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Tractatus contra eos qui imagines faciunt

A discourse of Saint Epiphanius against those who make it their practice to create images in an idolatrous manner, in the likeness of Christ and of the Theotokos and of the

martyrs, and also of angels and prophets.

1 Having plastered the wall, they impressed the images with various colors. 2 For indeed, they say, we make the images of the saints for their memorial and honor. 3 falsely named 4 But whence, in his depiction of the archangel, did fitted bones and sinews become manifest to him, from that which one might call his understanding. 5 Let those who think they honor the apostles in this, learn that instead of honoring, they dishonor them the more.

For Paul, having insulted the falsely named priest, declared him a whitewashed wall. 6 "For we know," says John, "that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him," and Paul proclaimed the saints "conformed to the Son of God"; how then do you wish to see the saints who are to be made bright in glory in an inglorious and dead and speechless form, when the Lord says concerning them: "For they shall be," He says, "as angels of God." 7 And how, depicting them among the dead, do you worship angels, who are spirits and ever-living, when the prophet says, "who makes His angels spirits and His ministers a flaming fire"? 8 But I say that not even they themselves wish to be worshipped.

9 "See you do it not; for I am your fellow servant and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God," he says. 10 But not even the apostles wished to be worshipped. For when they were sent to preach the gospel, they did not wish themselves to be worshipped, but Christ who sent them. For he who received from Him the authority to bind and to loose on earth and in heaven, said to Cornelius that "I am a man with like passions as you," and taught that not he himself should be worshipped but the Savior Christ.

11 And concerning angels, the fathers who gathered in Laodicea — for surely it was for such a reason that they were gathered — say: "If anyone abandons the church of God and names angels, let him be anathema; because he has abandoned our Lord Jesus Christ and has approached idolatry." 12 How does someone claim to depict the incomprehensible and ineffable and inconceivable and uncircumscribable One, whom Moses was not able to gaze upon? 13 Some say that because He became a perfect man from Mary the ever-virgin, for this reason we make Him as a man. 14 And was it for this reason that He became man, so that you might be able to depict with your hands the incomprehensible One through whom all things were made? 15 Is He not therefore like the Father nor gives life to the dead? 16 Where did He, having come to earth, command these things to you, to make a likeness of Him and to worship and behold it? 17 This is the ordinance of the evil one, that you might despise God. 18 For God in all the Old and New Testaments abolishes these things, saying precisely: "You shall worship the Lord God and Him only shall you serve."

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Tractatus contra eos qui imagines faciunt

Λόγος τοῦ ἁγίου ̓Επιφανίου κατὰ τῶν ἐπιτηδευόντων ποιεῖν εἰδωλικῷ θεσμῷ εἰκόνας εἰς ἀφομοίωσιν τοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ τῆς Θεοτόκου καὶ τῶν

μαρτύρων, ετι δὲ καὶ ἀγγέλων καὶ προφητῶν.

1 τὸν τοῖχον κονιάσαντες χρώμασι διηλλαγμένοις τὰς εἰκόνας ἀνετύπωσαν. 2 οτι δή, φασί, τὰς εἰκόνας τῶν ἁγίων ποιοῦμεν εἰς μνημόσυνον καὶ τιμὴν αὐτῶν. 3 ψευδωνύμους 4 πόθεν δὲ αὐτῷ ἐπὶ τῆς τοῦ ἀρχαγγέλλου γραφῆς οστεα καὶ νεῦρα ἐνηρμοσμένα κατάδηλα ἐγένετο, τῆς ἐκείνου ην λέγειν συνέσεως. 5 οἱ νομίζοντες ἐν τούτῳ τιμᾶν τοὺς ἀποστόλους, μαθέτωσαν οτι ἀντὶ τοῦ τιμᾶν, πλέον αὐτοὺς ἀτιμάζουσιν.

Παῦλος γὰρ τὸν ψευδώνυμον ἱερέα ἐνυβρίσας τοῖχον κεκονιαμένον ἀπεφήνατο. 6 «οιδαμεν γάρ», φησὶν ̓Ιωάννης, «οτι οταν φανερωθῇ, ομοιοι αὐτῷ ἐσόμεθα», καὶ Παῦλος τοὺς ἁγίους «συμμόρφους τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ» ἐκήρυξεν· πῶς ουν τοὺς ἐν δόξῃ μέλλοντας φαιδρύνεσθαι ἁγίους ἐν ἀδόξῳ καὶ νεκρῷ καὶ ἀλάλῳ θέλεις ὁρᾶν, τοῦ κυρίου λέγοντος περὶ αὐτῶν· «εσονται γάρ, φησίν, ὡς αγγελοι θεοῦ». 7 πῶς δὲ καὶ ἀγγέλους πνεύματα ὑπάρχοντας καὶ ἀεὶ ζῶντας ἐν νεκροῖς γράφων προσκυνεῖς, τοῦ προφήτου λέγοντος «ὁ ποιῶν τοὺς ἀγγέλους αὐτοῦ πνεύματα καὶ τοῦς λειτουργοὺς αὐτοῦ πῦρ φλέγον»; 8 λέγω δὲ οτι οὐδὲ αὐτοὶ θέλουσι προσκυνεῖσθαι.

9 «Ορα μή· σύνδουλος γάρ σου εἰμὶ καὶ τῶν ἀδελφῶν σου τῶν ἐχόντων τὴν μαρτυρίαν Ιησοῦ. τῷ θεῷ, φησίν, προσκύνησον». 10 ἀλλ' οὐδὲ οἱ ἀπόστολοι ἠθέλησαν προσκυνεῖσθαι. καὶ γὰρ οτε εὐαγγελίζεσθαι ἀπεστάλησαν, ἑαυτοὺς προσκυνεῖσθαι οὐκ ηθελον, ἀλλὰ τὸν αὐτοὺς ἀποστείλαντα Χριστόν. ὁ γὰρ ἐξουσίαν παρ' αὐτοῦ λαβὼν δεσμεύειν καὶ λύειν ἐπὶ γῆς καὶ οὐρανοῦ, ελεγε Κορνηλίῳ οτι «ὁμοιοπαθής εἰμι κατὰ σὲ ανθρωπος», καὶ ἐδίδασκε μὴ ἑαυτὸν προσκυνεῖσθαι ἀλλὰ τὸν σωτῆρα Χριστόν.

11 περὶ δὲ τῶν ἀγγέλων οἱ πατέρες οἱ ἐν Λαοδικείᾳ συνελθόντες- πάντως γὰρ οτι διὰ τοιαύτην ὑπόθεσιν συνήχθησαν-λέγουσιν· «ειτις ἐγκαταλείπει τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ἀγγέλους ὀνομάζει, ἀνάθεμα εστω· οτι ἐγκατέλιπε τὸν κύριον ἡμῶν ̓Ιησοῦν Χριστὸν καὶ εἰδωλολατρείᾳ προσελήλυθε». 12 πῶς τὸν ἀκατάληπτον καὶ ἀνεκδιήγητον καὶ ἀπερινόητον ἀπερίγραφόν τε γράφειν λέγει τις, ον οὐκ ισχυσε Μωυσῆς ἀτενίσαι; 13 φασίν τινες οτι ἐπειδὴ τέλειος ανθρωπος ἐγένετο ἐκ Μαρίας τῆς ἀειπαρθένου, διὰ τοῦτο ανθρωπον αὐτὸν ποιοῦμεν. 14 καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἐνηνθρώπησεν, ινα τὸν ἀκατάληπτον δι' ου τὰ πάντα ἐγένετο, διὰ χειρῶν σου γράψαι δυνηθῇς; 15 οὐκοῦν οὐκ εστιν ομοιος τοῦ πατρὸς οὐδὲ ζωοποιεῖ τοὺς νεκρούς; 16 ποῦ σοι διέταξε ταῦτα ἐλθὼν ἐπὶ γῆς, ποιῆσαι ομοιον αὐτῷ καὶ προσκυνεῖν καὶ ὁρᾶν; 17 αυτη ἡ διάταξις τοῦ πονηροῦ ἐστιν, ινα καταφρονήσῃς θεοῦ. 18 ὁ θεὸς γὰρ ἐν πάσῃ τῇ παλαιᾷ καὶ καινῇ ταῦτα ἀναιρεῖ, ἀκριβῶς λέγων· «κύριον τὸν θεὸν προσκυνήσεις καὶ αὐτῷ μόνῳ λατρεύσεις».