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Anonymous
Concerning Protestant complains of Orthodox idolotry
2016-05-03 01:06:39 Post No. 1078208
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Concerning Protestant complains of Orthodox idolotry
Anonymous
2016-05-03 01:06:39
Post No. 1078208
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The ancient Hebrews did not have a problem with images in their temples. If you care to look up the ancient synagogue of Dura-Europos (since destroyed by Daesh), you will see that it was covered with images from the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew Bible itself describes numerous images in places of worship (Exodus 25:19-20, Exodus 26:1, Exodus 26:31, 1 Kings 6:23-29, just like Orthodox temples today, the Hebrew Temple was supposed to be like being in heaven, hence all the angels). First, let's examine the word, used in Exodus 20:4, often translated as "likeness" or "form" is תְּמוּנָה (temunah); the Septuagint's equivalent to this is εἶδος (eidos), this is the term Plato is so fond of, and it is generally translated in his works as "form". This is *not* the same term used for likeness is many other parts of the Bible. For instance, the word translated as likeness in Genesis 1:26 is דְּמוּת (demuth), or דָּמָה (damah) in verb form--this term is also often translated as "similitude" in the King James Bible, such as in Hosea 12:10; the Greek equivalent to this is ὁμοίωμα (homoioma). If we look at how these words are used, the distinction is readily apparent: prophets often used the term "demuth" when describing what their visions looked like (Ezekiel 10:21, for instance), whereas temunah is used to mean a form (man is made in the likeness of God, not in the form of God) such as in Job 4:16, Psalms 17:15 and Deuteronomy 4:12, this term is often used as a stand-in for the face of God, which in Orthodox theology is God's uncreated grace, which is fully and truly God, and which we can behold (unlike God's essence, which is infinitely transcendent and beyond all creatures), it is *form* as opposed to the *simulacrum*. Now the term translated as "graven image" (or "idol" in other parts) is the word פֶּ֫סֶל (pesel), the Greek equivalent of this is the term εἴδωλον (eidolon), which is the source of the English word "idol",
cont
