Although the evidence is scattered
and spotty, the veneration of icons seems to have evolved from pre-Christian
practices that survived into Christian times. Tapers and incense burners were
placed in front of or beside icons, curtains adorned them, they were decorated
with flowers, and prayers were said before them. This relates to the cult of
the portrait of rulers, which was complete with propitiatory sacrifices, the
burning of candles and incense, and prayers and apotropaic supplications. By
ca. A.D. 400, Christians held a belief in the magical efficacy of their images.
Icons were placed as apotropaia at the entrances of churches, public places,
public gateways, and workshops, indicating the prophylactic capacity of saints’
portraits. By the sixth century, genuflection and bowing (proskynēsis)
were commonly practiced before images in churches, and these icons were also
kissed. Icons were carried in solemn processions, as was traditional in the
cult of the imperial image, and they were used as palladia in battle. Hence,
they were sometimes carried at the rebuilding of a church and were displayed to
help protect a city in time of defense. Moreover, a cult of images, arising in
part from the cult of relics, intensified in the sixth and seventh centuries
when it was officially promoted. . . . Some Christian writers were opposed to
the use of icons and considered them a form of idolatry. Early Christianity,
however, saw an increasing preoccupation in theological writings with the
relationship of the image to its prototype rather than to the worshippers as
well as an increasing belief in the potentialities of the image as an
instrument of divine power. Nevertheless, there is no proof that the painters
and the artists of religious images in other media were familiar with this body
of literature. (W. Eugene Kleinbauer, “Icons,” in Encyclopedia of Early
Christianity, ed. Everett Ferguson (2d ed.; New York: Routledge, 1999), 556-57)
Early Christians bought objects
from secular shops. Clement of Alexandria (ca. 200) recommended what signets to
buy: “Let the signets be for us a dove, or a fish, or a ship in full sail, or a
harmonious lyre, like the one that was used by Polycrates” (Paed.
3.11.59.1). Although jewlers made the typical “lyre of Polycrates” signet for
any customer who would buy it, its meaning for Christians was the harmony of
worship. Purchase from secular factories seems to have continued: a
sixth-century factory has been found in Palestine that produced glass flasks
for both Jews and Christians. Christians often made us of Greco-Roman models.
Thus, Christ was repeated by the long-familiar Roman motif of the Good
Shepherd. A Jewish version of the Roman design of “Orpheus and the Animals” in
Gaza has the label “David” over the central figure, and the same design is used
in a church at Huarté in Syria with the label “Adam.” Even specifically Jewish
or Christian designs are seen through the dominant Roman style. Christ is often
represented as an emperor, and even the archangels Michael and Gabriel in S.
Apollinate in Classe, Ravenna, are dressed like Roman officers. (John
Wilkinson, “Iconography,” in Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, ed.
Everett Ferguson (2d ed.; New York: Routledge, 1999), 557-58)
Further Reading:
Answering Fundamentalist Protestants and Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox on Images/Icons
