One of the most noticeable differences between Catholicism and many forms of Protestantism lies in our divergent attitudes towards religious images. As most people know, we Catholics love them. We have statues, paintings, icons, medals, crucifixes, and just about any other kind of religious images you can think of.
In contrast, many Protestants eschew all of these things and contend that our use of images is actually a form of idolatry. To us, that claim may seem a bit excessive, but it is actually rooted in a literal reading of a clear command from the Old Testament:
“You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.” (Exodus 20:4-5)
For Protestants, who do not use images in their prayer, this passage is clear and decisive. God says we shouldn’t do it, so the Catholic practice of incorporating statues, icons, and the like into our worship is idolatrous. Period.
So how should we respond? Are Catholics really idolaters for using images, or is there more here than meets the eye?
Making and Worshiping
To begin, let’s note that this passage has two parts. In the first half, God tells the Israelites not to make images of anything. Read in isolation, this may seem like God is forbidding all images for any purpose whatsoever. Read in context, however, that is not what He is getting at. The next part explains this seemingly odd prohibition and narrows down its meaning.
In the second half of the passage, God tells the Israelites not to “bow down to them or serve them” because He is “a jealous God.” That may sound a bit strange to modern ears, but the idea of bowing down to images is easy to understand. Yet, how can someone serve an inanimate object? The key is to recognize that this is a common biblical idiom for worship. For example, when Satan tempted Jesus to worship him in the wilderness, Jesus retorted, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve” (Matthew 4:10).
So, the second part is all about worship. It employs a figure of speech called a hendiadys, which is when two words (in this case, “bow down” – a single word in Hebrew – and “serve”) are used to express one concept, as in the sentence, “It is nice and sunny today.” Scripture often uses this figure of speech (for example, Lamentations 2:9, Luke 21:15), so it is not surprising to find it here. God is forbidding the Israelites from worshipping images or the deities they may represent, and that sheds light on the first part of the passage as well. He isn’t saying that we cannot make any images at all. Rather, He is simply saying that we cannot make images and worship them like Israel’s pagan neighbors used to do.
The Ark of the Covenant
And if there is any doubt about that, we can look at places in the Old Testament where God actually commands people to make images. To take just one example, five chapters after His prohibition of images in Exodus, God gives Moses these directions about making the Ark of the Covenant:
“And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end; of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends…There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you of all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.” (Exodus 25:18-19, 22)
Here we see that God commanded the Israelites to make images of cherubim, and He commanded them to make these images to play a role in their worship. They weren’t supposed to worship the images themselves, but they were to place the images in the very spot where the people would encounter God, where He would speak to them. From this text, it is clear that when God prohibited the worship of images a few chapters earlier, He wasn’t banning any and every use of images in religious contexts. He was simply prohibiting the worship of the images themselves or the false gods they represented.
And this wider meaning is really important because we Catholics don’t worship our images or the saints they portray. We simply honor the saints and use images as physical reminders of spiritual realities, so we are not breaking any divine prohibitions when we incorporate them into our prayer.
Images of God
That should be enough to show why the Catholic practice of using images in our worship is perfectly biblical, but let’s take it one step further. In the Book of Deuteronomy, God explains why He didn’t allow the Israelites to make any images of Him. In a somewhat counterintuitive way, His explanation also helps us understand why we Christians can make images of Him today:
“Therefore take good heed to yourselves. Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth.” (Deuteronomy 4:15-19)
Horeb is another name for Mt. Sinai, the place where God made His covenant with His people and gave them His law; so in this passage, He is harkening back to those central events of Israel’s history. He is saying that He didn’t show them what He looked like, so they should not try to make it up themselves. In other words, they were not supposed to make any images of Him because He didn’t give them any images to reproduce.
The Son and the Spirit
However, when we get to the New Testament, all of that changes. Most obviously, Jesus is God Himself in human form. In the Incarnation, God literally became man, so, unlike the ancient Israelites, Christians do have a visible form for image-making. We can make pictures, statues, and icons of the man Jesus Christ because, as Scripture itself tells us, He is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15, cf. 2 Corinthians 4:4).
Similarly, the New Testament also gives us images of the other two Persons of the Trinity. For example, at Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit came upon Him “in bodily form, as a dove” (Luke 3:22), so we can now depict the Spirit in that way.
God the Father
The case of God the Father is a bit trickier, since the New Testament never gives us an outright physical description of Him. Still, we’re not entirely without a reference. Essentially, His identity as “Father” gives us an immediate image. We know what authentic fatherhood looks like (a loving, caring man), so we can represent Him accordingly.
And in case there is any doubt, Scripture tells us as much. In one of St. Paul’s letters, he describes the Father as the one “from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named” (Ephesians 3:15), and this means that fatherhood isn’t just an earthly metaphor we use for God. It is not just the closest analogue we have to what the Father really is. No, Paul is telling us that fatherhood truly is an image of God the Father. He is the prototype, so to speak, and human fathers are just imperfect representations of Him. And if that is the case, if human fathers are representations of our heavenly Father, then we can also represent Him as a father in our religious art.
We Can Use Images
From all that, it is pretty clear which side in this debate is right. The Bible does not condemn using images in our worship, and if we read it carefully, it actually lays the foundation for our use of things like statues, icons, and crucifixes today. Since the New Testament gives us images of all three Persons of the Trinity, we can make physical representations of them, something the ancient Israelites couldn’t do because God never showed Himself to them in any physical form.
19 thoughts on “A Biblical Defense of Religious Images”
This has happened before.
On one occasion I re-posted several times to no avail.
I guess that I’ll agree to disagree with you rather than engage in a futile endeavor.
Suspect that censorship is taking place.
An article by Melanie Juneau, Editor of Catholic Stand, appeared later today. Comments were not possible.
I see that my latest reply to your comments were not posted.
Censorship?
Probably not, but I honestly have no idea. I don’t have anything to do with whether or not comments get approved. In fact, I don’t even know if comments do have to be approved by anybody. So if you’d like, go ahead and re-post your latest reply.
JP:
My objection with your article centered on the 1st Commandment given to Moses by God. It was not about dietary restrictions.
But you must admit that the dietary restrictions are good for us. Pork has the issue of trichinosis. Shellfish are bottom feeders in the ocean, digesting toxics. Drinking animal blood; is there any question about that?
And there is a health benefit connected with circumcision, as well as isolating people with contagious diseases.
But again, my objection to your article dealt with the 1st Commandment. Are you really suggesting that Jesus told us NOT to follow these?
This week’s readings dealt with the “end of the age”. Yet, our priest sidestepped the importance of the issue in his homily, as usual.
One day we will learn the truth about these issues. Will you be on the “right side”?
In any event, let me leave you with advice from Paul for these times.
Ephesians 6:10-19
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Battle Against Evil. 10 Finally, draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power. 11 Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens. 13 Therefore, put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold your ground. 14 So stand fast with your loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as a breastplate, 15 and your feet shod in readiness for the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield, to quench all [the] flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Constant Prayer. 18 With all prayer and supplication, pray at every opportunity in the Spirit. To that end, be watchful with all perseverance and supplication for all the holy ones 19 and also for me, that speech may be given me to open my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.
I know that your point was primarily about images, not about things like circumcision and the food laws, but you were defending your point by saying that God’s commands in the Old Testament are all still valid, and to prove it, you quoted a passage about the entire Law, not just part of it. You can’t make blanket statements like that but then turn around and affirm the validity of only some laws. If you’re going to make general statements like that, it has to be all or nothing, so if you want to defend the validity of only certain commands in the Old Testament, you have to take a different route.
All that being said, I totally agree that the first commandment is still in force. Idolatry is wrong, whether we’re worshipping pagan gods, images, or things like money and power. However, as I explained in my article and in my responses to a bunch of your comments, we Catholics don’t worship images. If you want to accuse of idolatry, you have to refute my points in defense of Catholic promise. Ignoring those points and simply repeating the same thing over and over isn’t an argument.
And I’m not really sure what your point is about your priest not talking about “the end of the age” in his homily. What does that have to do with this particular topic?
Jesus said:
Matthew 5:17-20
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Teaching About the Law. 17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 18 Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. 19 Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 20 I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Alright, if you really want to go this route, we can do that. Apparently, you think that Christians are still bound by all the laws in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, including these:
“Say to the people of Israel, These are the living things which you may eat among all the beasts that are on the earth….And the swine, because it parts the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch; they are unclean to you.” (Leviticus 11:2, 7)
“You shall not wear a mingled stuff, wool and linen together.” (Deuteronomy 22:11)
So you’d better not eat pork or wear any clothing items that are made from a blend of linen and wool, because if you do, you’re breaking God’s commands. So please confirm for me that you do in fact follow these laws.
Now, let’s get to that passage in Mat 5 that you quoted. In isolation, these words do seem to mean that we have to follow the Law of Moses, but let’s look at what Jesus says immediately after this. He gives what scholars call the six antithesis, which are passages where He contrasts what the Law of Moses says with His own teachings. Sometimes He simply intensifies the Law’s teaching (like in Mat 5:21-30), but other times He sets the Law aside and gives a different teaching, like in this text:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if any one would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well; and if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you.” (Matthew 5:38-42)
In this passage, Jesus commands us NOT to follow the Law’s teaching about repaying “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” and that’s enough to shatter your whole argument. But in case there’s still any doubt left, let’s keep going and see what else we can find on this subject.
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus “declared all foods clean” (Mark 7:19), so again, He’s telling us NOT to follow the Mosaic Law’s rules about clean and unclean foods. And we see this same thing play out in Acts 10:9-16, where God literally tells Peter to eat foods that the Law of Moses considered unclean.
Or look at circumcision, one of the most important things the Mosaic Law commanded the Israelites to do. Paul tells the Galatians in no uncertain terms that if any of them get themselves circumcised in order to follow the Law of Moses, they are “severed from Christ” and “fallen away from grace” (Galatians 5:2-4).
And earlier in the letter, he tells them, “Now before faith came, we were confined under the law, kept under restraint until faith should be revealed. So that the law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian” (Galatians 3:23-25). The Law was the Israelites’ “custodian,” but now that Jesus has come, Christ’s people “are no longer under a custodian” In other words, we’re no longer under the Law of Moses.
All this is enough to conclusively and definitively show that in Matthew 5, Jesus wasn’t telling us that we need to follow the entire Law of Moses just as it’s written. Instead, He’s simply using a hyperbole (just like He does only a few verses later in Matthew 5:29-30) to teach that we have to follow the Law as it’s relevant to us in the New Covenant. And as the rest of the New Testament shows, some of the specific rules within the Law simply aren’t relevant for the New Covenant. For example, circumcision and the laws about clean and unclean foods aren’t relevant, so we no longer have to follow them.
So getting back to the main topic at hand, this all raises an obvious question: what implications does this have for the Law’s teachings about images? Well, I’d say two things. For starters, the prohibition of worshipping images still stands because that’s a form of idolatry, and idolatry is still a sin. Secondly, it means that God’s command not to make images of Him is transformed. As I explain in the article, the whole point of this command (as God Himself says in the text) is that He didn’t give the Israelites any images of Himself that they could reproduce. However, now that Jesus has come, we do have images of God that we can reproduce, so we can make images to aid us in our worship of Him.
Can you really claim that we Catholics don’t “worship” statues?
We have May crownings, Catholic brides place flowers before the statue of Mary on their wedding day, the Pope bows before a statue of Mary, huge statues are constructed to honor Jesus and Mary, etc.
Is this not a form of idolatry?
How can standing before a man made carving be legitimized by the Church? We have no image of God, nor one of Jesus or Mary, yet we Catholics are expected to pay homage to something not real which was made by man.
When Stephen was stoned by the Jews, he was granted a vision of God with Jesus seated at his right-hand, just before he died. (Acts 7:55-60). No statue, or graven image, involved.
Can’t find anything in the Bible where God decrees that His commandments could be ignored. Jesus reinforced the need to obey God’s commandments in Matthew 5:17-20.
To me, it seems that you, and the Catholic Church, try to use “human logic” to explain away “apostasy”.
None of those actions that you mentioned are forms of worship. For example, if crowning someone or something were worship, then we would never be able to crown new kings and queens. Similarly, if placing flowers before someone or something were worship, then we would never be able to place flowers at the graves of our loved ones, and husbands would never be able to give their wives flowers. As for bowing, that one may seem like genuine worship at first, but the fact is that many cultures (both past and present) have used bowing as a simple expression of honor, not as an expression of worship, and the Bible bears witness to this. For example, in Genesis we read:
“Then Abraham rose and bowed down before the people of the land, the Hittites.” (Genesis 23:7)
Abraham clearly wasn’t worshipping the Hittites. He was simply honoring them, and if he can do it, so can we. You also say that simply building statues is worship, and that’s just ridiculous. If you want to insist that we Catholics do in fact worship images, define worship first, and then tell me how Catholics perform that act with images.
When you say “How can standing before a man made carving be legitimized by the Church?” I’m not sure what you mean. In particular, what do you mean by “standing before”? You also say that we don’t have any images of Jesus or Mary or God, and you’re right that we don’t know exactly what Jesus and Mary looked like, but why should that matter? Why does it matter that our images don’t look exactly like them? As for God (I’m assuming you mean the Father), as I argue in the article, fatherhood is a true image of the Father. Then you say, “we Catholics are expected to pay homage to something not real which was made by man,” but that’s not exactly correct. When we venerate images, the point isn’t to venerate the image itself. Rather, the point is to venerate the person represented by the image, and we simply use the image as a physical aid for that. It’s like if a man on a business trip kisses a picture of his wife. He’s really expressing his love for his wife, not for the picture in itself, and he simply uses the picture as a physical aid because his wife isn’t there.
I’m not really sure what your point about Stephen is. Sure, he didn’t see any images, but what does that prove? Nobody is saying that we have to use images every time we pray. The point is simply that we CAN use them, but if we have a direct vision of God, then there’s no reason to use one.
Finally, you say that you “Can’t find anything in the Bible where God decrees that His commandments could be ignored,” but I think St. Paul would disagree with you in Romans and Galatians. There are numerous places where he famously says that we don’t need to follow the Law of Moses anymore, so I don’t think I need to cite any specific texts. What’s more, as I explain in the article, we don’t actually “ignore” God’s commandments. For one, we don’t worship images. And secondly, in the Old Testament, God told the Israelites not to make images of Him because He didn’t show them what He looked like, but as I explain in the article, we do in fact have images of Him that we can use now, so it’s not a case of us ignoring anything. Rather, the circumstances have simply changed (to be clear, this only applies to the second point here; obviously, the prohibition of worshipping images doesn’t depend on circumstances, but as I’ve explained numerous times, we don’t actually worship images).
Pingback: VVEDNESDAY EDITION – Big Pulpit
I take a bit of an issue with the beginning of the last paragraph. It really isn’t clear which side is “right”. The bible – especially the old testament – is in many cases contradictory and/or ambiguous. And that means it can be used to make almost whatever argument you want with the “correct interpretation”.
If you disagree with my conclusion, that’s fine, but where exactly do you think I go wrong? How do you contend that someone can make a biblical case to the contrary that takes into account the entirety of Scripture, not just bits and pieces of it?
O Lord! Thou didst imprint Thy sacred features upon thine
veil; stamp them also indelibly upon my heart.
The burial cloth that covered the face of Jesus doesn’t contain his image.
https://www.simplycatholic.com/face-cloth-of-jesus-burial-the-sudarium-of-oviedo/
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
VII. Israel’s Apostasy and God’s Renewal of the Covenant
Chapter 32
The Golden Calf. 1 When the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for that man Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.” 2 Aaron replied, “Take off the golden earrings that your wives, your sons, and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He received their offering, and fashioning it with a tool, made a molten calf. Then they cried out, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” 5 On seeing this, Aaron built an altar in front of the calf and proclaimed, “Tomorrow is a feast of the Lord.” 6 Early the next day the people sacrificed burnt offerings and brought communion sacrifices. Then they sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.
7 Then the Lord said to Moses: Go down at once because your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have acted corruptly. 8 They have quickly turned aside from the way I commanded them, making for themselves a molten calf and bowing down to it, sacrificing to it and crying out, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!” 9 I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are, continued the Lord to Moses. 10 Let me alone, then, that my anger may burn against them to consume them. Then I will make of you a great nation.
11 But Moses implored the Lord, his God, saying, “Why, O Lord, should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent he brought them out, that he might kill them in the mountains and wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning wrath; change your mind about punishing your people. 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and how you swore to them by your own self, saying, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky; and all this land that I promised, I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.’” 14 So the Lord changed his mind about the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people.
15 Moses then turned and came down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hands, tablets that were written on both sides, front and back. 16 The tablets were made by God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. 17 Now, when Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “That sounds like a battle in the camp.” 18 But Moses answered,
“It is not the noise of victory,
it is not the noise of defeat;
the sound I hear is singing.”
19 As he drew near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing. Then Moses’ anger burned, and he threw the tablets down and broke them on the base of the mountain. 20 Taking the calf they had made, he burned it in the fire and then ground it down to powder, which he scattered on the water and made the Israelites drink.
21 [d]Moses asked Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you should lead them into a grave sin?” 22 Aaron replied, “Do not let my lord be angry. You know how the people are prone to evil. 23 They said to me, ‘Make us a god to go before us; as for this man Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’ 24 So I told them, ‘Whoever is wearing gold, take it off.’ They gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out.”
25 Moses saw that the people were running wild because Aaron had lost control—to the secret delight of their foes. 26 Moses stood at the gate of the camp and shouted, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!” All the Levites then rallied to him, 27 and he told them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Each of you put your sword on your hip! Go back and forth through the camp, from gate to gate, and kill your brothers, your friends, your neighbors!” 28 The Levites did as Moses had commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people fell.
The Israelites turned from worshipping God and substituted a statue. And they paid a price for their apostasy.
The teaching of the 2nd Commandment has been altered by the RCC to justify their practice of creating statues, contrary to God’s command.
“Article 2 THE SECOND COMMANDMENT
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.72
You have heard that it was said to the men of old, “You shall not swear falsely. But I say to you, Do not swear at all.73
72 Ex 20:7; Deut 5:11.
73 Mt 5:33-34.”
Nothing in the Bible tells us that God changed his mind about the matter.
Correction:
1st Commandment
IV. “You Shall Not Make For Yourself a Graven Image . . .”
2129 The divine injunction included the prohibition of every representation of God by the hand of man. Deuteronomy explains: “Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves, in the form of any figure….”66 It is the absolutely transcendent God who revealed himself to Israel. “He is the all,” but at the same time “he is greater than all his works.”67 He is “the author of beauty.”68
2130 Nevertheless, already in the Old Testament, God ordained or permitted the making of images that pointed symbolically toward salvation by the incarnate Word: so it was with the bronze serpent, the ark of the covenant, and the cherubim.69
2131 Basing itself on the mystery of the incarnate Word, the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea (787) justified against the iconoclasts the veneration of icons – of Christ, but also of the Mother of God, the angels, and all the saints. By becoming incarnate, the Son of God introduced a new “economy” of images.
2132 The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, “the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype,” and “whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it.”70 The honor paid to sacred images is a “respectful veneration,” not the adoration due to God alone:
Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. the movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is.71
66 Deut 4:15-16.
67 Sir 43:27-28.
68 Wis 13:3.
69 Cf. Num 21:4-9; Wis 16:5-14; Jn 3:14-15; Ex 25:10-22; 1 Kings 6:23-28; 7:23-26.
70 St. Basil, De Spiritu Sancto 18, 45: PG 32, 149C; Council of Nicaea II: DS 601; cf. Council of Trent: DS 1821-1825; Vatican Council II: SC 126; LG 67.
71 St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II, 81, 3 ad 3.
You should get into symbols. Robert – the snake that Moses bid gaze upon, the rod and staff
to cleave seas and strike rocks. And let’s not forget about all those weapons of war that
were required to slay and rend asunder those that got in their way.
Sure, the Israelites were condemned for worshipping a statue, but as I explain in the article, we Catholics don’t worship statues.
As for the 2nd commandment, the fact is that when Exodus and Deuteronomy list out the 10 commandments, there are more than 10 statements in both passages, so we HAVE to condense it a bit to get to 10. We Catholics simply subsume the prohibition of worshipping idols under the prohibition against idolatry because it’s just another form of idolatry. And like I said before, we don’t worship statues, so we don’t break this commandment.