Traditional Catholic Teaching

Appendix to Supplement A: Lesson 7
Appendix to Supplement A: Lesson 16

The Biblical Tradition of
Using Images In Christian Worship

The word "image" is used in the Bible in the first chapter of the first book, Genesis 1:27. "God created man in his own image: in the divine image he created him, male and female he created them." So all human beings are in some mysterious way, icons of the living God. This reaches its perfection in Jesus, the Son, who proclaimed that be was the full revelation of the Godhead, "To see me is to see the Father" (Jn. 14:10). St Paul reinforces this; "Jesus is the image of the unseen God." (Col: 1: 15). So God has taken the initiative by revealing himself in visible, material form.

The Bible also reveals how we are to relate to images. In the Old Testament we read that to worship a graven image as a god is forbidden by the first commandment: "You shall not make yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything in heaven or on earth beneath or in the waters under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, your God, the Lord Almighty, am a jealous God ..."(Exodus 20: 4).

We need to understand this direction in context. The commandment is not saying that the making of graven images as such is forbidden, but the adoration of these is forbidden. How do we know? Moses who gave these commandments from God, goes on to describe the design God gave him for the tabernacle and the ark (Exodus 25). He subsequently built this ark which had the images of two gold cherubim on the top (Ex. 25: 18 – 21; 37: 8 – 9) and arranged for the weaving of the curtains with the embroidered cherubim for inside the tabernacle (Ex. 36: 35). He later made the bronze serpent at God's direction, to heal the people in the desert. Buildings were adorned with images throughout Jewish history (Solomon's temple is one example). It seems it was only after the conquest by Greece and Rome that images were banned from Israel's life. Jesus was challenged one day and asked for the coin of tribute. It bore the image of Caesar. He said, "Render unto Caesar the things that belong to Caesar, and to God the things that are God's" (Matt. 22: 19 – 21). Jesus reinforces the truth that we are made in the divine image and, as such, we all belong to God. Images are created, but are never to be adored.

Paintings, frescos, statues and icons when associated with worship are not idols to receive our worship. Their purpose, on the contrary, is to give us a message. The message is always one of the relationship of man with God through God's revelation of himself to man. Of course anything can become an idol when we use it incorrectly. Christians who cannot, or will not, grasp this truth carry an unnecessary burden. They need not prohibit themselves from responding to beauty and allowing this experience to bring them closer to God. Did not God, at creation, surround Adam and Eve with a vast array of beautiful objects, animate and inanimate, to heighten their sense of God's presence, and their relationship to him? Surely we would not stop admiring or using a tree just because Satan appeared in one to tempt our first parents. The same applies in our spiritual life. To deny the place of images in our worship or demonstration of respect towards God just because, in some religions, people worship statues, etc, is therefore entirely unbiblical.

Includes material from "Introducing Icons" by Paul and Christine Hodgkinson 1991

Close Window