Here is another “Prophet” holding a scroll. This fresco depicts — as the Greek inscription tells us — Ὁ ΠΡΟΦΗΤΗC ΜѠΥCΗC / Ho Prophetes Moyses — “The Prophet Moses.”
Notice that he is wearing the little red-topped cap we often see in icon images of Jewish prophets and priests, notably found on such icons as the Prophet Daniel, etc.
Our interest today, however, is in the scroll he holds:
Here it is in standard Greek letters: Εν ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν. En arkhe epoiesen ho Theos ton ouranon kai ten gen. “In [the] beginning made [the] God the heaven and the earth.”
You will likely recognize that as the first sentence of the Old Testament book of Genesis — here in the Greek Septuagint translation.
Why would Moses have that on his scroll? Because for many centuries, it was believed that Moses was the author of the first five books of the Old Testament, called by Jews the Torah. Of course it has long been recognized such authorship is impossible, not least because the death of Moses is described in the fifth book, Deuteronomy, chapter 34:
5 So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord.
6 And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knows of his sepulchre to this day.
7 And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.
It is more complicated than that, however. Some scholars believe the Torah was not completed until as late as the 3rd century B.C. And to make matters worse (or better, depending on your point of view) many modern scholars also hold that Moses was largely or entirely a fictional character.
Then too, even with the text on the scroll of Moses there are problems. Traditionally, the Hebrew beginning of Genesis was translated like this:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Modern scholars, however, tend to agree with the 11th century Jewish scholar Rashi that the traditional translation of the first line is grammatically incorrect. That is why contemporary scholarly translations commonly have it in variations of:
When God began to create the heaven and the earth .…
In other words, Genesis begins, as the 2006 Jewish Publication Society version has it:
When God began to create heaven and earth—the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water….
Icons, of course, represent a traditional view of things, not the scholarly view. They depict the world as it was seen before the discoveries of modern archeology, linguistics, and science in general.
In school I often heard the caution “Those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” Today it might be “Those who refuse to learn from history make up a large portion of the American electorate.” And now we must all suffer for their foolishness.
Speaking of suffering, today we will waste more minutes of our lives by looking at another of those countless multiple icons of Mary that were so popular in Russia:
Though common, there is yet something to be learned from this example, primarily in the reading of inscriptions.
Let’s begin at upper left:
The inscripton below the icon identifies it, but gives more information as well. The first line says:
ОБРАЗ ПРЕСВЯТЫЯ БОГОРОДИЦЫ ДОЛИНСКИЯ OBRAZ PRESVYATUIYA BOGORODITSUI DOLINSKIYA “IMAGE [of the] MOST-HOLY GOD-BIRTHGIVER DOLINSKIYA
Or to put it in common terms:
“The Image of the Most Holy Dolinskaya Mother of God.”
So that tells us the name of this icon type.
Now let’s go on to the second line:
The first word is abbreviated here as ЯВI/Yavi. In full it is the word Явися/Yavisya, meaning “It appeared….” Then comes a date using letters as numbers. The date is 64[00]. Now obviously that is an “old system” date, figured from the supposed creation of the world, so we have to subtract 5,508 — the traditional Russian Orthodox date of Creation — from 6400. That gives us 892 as the supposed date of the “appearance” of this type, though of course most sources will just say the true date is unknown.
At this point we have the name of the icon, and in the second line Yavisya 6400 ЛЕТО/LETO (it is abbreviated on the icon). Leto in modern Russian usually means “summer” but in icon inscriptions, its common meaning is “year.” So we have: Yavisya 6400 Leto/ “appeared 6400 year,” or put in common terms, “It appeared in the year 6400 (892 c.e.). But there is more: ФЕБРУАРIЯ ГI ДНЯ/Februariya 13 ДНЯ/Dnya — “February, 13th Day.” All together, “It appeared in the year 892, February, [the] 13th Day.”
The icon type has an interesting traditional history. Its alternate name is Dolisskaya, because it supposedy appeared in a French place called Dolis. That is the tale given when this icon type first appeared in Russian literature in a book printed in Lvov (Lviv) in 1665. The story was that in a place in France called Dolis, there was a stone image (some say bas relief) of Mary and the child Jesus. Two people decided to mock the image, and one threw a stone at it. The stone broke off the hand of the child Jesus, and the stone child’s arm began to bleed. The one who threw the stone fell down dead, and the other died not long after.
This tale apparently relates to a stone image that was in l’église Saint-Étienne de Déols — The Church of St. Stephen of Deols, Châteauroux, France, which in Latin was called Castrum Dolis — “the Fort of Dolis.” A French tradition says that the fellow who broke the arm of the stone child was a Knight of Richard the Lionheart, and that it happened in 1186 or 1187.
Having seen the inscription on the Dolinskaya type above, you should be able to easily read the first three words of the inscription on this second type. It is the Blazhennoe Chrevo — the “Blessed Womb” Mother of God. The type name is followed by the abbreviation ПРАЗ for ПРАЗДНИК/Prazdnik, meaning the day of celebration or commemoration of an icon type. Following that is the month December and the 26th Day. So the inscription reads “Image of the Most Holy Mother of God ‘Blessed Womb,” Celebration December, 26th Day.”
While the Old Believers tend to prefer the “Blessed Womb” title for this type, in the State Orthodox Church it is often called the Barlovskaya.
The following type has an interesting inscription. You will read the first three words as “Image of the Most Holy Mother of God,” but then it continues with ЧТО В СИБИРЕ/CHTO V SIBIRE — “Which in Siberia.” It looks like the painter copied this from a book, because “Which in Siberia” is not the name of an icon type — it is a description of where it presumably “appeared.”
In standard lists, this icon type (which is in the Znamenie/Sign form) that “appeared” in Siberia is called the Abalatskaya, also found as Abalakskaya. I have discussed it previously, and yes, it supposedly “appeared” as the result of a woman’s dream in the village of Abalak near Tobolsk, in Siberia.
Usually this type has St. Nicholas and Mary of Egypt at the sides, but the painter has simplified it here.
And here is the last of the four images on today’s icon:
You should be able to read most if not all of the inscription at the base: “Image of the Most Holy Mother of God Matelinskiya (Matelinskaya), appeared 6499 (919 c.e.) Year, May, 29th Day”. And that is about all that is found in its origin story.
This Monday, January 20th, is Inauguration Day in the United States. I can tell you my feelings about this year’s event by saying that all week, the music in this movie intro has been playing in my head whenever I think about it. Those of you familiar with early music will recognize it as an instrumental version of the Dies Irae. Suffice to say it does not bode well for the next four years (if you do not get this link via Email, just go direct to the blog to listen).
Nonetheless, we must get through it. If you are familiar with the movie The Shining, you will certainly get the dark and ominous atmosphere. The running of the asylum is being turned over to the inmates.
I also cannot help feeling concern for the unbelievably brave people of Ukraine. They must not be abandoned in their time of great need. And of course with world climate change it is the worst time to have an administration that denies scientific reality.
This new administration will be a severe testing of the American Republic — the most serious I can recall in my lifetime to date. As Thomas Paine wrote, “These are the times that try men’s souls.”
But on to icons.
Let’s look at this fresco of the Prophet Elijah (Elias — not for the image itself, but for the text on the scroll he holds. It is of course in Greek; but what does it say?
As I have said before, for icon students the Prophets are a pain, because one never knows what text a painter will use on the scroll. The texts — though some are more common for certain Prophets, are not fixed. So one frequently has to do a bit of work to place and translate them.
In this case, the source is fortunately not hard to find. It is from the Septuagint Greek version of the Old Testament, more precisely III Kings 19:10 (I Kings 19:14 KJV). The portion on the scroll is highlighted below:
9:10[ και ειπεν ηλιου] ζηλων εζηλωκα τω κυριω παντοκρατορι οτι εγκατελιπον σε οι υιοι ισραηλ [τα θυσιαστηρια σου κατεσκαψαν και τους προφητας σου απεκτειναν εν ρομφαια και υπολελειμμαι εγω μονωτατος και ζητουσι την ψυχην μου λαβειν αυτην]
“[And Elijah said,] I have been very zealous for the Lord Almighty, because the children of Israel [have forsaken you: they have digged down your altars, and have slain your prophets with the sword; and I only am left alone, and they seek my life to take it.]”
So it turns out this is a text we have seen before, though in Church Slavic and on Russian icons, beginning: И рече Илиа: ревнуя поревновах по Господе Бозе Вседержители….
A reader had a question about this rather folkish icon, which he kindly allowed me to use here:
The subject is obvious: it is the scene of “Doubting Thomas,” found in John 20:24-29.
The question, however, was about the title inscription. You may recall from an earlier posting here about “Doubting Thomas” icons that the common Slavic inscriptions for the type translate as the “Assuring of Thomas” or the “Belief of Thomas” (often the “Touching by Thomas in Greek icons).
This icon, however, has a quite different inscription, even though the subject matter of the image is the same.
The first inscription word at left is NИДЕЛИ/Nideli (nedelya) — which means “Week,” and the word on the right is just the name ФОМА/Foma/Thomas — in its possessive form — “of Thomas.” So the inscription is “The Week of Thomas.”
But what is the “Week of Thomas,” and why is it used for this icon type?
The answer is that the painter chose to title it according to the Orthodox Church calendar. In that calendar, the Sunday after Easter (Pascha) is called the “Sunday of St. Thomas,” “Antipascha,” and the second week after Easter is commonly called “The Week of Thomas” — Неделя Фомы/Nedelya Fomui in modern Russian. During this time his doubting and consequent affirmation of the Resurrection are commemorated.
That was not all, however. It appears that this was originally a celebration of the beginning of spring, and Thomas Sunday (Фомино воскресенье/Fomino vosckresen’e) was also known as Red Hill (Красная горка/Krasnaya gorka, apparently because at the time in ancient days, spring fires were lit on the hills to the god Dazhdbog. Others say it is the “Christian” replacement of the earlier day of Yarilo, god of the Sun. Another interpretation says it is so called because the festivities were often held on hills, and young people wore bright, often red, clothing. Though Thomas Sunday was called Red Hill, the whole week was also sometimes called by that name. It was thought that couples who came together on that day would never divorce.
In some places, there was a belief that to wash the family standing before the family icons would bring money.
Thomas Sunday was a time for decorating graves and remembering the departed — at least in the morning. Others felt that dealing with the dead should be done on Radonitsa, the Tuesday after Thomas Sunday. In any case, The rest of the day after morning was what made it the week of love, when weddings could begin again after Lent, a time for showing off potential brides in front of prospective grooms, and a time for round dances. The coloring of eggs — an ancient symbol of rebirth and fertility — was also practiced, and in some places eggs were rolled down hills, and those whose eggs did not break were considered to have good luck, while the broken eggs brought bad luck. Another ritual at this time was the pulling of a plow around the village by young women, which formed a kind of “magic circle” around the village to protect it from evil.
As you can tell, there was lots of folk belief mixed in with the “Christian” practices of Thomas Week, particularly those associated with the sun and marriage and fertility.
Knowing a bit about the Bible is essential for the student of icons. The more one knows, however, the more odd issues one encounters. Here is but one example:
In the gospel called “of Matthew,” 11:16-19, we find Jesus talking to the masses. He says this:
“But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the markets, and calling to their fellows, and saying, ‘We have piped to you, and you have not danced; we have mourned to you, and you have not lamented.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He has a devil. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold a man gluttonous, and a wine-tippler, a friend of publicans and tax collectors.’ But wisdom is justified by her children.”
Now as you see, I have placed one portion of that in bold type. There is something very interesting about it, as you too will see if you read this portion from the Histories of Herodotus (c. 484-425 BC), 1.141:
The Ionians and Aiolians, as soon as the Lydians had been subdued by the Persians, sent messengers to Cyrus at Sardis, desiring to be his subjects on the same terms as they had been subjects of Croesus. And when he heard that which they proposed to him, he spoke to them a fable, saying that a certain player on the pipe saw fishes in the sea and played on his pipe, supposing that they would come out to land; but being deceived in his expectation, he took a casting-net and enclosed a great multitude of the fishes and drew them forth from the water: and when he saw them leaping about, he said to the fishes: “Stop dancing I pray you now, seeing that ye would not come out and dance before when I piped.” Cyrus spoke this fable to the Ionians and Aiolians for this reason, because the Ionians had refused to comply before, when Cyrus himself by a messenger requested them to revolt from Croesus, while now when the conquest had been made they were ready to submit to Cyrus.
We find this in the fables attributed, whether correctly or not, to Aesop (c. 620-554 BC )
A Fisherman who could play the flute went down one day to the sea-shore with his nets and his flute; and, taking his stand on a projecting rock, began to play a tune, thinking that the music would bring the fish jumping out of the sea. He went on playing for some time, but not a fish appeared: so at last he threw down his flute and cast his net into the sea, and made a great haul of fish. When they were landed and he saw them leaping about on the shore, he cried, “You rascals! you wouldn’t dance when I piped: but now I’ve stopped, you can do nothing else!”
The puzzling thing about this is how Jesus, a Galilean Jew presumably educated in a synagogue, would have known this classical Greek motif. That leads us to the notion that Greek culture in its Hellenistic form is far more prevalent in the background of the New Testament than one might think.
All of this is, surprise! Surprise! — a lead-in to the tale of the Wedding at Cana, a common subject in icons. Here it is in a fresco:
The Church Slavic inscription says simply “There was a wedding in Cana of Galilee.”
In John 2 we read:
2 And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there:
2 And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.
3 And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus says to him, They have no wine.
4 Jesus says to her, Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour is not yet come.
5 His mother says to the servants, Whatever he says to you, do it.
6 And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins [18-27 gallons] each.
7 Jesus says to them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.
8 And he says to them, Draw out now, and take to the governor of the feast. And they took it.
9 When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom,
10 And says to him, Every man at the beginning sets forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but you have kept the good wine until now.
11 This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
So this is considered the first miracle Jesus performed, and thereby “manifested forth his glory” (καὶ ἐφανέρωσεν τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ/kai ephanerosen ten doxan autou). The Greek word ephanerosen is related to the word Epiphany.
It is an odd miracle — turning water to wine — a strange way to “manifest forth” one’s glory. And what is this “manifesting” all about?
Well, in the time of Jesus there was a very Hellenized city just across the valley from Cana (Khirbet Kana). It was called Sepphoris. Archeologist have found that in those days a very popular deity in Hellenized Galilee was the god Dionysos, also called Bacchus. And who was Dionysos? The God of Wine.
And how did Dionysos make his presence known, his manifestation (ἐπιφάνεια/epiphaneia)? By turning things to wine.
There is a Homeric hymn to Dionysos, telling how, as a beautiful youth, he was captured by pirates who tried to tie him up on their ship, but the bonds kept falling off. Seeing this, the steersman warned the sailors. that there was something supernatural here, that they should let him go before they made the young fellow angry.
The leader of the pirates, refused, and began raising the sail of the boat himself. Suddenly, strange things began to appear [φαίνεσθαι/phainesthai]. A strong wind sprang up and billowed the sail. The water splashing at the sides of the ship was no longer water; it had become fragrant wine. A vine appeared at the sides of the sail and began to sprout forth bunches of grapes. The mast began to twine with ivy leaves.
It is a scene famously illustrated in simple form on the Dionysos Cup (540-530 BC):
There are further accounts of “manifestations” of Dionysos. At the time of his festival (January 5-6th), a spring in his shrine on the island of Andros began flowing with wine instead of water, and peculiarly, when the wine was taken away from the shrine, it turned back to water.
Aside from other such events, we find in the work Leucippe and Clitophon, a Roman novel written in Greek, a myth of the origin of wine: Dionysos visited a hospitable shepherd in the city of Tyre, which lies about 40 miles to the northwest of Nazareth. The shepherd offered Dionysos food, but for drink he could give him only water. Dionysos thanked the humble fellow, raised his cup, and in it was wine. Dionysos then explained to the shepherd how wine could be made from grapes.
The more one looks, the more similarities one finds between Dionysos and Jesus in relation to wine, etc.
As remarked earlier, the festival of Dionysos was on January 5-6th. At that time he “manifested his glory” his epiphany, via wine miracles. It is interesting to note that according to the 4th century Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis, both the birth of Jesus and the Wedding at Cana happened on January 6th — Epiphany — “The Manifestation.”
The relationship of the New Testament Gospels to Greek literature and Hellenic culture is an interesting and growing field of study
ICONS AND THEIR INTERPRETATION 