1,348
edits
Changes
m
→The Ancient of Days in Iconography
In Orthodox Iconography, we find the image of the Ancient of Days used in two ways:
:1. Often, Jesus Christ is depicted as an old man, to show symbolically that he existed from all eternity, and sometimes as a young man to portray him as he was incarnate. This [[iconography]] emerged in the 6th century, mostly in the Eastern Empire.<ref>Cartlidge and Elliott, 69-72</ref>
:2. The Father is also often symbolically depicted as the Ancient of Days. We find this on many miraculous icons, including the Kursk Root Icon<ref>[http://www.stjohndc.org/Russian/theotokos/e_kursk_root.htm Orthodox Life Vol. 32, No 6 November - December, 1982]</ref>, the Reigning Icon of the Mother of God (Derzhavnaya icon)<ref>[http://www.stjohndc.org/Russian/theotokos/e_0907_reigning.htm The Miraculous "Reigning" Icon, 2/15 March, St. John the Baptist Russian Orthodox Church, Washington, D.C.]</ref>, and the Sitka Icon<ref>[http://dioceseofalaska.org/pdf/SitkaIcon-History.pdf History of the Wonder-working Sitka icon of the Mother of God, Diocese of Alaska Website]</ref>, just to name a few.
The Council of Moscow in 1667 declared that the Ancient of Days was the Son and not the Father, and that the depiction of the Fathers as the Ancient of Days was forbidden.<ref>The Tome of the Great Council of Moscow (1666-1667 A.D.), Ch. 2, 43-45; tr. [[Hierodeacon]] Lev Puhalo, ''Canadian Orthodox Missionary Journal''</ref> This is however the same council that anathamatized the Old Rite, and like many of its decrees, this decree has generally been ignored ever since, and this image has been a regular element in Orthodox Iconography, both within Russia, and elsewhere in the Church. The above cited references to the standard "Painters Manual" of Dionysius of Fourna, as well the comments of St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain in "The Rudder" demonstrate that this was an accepted element of Orthodox Iconography. In the second half of the 20th Century, however, a movement to reject this element of Iconography arose from some of the representatives of the Neo-Patristic movement, and so this has become a matter of controversy in more recent times.
