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the book is for the initiated, this the icon is for the illiterate; and what the word is to the hearing, this the icon is to the sight; and we are united to it intellectually. For this reason God commanded an ark to be made of incorruptible wood and to be gilded inside and out, and to place within it the tablets, the rod, the golden jar holding the manna, for a reminder of what had happened and a prefiguration of what was to come. And who will not say that these are images and resounding heralds? And these were not placed on the sides of the tabernacle, but before all the people, and looking upon them they offered veneration and worship to the God who worked through them. It is clear they were not worshiping them, but through them were brought to the remembrance of the miracles and offered veneration to the miracle-working God. For they were images set for remembrance, honored not as gods, but as bringing a reminder of divine workings. And God commanded twelve stones to be taken from the Jordan and adds the reason; for he says: "So that, when your son asks you, 'What are these stones?', you may recount how the water of the Jordan failed by divine command and the ark of the Lord and all the people crossed over." How then shall we not depict the saving passions and miracles of Christ our God, so that when my son asks me, "What is this?", I may say that God the Word became man, and through him not only Israel crossed the Jordan, but all of nature returned to its ancient blessedness, through whom nature ascended from the lowest parts of the earth above every principality and has been seated on the Father's throne. But yes, he says: Make an image of Christ and be content with that, or also of his mother, the Theotokos. Oh, the absurdity! You have openly confessed yourself an enemy of the saints; for if you make an image of Christ, but not of the saints, it is clear that you do not forbid the image, but the honor of the saints, which no one from eternity has dared to do or to attempt such a bold deed. For by making an image of Christ as one glorified, you clearly spit upon the image of the saints as ones not glorified, and you attempt to show the truth as false. "For I live," says the Lord, "and those who glorify me I will glorify," and the divine apostle: "So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." and "if indeed we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him." You did not raise the war against the icons, but indeed against the saints. For John the Theologian and beloved disciple says, "that we shall be like him." For just as iron, when united with fire, becomes fire not by nature, but by union and incandescence and participation, so also that which is deified becomes god not by nature but by participation. I do not mean the flesh of the incarnate Son of God; for that, by the hypostatic union and participation in the divine nature, was unchangeably named God, not being anointed by an energy of God as each of the prophets, but by the presence of the whole anointer. But that the saints too are gods by deification, "God," he says, "stood in the congregation of the gods; in the midst he will judge gods," when God stands in the midst of gods, distributing their worth, as Gregory the Theologian says in explanation. God promised to David to build for him a temple through his own son Solomon and to prepare a house of rest. This Solomon built and made cherubim, as the book of Kings says, and he covered the cherubim with gold and carved on all the walls round about carved engravings with a stylus of cherubim and palm trees in the inner and outer part—it did not say on the sides, but "round about"—but also oxen and lions and pomegranates. Is it not much more honorable to adorn all the walls of the Lord's house with the forms and likenesses of saints than with those of irrational animals and trees? Where is the law that forbids: "You shall not make any likeness?" But Solomon, who received an outpouring of wisdom, did not make likenesses of cherubim and lions and oxen by depicting God—for the law forbids this—nor

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μεμυημένοις ἡ βίβλος, τοῦτο τοῖς ἀγραμμάτοις ἡ εἰκών· καὶ ὅπερ τῇ ἀκοῇ ὁ λόγος, τοῦτο τῇ ὁράσει ἡ εἰκών· νοητῶς δὲ αὐτῷ ἑνούμεθα. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο προσέταξεν ὁ θεὸς γενέσθαι κιβωτὸν ἐκ ξύλων ἀσήπτων καὶ καταχρυσῶσαι ταύτην ἔσωθέν τε καὶ ἔξωθεν καὶ ἐνθεῖναι τὰς πλάκας, τὴν ῥάβδον, τὴν στάμνον τὴν χρυσῆν ἔχουσαν τὸ μάννα πρὸς ὑπόμνησιν τῶν γεγονότων καὶ προτύπωσιν τῶν μελλόντων. Καὶ τίς οὐκ ἐρεῖ ταύτας εἰκόνας διαπρυσίους τε κήρυκας; Καὶ ταῦτα οὐκ ἐκ πλαγίων ἔκειτο τῆς σκηνῆς, ἀλλὰ κατενώπιον παντὸς τοῦ λαοῦ, πρὸς ἃ βλέποντες τῷ δι' αὐτῶν ἐνεργήσαντι θεῷ προσέφερον τὴν προσκύνησιν καὶ τὴν λατρείαν. ∆ῆλον οὐχ ὡς αὐτοῖς λατρεύοντες, ἀλλὰ δι' αὐτῶν εἰς ὑπόμνησιν τῶν θαυμάτων ἀγόμενοι καὶ τῷ τερατουργῷ θεῷ τὴν προσκύνησιν νέμοντες. Εἰκόνες γὰρ ἦσαν πρὸς ὑπόμνησιν κείμεναι, τιμώμεναι οὐχ ὡς θεοί, ἀλλ' ὡς θείας ἐνεργείας ὑπόμνησιν ἄγουσαι. Καὶ δώδεκα λίθους προσέταξεν ὁ θεὸς ληφθῆναι ἐκ τοῦ Ἰορδάνου καὶ τὴν αἰτίαν προστίθησι· φησὶ γάρ· «Ἵνα, ὅταν ἐρωτᾷ σε ὁ υἱός σου, τί εἰσιν οἱ λίθοι οὗτοι, διηγῇ, πῶς ἐξέλιπε τὸ ὕδωρ τοῦ Ἰορδάνου θείᾳ προστάξει καὶ διέβη ἡ κιβωτὸς κυρίου καὶ πᾶς ὁ λαός.» Πῶς οὖν ἡμεῖς οὐκ εἰκονογραφήσομεν τὰ σωτήρια Χριστοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν πάθη καὶ θαύματα, ἵν', ὅταν ἐρωτᾷ με ὁ υἱός μου, τί τοῦτό ἐστιν, ἐρῶ, ὅτι ὁ θεὸς λόγος ἄνθρωπος γέγονε καὶ δι' αὐτοῦ οὐχ ὁ Ἰσραὴλ μόνος τὸν Ἰορδάνην διῆλθεν, ἀλλ' ἡ φύσις ἅπασα πρὸς τὴν ἀρχαίαν ἐπανῆλθε μακαριότητα, δι' οὗ ἡ φύσις ἐκ τῶν κατωτάτων τῆς γῆς ἀνῆλθεν ὑπεράνω πάσης ἀρχῆς καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ πατρικῷ κεκάθικε θρόνῳ. Ἀλλὰ ναί φησι· Ποίει Χριστοῦ τὸ εἰκόνισμα καὶ ἀρκέσθητι ἢ καὶ τῆς τούτου μητρὸς τῆς θεοτόκου. Ὢ τῆς ἀτοπίας. Ἐχθρὸν ἑαυτὸν διαρρήδην τῶν ἁγίων καθωμολόγησας· εἰ γὰρ Χριστοῦ μὲν εἰκόνα ποιεῖς, τῶν ἁγίων δὲ οὐδαμῶς, δῆλον ὡς οὐχὶ τὴν εἰκόνα ἀπαγορεύεις, ἀλλὰ τὴν τῶν ἁγίων τιμήν, ὅπερ οὐδεὶς τῶν ἀπ' αἰῶνος ἐτόλμησε ποιῆσαι ἢ ἐγχειρῆσαι τοιούτῳ τολμήματι. Τοῦ γὰρ Χριστοῦ ὡς δεδοξασμένου ποιῶν εἰκόνα τῶν ἁγίων ὡς ἀδοξάστων δηλαδὴ ἀποπτύεις τὸ ἐξεικόνισμα καὶ ψευδῆ τὴν ἀλήθειαν δεικνύειν ἐπιχειρεῖς. «Ζῶ γὰρ ἐγώ,» λέγει κύριος, «καὶ τοὺς δοξάζοντάς με δοξάσω», καὶ ὁ θεῖος ἀπόστολος· «Ὥστε οὐκέτι εἶ δοῦλος, ἀλλ' υἱός· εἰ δὲ υἱός, καὶ κληρονόμος θεοῦ διὰ Χριστοῦ.» καὶ «εἴπερ συμπάσχομεν, ἵνα καὶ συνδοξασθῶμεν.» Οὐ κατὰ τῶν εἰκόνων ἤρω τὸν πόλεμον, ἀλλ' ἦ κατὰ τῶν ἁγίων. Φησὶ γοῦν Ἰωάννης ὁ θεόλογος καὶ ἐπιστήθιος, «ὅτι ὅμοιοι αὐτῷ ἐσόμεθα.» Ὥσπερ γὰρ τῷ πυρὶ ἑνούμενος ὁ σίδηρος οὐ τῇ φύσει, ἀλλὰ τῇ ἑνώσει καὶ πυρώσει καὶ μεθέξει πῦρ γίνεται, οὕτω καὶ τὸ θεούμενον οὐ τῇ φύσει ἀλλὰ τῇ μεθέξει θεὸς γίνεται. Οὐ τὴν σάρκα φημὶ τοῦ σαρκωθέντος υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ· ἐκείνη γὰρ τῇ καθ' ὑπόστασιν ἑνώσει καὶ μεθέξει τῆς θείας φύσεως ἀτρέπτως θεὸς ἐχρημάτισεν, οὐκ ἐνεργείᾳ χρισθεῖσα θεοῦ ὥσπερ τῶν προφητῶν ἕκαστος, παρουσίᾳ δὲ ὅλου τοῦ χρίοντος. Ὅτι δὲ τῇ θεώσει θεοὶ καὶ οἱ ἅγιοι, «ὁ θεός», φησίν, «ἔστη ἐν συναγωγῇ θεῶν, ἐν μέσῳ δὲ θεοὺς διακρινεῖ», ὅταν ἵσταται θεὸς ἐν μέσῳ θεῶν τὰς ἀξίας διαιρῶν, ὡς ἑρμηνεύων φησὶν ὁ θεολόγος Γρηγόριος. Τῷ ∆αυὶδ ἐπηγγείλατο ὁ θεὸς οἰκοδομῆσαι αὐτῷ ναὸν διὰ τοῦ ἰδίου υἱοῦ Σολομῶντος καὶ κατασκευάσαι οἶκον ἀναπαύσεως. Τοῦτον Σολομὼν ᾠκοδόμησε καὶ ἐποίησε χερουβίμ, ὥς φησιν ἡ βίβλος τῶν Βασιλειῶν, καὶ περιέσχε τὰ χερουβὶμ χρυσίῳ καὶ πάντας τοὺς τοίχους κύκλῳ κολαπτοὺς ἐνέγλυψεν ἐν γραφίδι χερουβὶμ καὶ φοίνικας τῷ ἐσωτέρῳ καὶ τῷ ἐξωτέρῳ-οὐκ εἶπεν ἐκ πλαγίων, ἀλλὰ «κύκλῳ»-ἀλλὰ καὶ βόας καὶ λέοντας καὶ ῥοΐσκους. Οὐ πολλῷ τιμιώτερον πάντας τοὺς τοίχους τοῦ οἴκου κυρίου κοσμῆσαι ἁγίων μορφαῖς καὶ ἐξεικονίσμασιν ἤπερ ἀλόγων καὶ δένδρων; Ποῦ ὁ διαγορεύων νόμος· «Οὐ ποιήσεις πᾶν ὁμοίωμα;» Ἀλλ' ὁ σοφίας χύσιν δεξάμενος Σολομὼν οὐ θεὸν εἰκονίζων ἐποίει χερουβὶμ καὶ λεόντων καὶ βοῶν ὁμοιώματα- τοῦτο γὰρ ἀπαγορεύει ὁ νόμος-οὐδ'