interesting

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Today a question was posted on an article I wrote a couple of years ago. The query was an intriguing one and the investigation to find the answer took some interesting turns, so I thought I’d write about it briefly. Here was the question that was asked:

“My Aunt had an icon of the Theotokos of the Passion…[with] the words, ΕΝ ΕKKΛΕΥΛΟΓΕΙΤΕ ΤΟΝ ΘΕΟΝ. Can you tell me what this means?”

Now, I’m no Greek scholar. Not in the slightest. I’m reasonably familiar with the alphabet and I know how to use a lexicon. Apart from that, I just know a handful of Greek words so as to impress girls at bible studies.

It’s (mostly familiar) Greek to me

Thankfully, three of the four words in the questioner’s text also appear in the the prologue of John’s Gospel, with which I’m familiar. I therefore instantly knew what some of the words meant. The word “ΕΝ” means “in”. “ΤΟΝ” is the article used with an accusative cased noun, in this case, “ΘΕΟΝ“, which means “God”. So, the sentence read to my mind: “In …. the God”.

I didn’t know what the second word, “ΕKKΛΕΥΛΟΓΕΙΤΕ”, meant and I couldn’t find it in a lexicon. I “sounded out” the word and saw that it began with “ecc-lay-….”, which sounded an awful lot like “ekklesia”, which I knew meant “church” or assembly. A little bit of googling later, and found a phrase which looked very similar:

ΕΝ ΕΚΚΛΗΣΙΑΙΣ ΕΥΛΟΓΕΙΤΕ ΤΟΝ ΘΕΟΝ
In the assemblies/churches praise God

I contacted my friend Steve with this suggestion since he’s far more familiar with Greek. He confirmed my suspicion that the text given by the questioner was a corrupted form of this verse. If anyone else knows anything different, please leave a comment below.

Ad Fontes!

As we were online discussing this verse, Steve sent me a link to the Greek text Codex Sinaiticus, the earliest copy we have of the complete New Testament. Specifically, he sent me a link to Psalm 67(68), verse 26:

Text

As you can see, this isn’t the easiest thing in the world to read! Early texts like these are generally written all in capitals, with all the words joined together. IFIDIDITWOULDBERATHERDIFFICULTTOREAD!

Nomina Sacra

In my earlier posts concerning icons of Jesus and Mary I mentioned that textual abbreviations are often used in icons. This is called in the Nomina Sacra (“Sacred Name”) and, if you look carefully at the manuscript from the codex, you can see that its use is present here:

Text

The word circled is ΘΕΟΝ, which means “God”, but you can see that not all the letters are present. Instead, only the first and last letters are used, ΘΝ, with a line drawn over the top.

Am I weird that I find stuff like this interesting?

On second thought, don’t answer that….

You say goodbye and I say halo…

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It’s been a while since I’ve written anything about icons….

Today I was at the Divine Liturgy with a small contingent from Good Shepherd and it prompted me to write a post explaining the letters which often appear on Christ’s halo:

In iconography, the halos of angels and Saints are typically filled with gold. In icons of Christ, however, there is also a cross superimposed upon the halo. In the icon above, known as the “Pantokrator” (“Almighty”) , you can clearly see this. Only three arms of the cross are visible, each symbolizing a member of the Trinity. Now, at the edge of each arm is a Greek letter:

Ό = The letter “omicron”

ώ = The letter “omega”
Ν = The letter “nu”

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Cracking the code

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One of the things I really liked about “The Da Vinci Code” (ridiculous ahistorial conspiracies aside) was that it got people looking at art and architecture with greater attentiveness to symbolism.  Christianity has always used symbols very heavily to express the truths of the faith and its art developed rapidly as a vehicle for this.

A few weeks ago I explained the meaning of the “IC XC” on icons, which is a short-hand for “Jesus Christ”, and earlier this week I explained the meaning of the letters which commonly appear above pictures of His mother. Today I’d like to provide a quick follow-up to another aspect of “IC XC” which you sometimes find in eastern art…

This is the painting on the front wall above the altar at Holy Angels:

How many “IC XC“s do you see?

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Artwork of God’s Artwork

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In a previous post I explained the meaning of the text “IC XC” which is found in Eastern icons. I thought today I would do a quick follow-up to explain the letters which commonly appear around the Theotokos…

The Theo-what?

“The Theotokos” (pronounced “th-ay-oh-to-kos”) is the name that Eastern Christians (both Orthodox and Catholic) typically give to Jesus’ mother, Mary. It was also the word used in the proclamation of the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. In the Western Church, “Theotokos” is often loosely translated into English as “Mother Of God” (whereas it literally means “God-bearer”).

Giving Mary the title “Mother of God” has certainly caused some heated arguments in the history of Christianity. Some have mistakenly seen this title as an elevation of Mary to a height even greater than that of Jesus (if such a thing were possible!). Yet the title “Mother Of God” is really much more about Jesus than Mary, since to say that Mary is not the mother of God is to say that she gave birth only to His humanity, which would indicate  some kind of rupture between Jesus’ human and divine natures. That’s kind of a weighty topic…I think I’ll come back to that another time….

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