Editing Icon (section)

==Eastern Orthodox teaching==
The Eastern Orthodox view of the origin of icons is generally quite different from that of most secular scholars and from some in contemporary Roman Catholic circles:  "The Orthodox Church maintains and teaches that the sacred image has existed from the beginning of Christianity", [[Léonid Ouspensky]] has written.<ref>Leonid Ouspensky, ''Theology of the Icon'', St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1978.</ref> Accounts that some non-Orthodox writers consider legendary are accepted as history within Eastern Orthodoxy, because they are a part of church tradition. Thus accounts such as that of the miraculous "image not made by hands", and the [[Weeping Icon|weeping and moving]] "Mother of God of the Sign" of Novgorod are accepted as fact: "Church Tradition tells us, for example, of the existence of an Icon of the Savior during His lifetime (the 'Icon-Made-Without-Hands') and of Icons of the Most-Holy Theotokos [Mary] immediately after Him."<ref>''These Truths We Hold'', St. Tikhon's Seminary Press, 1986.</ref>

Eastern Orthodoxy further teaches that "a clear understanding of the importance of Icons" was part of the church from its very beginning, and has never changed, although explanations of their importance may have developed over time. This is because icon painting is rooted in the theology of the Incarnation (Christ being the {{transliteration|grc|eikon}} of God) which did not change, though its subsequent clarification within the Church occurred over the period of the first seven Ecumenical Councils. Icons also served as tools of edification for the illiterate faithful during most of the history of [[Christendom]]. Thus, icons are words in painting; they refer to the history of salvation and to its manifestation in concrete persons. In the Orthodox Church, "icons have always been understood as a visible gospel, as a testimony to the great things given man by God the incarnate Logos".<ref name="auto">{{cite journal |first=Constantine B. |last=Scouteris |author-link=Constantine B. Scouteris |title='Never as Gods': Icons and Their Veneration |journal=Sobornost |volume=6 |date=1984 |pages=6–18 |url= http://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/liturgics/scouteris_icons.html |via=Orthodox Research Institute}}</ref> In the Council of 860 it was stated that "all that is uttered in words written in syllables is also proclaimed in the language of colors".<ref>Mansi xvi. 40D. See also Evdokimov, ''L'Orthodoxie'' (Neuchâtel 1965), p. 222.</ref>

Eastern Orthodoxy identifies the first instance of an image or icon in the Bible as the creation of man in God's own image (Septuagint Greek {{transliteration|grc|eikona}}), in Genesis 1:26–27.<ref>{{bibleverse|Genesis|1:26–27}}</ref> In Exodus, God initially commanded the Israelites not to make any graven images. However, shortly thereafter, God instructed them to create images of cherubim and other similar beings, both in the form of statues and woven into tapestries. Later, when Solomon built the First Temple, he incorporated even more such imagery.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Exodus 20 Gill's Exposition |url=https://bibleapps.com/gill/exodus/20.htm |access-date=2025-04-28 |website=bibleapps.com}}</ref>{{bsn|date=April 2025}} Eastern Orthodoxy believe these qualify as icons, in that they were visible images depicting heavenly beings and, in the case of the cherubim, used to indirectly indicate God's presence above the Ark.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-12-17 |title=Icons in Orthodoxy: Frequent Questions and Answers |url=https://wongelforall.wordpress.com/2009/12/17/icons-in-orthodoxy-frequent-questions-and-answers/ |access-date=2025-04-28 |website=ወንጌል  ለሁሉም Gospel For All |language=en}}</ref>{{bsn|date=April 2025}}

In the [[Book of Numbers]]<ref>{{Bibleverse|Numbers|21:4–9}}</ref> it is written that God told Moses to make a bronze serpent, ''[[Nehushtan]]'', and hold it up, so that anyone looking at the snake would be healed of their snake bites. In John 3, Jesus refers to the same serpent, saying that he must be lifted up in the same way that the serpent was. [[John of Damascus]] also regarded the brazen serpent as an icon. Further, Jesus Christ himself is called the "image of the invisible God" in Colossians 1:15,<ref>{{bibleverse|Colossians|1:15}}</ref> and is therefore in one sense an icon. As people are also made in God's images, people are also considered to be living icons, and are therefore "[[Thurible|censed]]" along with painted icons during Orthodox prayer services.

According to John of Damascus, anyone who tries to destroy icons "is the enemy of Christ, the Holy Mother of God and the saints, and is the defender of the Devil and his demons". This is because the theology behind icons is closely tied to the Incarnational theology of the humanity and divinity of Jesus, so that attacks on icons typically have the effect of undermining or attacking the Incarnation of Jesus himself as elucidated in the Ecumenical Councils.

[[Basil of Caesarea]], in his writing ''On the Holy Spirit'', says: "The honor paid to the image passes to the prototype". He also illustrates the concept by saying, "If I point to a statue of Caesar and ask you 'Who is that?', your answer would properly be, 'It is Caesar.' When you say such you do not mean that the stone itself is Caesar, but rather, the name and honor you ascribe to the statue passes over to the original, the archetype, Caesar himself."<ref>See also: {{cite book |last=Price |first=S. R. F. |title=Rituals and Power: The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor |edition=illustrated reprint |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |date=1986 |pages=204–205}} Price paraphrases St. Basil, ''Homily'' 24: "on seeing an image of the king in the square, one does not allege that there are two kings". Veneration of the image venerates its original: a similar analogy is implicit in the images used for the [[Imperial cult (ancient Rome)|Roman Imperial cult]]. It does not occur in the Gospels.</ref> This is thus the approach to icons; to kiss an icon of Jesus, in the Eastern Orthodox view, is to show love towards Jesus himself, not mere wood and paint making up the physical substance of the icon. Worship of the icon as somehow entirely separate from its prototype is expressly forbidden by the Seventh Ecumenical Council.<ref name="auto"/>

Icons are often illuminated with a candle or jar of oil with a wick. (Beeswax for candles and olive oil for oil lamps are preferred because they burn very cleanly, although other materials are sometimes used.) The illumination of religious images with lamps or candles is an ancient practice pre-dating Christianity.

According to Fr. Les Bundy, "The Ecumenical Counciliar dogmatic decrees on icons refer, in fact, to all religious images including three-dimensional statues. Professor Sergios Verkhovskoi, the conservative professor of dogmatics at St. Vladimir’s Seminary forthrightly condemns as heretical anyone who declares statues as unorthodox or in any way canonically inferior to paintings."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bundy |first=Fr. Les |date=2017-02-06 |title=Orthodox Statues? |url=https://catalog.obitel-minsk.com/blog/2017/02/orthodox-statues |website=catalog.obitel-minsk.com}}</ref> Historically, the Orthodox Church has always approved of veneration of statues, for example, the statue of the Mother of God at Sokolica Monastery in Serbia,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sokolica Monastery |url=https://www.kosovo.net/esokolica.html |access-date=2024-07-30 |website=www.kosovo.net}}</ref> the devotional statues of St. Nil Stolbensky,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-02-24 |title=Nil Stolbensky |url=https://russianicons.wordpress.com/tag/nil-stolbensky/ |access-date=2024-07-30 |website=ICONS AND THEIR INTERPRETATION |language=en}}</ref> and those of St. Paraskeva.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Limited |first=Alamy |title=St.Paraskeva Pyatnitsa 17th century.Novgorod province popular in ancient russia.protector of travellers.tempera,gilding and levkas on carved wood Stock Photo - Alamy |url=https://www.alamy.com/stparaskeva-pyatnitsa-17th-centurynovgorod-province-popular-in-ancient-russiaprotector-of-travellerstemperagilding-and-levkas-on-carved-wood-image337509694.html |access-date=2024-07-30 |website=www.alamy.com |language=en}}</ref>

<gallery widths="165px" heights="200px">
File:Eastern Orthodox prayer corner.jpg|A fairly elaborate [[Eastern Orthodox]] icon corner as would be found in a private home
File:Vsex skorbyashix Radost (litografia).jpg|A precious Russian icon of [[Joy of All Who Sorrow]], 1862
File:Italo-Byzantinischer Maler des 13. Jahrhunderts 001.jpg|A somewhat disinterested treatment of the emotional subject and painstaking attention to the throne and other details of the material world distinguish this [[Italo-Byzantine]] work by a medieval [[Sicily|Sicilian]] master from works by imperial icon-painters of [[Constantinople]].
</gallery>