It's all Greek

Editor’s note: Julia Annas is Professor Emerita of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Arizona. She is also a member of Saint Philip’s Church, serves on the Vestry, and volunteers as a sub-deacon.

Julia generously shares her knowledge of ancient Greek to translate what is in the icon on the front of the current seasonal bulletin.

By Julia Annas

Reading the icons? But they are images, not words!

Yes, but the maker of an icon is said to write it, and we can read it as we look at it. 

Icons come to us from the tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, whose ideas about the role of art in worship are different from ours. In using icons to illustrate our seasonal bulletins, we have a chance to experience and learn from a different way of looking at art and the sacred.

An icon is a devotional aid, not something to be judged as a work of art in its own right.

Icon makers lack interest in many of our interests in Western sacred art, such as originality, virtuosity for its own sake, and realism in depiction. Christ, Mary, the apostles, and scenes like the Last Supper are always shown in certain fixed ways. Icons invite us to pray in a way that takes us through the familiar image, like looking through a window.

In this image, Christ raises his right hand in blessing, while with the other hand he holds an open book, which declares I am the Light of the World. The one who follows me will never walk in darkness,but will have the light of life.

Flanking Christ are the abbreviations for JESUS on our left and CHRIST on our right. Christ’s halo contains a cross and the words ho on—the One who IS. (These are the words Moses hears from the burning bush.)

Christ is here called Ho Pantokrator—The Almighty. Icons of Christ as Pantokrator are very common in Orthodox churches, often in the apse or on the dome, dominating the church.

In the Western church, we think of God the Father as the Almighty, rather than God the Son. In Orthodox art, God the Father is never portrayed. Instead Christ, God the Son, is portrayed as the Almighty, since, as we say in the Nicene Creed, “through him all things were made,” and as the Gospel of John says, “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him.” 

This avoids portraying God the Father and God the Son as two separate people—like an old man and a young man—as sometimes happens in Western church art.