It's all Greek

EDITOR’S NOTE: Saint Philip’s parishioner and volunteer, Julia Annas, is Professor Emerita of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Arizona. Julia generously shared her knowledge of ancient Greek to translate what is in the different icons that are part of the seasonal Lenten bulletin.

The image you see first in the Lenten bulletin is one that we in the western churches think of as ECCE HOMO—Behold the Man! Christ is being shown to the people by Pilate in mockery of his kingship, with purple robe and reed (the crown of thorns is not shown here).

However, in the Orthodox churches this image is called, perhaps surprisingly to us, CHRISTOS TO NUMPHIOS—Christ the Bridegroom. You can see the words ho numphios, the bridegroom, to the right of Christ. Christ in his humiliation is the bridegroom of the Church. He is also the bridegroom of Matthew (25: 1-13), who comes at an unexpected time, so that the foolish bridesmaids have run out of oil for their lamps, while the wise bridesmaids are ready. Waiting for the bridegroom suggests the Second Coming. In the Orthodox churches, there is a service of Christ the Bridegroom on the Monday of Holy Week, with a hymn about readiness for the coming of the bridegroom.

Christ is flanked by the words IESOUS and CHRISTOS—Jesus Christ. They are abbreviated to their first and last letters with a wavy line over them to indicate that the letters stand for the whole word. Christ’s halo contains a cross, each of the visible arms with a letter, spelling out HO (short) o ON (long o)—The One Who Is. The same letters and halo with cross and letters can be seen in the image of the Last Supper on page 11 of the bulletin.

On page 13 we see Christ’s temptations in the wilderness (Matthew 4.1-11). At the left, the devil tempts Jesus to turn stones into bread. In the middle, the devil tempts him to throw himself off the temple so that angels will save him. At the right, the devil tempts him with rule over the kingdoms of the world. At the right lower corner of the image, the devil, having failed, goes away, while above him angels come to serve Christ.