Today we will look at a couple of Russian icons of a type you already should recognize– the “New Testament Trinity,” so called to distinguish it from the Old Testament Trinity icon in the form of the three angels that appeared to the patriarch Abraham at the Oak of Mamre.
The reason for revisiting this type is to add a couple of Church Slavic inscriptions sometimes found on New Testament Trinity icons to your repertoire. Here is the first icon:
As you know (I hope!), it depicts the Trinity as Jesus sitting on the throne with God the Father, with the Holy Spirit hovering above in the form of a dove. At left is Mary, at right John the Forerunner (the Baptist). The throne is supported by Seraphim, and surrounded by a ring of cherubim, a single one of which is in the middle between the Father and Son. Symbols of the Four Evangelists extend from the blue ring of cherubim. The Archangel Michael is visible at upper left, and the Archangel Gabriel at upper right.
Now on to the main topic of discussion — the inscription above Jesus and God the Father. We will enlarge it, and view it in two parts. Here is the left side:
We are concerned with the inscription that is above the Gospod’ Vsederzhitel’ (Lord Almighty) title above the halo of Jesus. It reads:
БЛ[А]ГОСЛОВЕННО Ц[А]Р[С]ТВО
Blagoslovenno Tsarstvo…
“Blessed-is [the] Kingdom…
And here it continues on the right side, above the Gospod’ Savaof’ (“Lord Sabaoth”) title of God the Father:
It reads ..ОЦА И С[Ы]НА И С[ВЯ]ТАГО Д[У]ХА
…Otsa i Suina i Svyatago Dukha
“…[of the] Father and [of the] Son and [of the] Holy Spirit.”
So all together, the inscription is this:
БЛ[А]ГОСЛОВЕННО Ц[А]Р[С]ТВО ОЦА И С[Ы]НА И С[ВЯ]ТАГО Д[У]ХА
BLAGOSLOVENNO TSARSTVO OTSA I SUINA I SVYATAGO DUKHA
“BLESSED IS THE KINGDOM OF THE FATHER AND OF THE SON AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.”
Now we will look at an inscription on another icon, heavily ornamented with baroque designs in the border:
We need to look more closely to see the inscription. It is in the inner ring of cherubim:
It is a bit damaged, and tends to fade out in the bottom half of the circle. But if we look at the more distinct part in the upper half, we can determine what it says.
Here is the left side of it:
And here is the right side:
Because half of the inscription is so worn as to be illegible, we must work with what is there. Remember that in the case of unfamiliar inscriptions, the procedure is to look for words you recognize. Because this is a circular inscription, we have to find the beginning. If we look on the right side, we see these words:
The first word is a bit faint, but after it we can clearly see:
ГОСПОД ГОСПОДЕВИ/GOSPOD’ GOSPODEVI
And if we are clever, we might decide that the next word is МОЕМУ/MOEMOU
So it would read
ГОСПОД ГОСПОДЕВИ МОЕМУ
…[the] Lord [to] Lord My…
“..The Lord to my Lord…”
Where have we heard that before? Well, if you are at all familiar with the Psalms and the Gospel “of Matthew,” you will recognize it as the beginning of this phrase:
“The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.”
Now if we look at that quote in the Church Slavic Bible, we find it is right at the beginning of Psalm 109 (110 KJV):
Reche Gospod’ Gospodevi moemu: syedi odesnuiu mene, dondezhe polozhu vragi tvoya podnozhie nog” tvoikh”.
Zhezl” silui poslet” ti Gospod’ ot Siona, i gospodstvuy posredye vragov” tvoikh”.
S” toboiu nachalo v” den’ silui tvoeya, vo svyetlostekh” svyatuikh” tvoikh”: iz chreva prezhde dennitsui rodikh” tya.
“The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.
The Lord shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion: and rule in the midst of your enemies.
With you is dominion in the day of your power, in the splendors of your saints: I have begotten you from the womb before the morning.”
We can see on the left side of the icon the words “ot Siona” — “out of Zion,” so that just confirms that we have found the right inscription, though in the icon it ends about there and does not include the last line of verse 3, which we have seen before:
iz chreva prezhde dennitsui rodikh” tya.
“I have begotten you from the womb before the morning.”
If you do not remember where we saw that line in a previous icon inscription, you will find it in the discussion of the last icon pictured in this posting:
It is not unusual to find this “The Lord said to my Lord” inscription on icons of the New Testament Trinity, so now you will recognize it when you see it.
ICONS AND THEIR INTERPRETATION 