The Biblical and Patristic Foundation

The dogmatic ground of the icon: the Incarnation, in which the invisible God became visible in Christ, “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15); and the Old Testament prohibition of images, which the same Scriptures qualify with the divinely commanded cherubim of the Ark and the Temple, and which the iconophile Fathers argued the Incarnation transforms rather than abolishes.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox

This section establishes why an icon is possible at all. The first file, the-image-of-god-and-the-incarnation.md, lays out the incarnational argument at the heart of the whole tradition — that because God has been “seen in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16), He may now be depicted, and to deny His depictability is to deny His enfleshment. The second file, the-old-testament-prohibition-and-its-fulfillment.md, takes up the hardest scriptural objection — the Second Commandment — stating the iconoclast case fairly (the continuity claimed with the prohibition) and the answer the Church dogmatically received: the discontinuity the iconophiles found in the coming of the visible God, set beside the cherubim that God Himself commanded to be carved.

Contents

File Description
the-image-of-god-and-the-incarnation.md The Incarnation as the ground of the icon; the invisible God made visible in Christ (Col 1:15); John of Damascus’ argument
the-old-testament-prohibition-and-its-fulfillment.md Exodus 20 vs the cherubim of the Ark and the Temple; how the Incarnation transforms the prohibition — the iconoclast case stated fairly, the Church’s answer confessed

See Also