Start page / Objections / Saints and Images
Verses cited for this objection: Ex. 20:4-5, Deut. 4:15-16, Lev. 26:1
Short answer
The commandment forbids making images in order to adore them as gods. The same Law commanded images for the ark and the Temple, so it does not forbid every image. Since the Son of God became man and was seen, the Church makes images of him and of his saints. The honor shown to an image passes to the person it represents, and adoration is given to God alone.
Drafted from primary sources. Every quotation is checked against the page it links to.
Where this teaching appears on the Offshoots timelines: January 1528, Images removed from churches.
“And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. … There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you of all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.”
“And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent, and set it on a pole; and if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.”
“And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had burned incense to it”
“He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation;”
“Likewise, when forbidding the similitude to be made of all things which are in heaven, and in earth, and in the waters, He declared also the reasons, as being prohibitory of all material exhibition of a latent idolatry. For He adds: You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them. The form, however, of the brazen serpent which the Lord afterwards commanded Moses to make, afforded no pretext for idolatry, but was meant for the cure of those who were plagued with the fiery serpents.”
“Because we speak of a king, and of the king's image, and not of two kings. The majesty is not cloven in two, nor the glory divided. The sovereignty and authority over us is one, and so the doxology ascribed by us is not plural but one; because the honour paid to the image passes on to the prototype.”
“And indeed in that you forbade them to be adored, we altogether praise you; but we blame you for having broken them. … For to adore a picture is one thing, but to learn through the story of a picture what is to be adored is another.”
“But besides this who can make an imitation of the invisible, incorporeal, uncircumscribed, formless God? Therefore to give form to the Deity is the height of folly and impiety. And hence it is that in the Old Testament the use of images was not common. But after God in His bowels of pity became in truth man for our salvation, not as He was seen by Abraham in the semblance of a man, nor as He was seen by the prophets, but in being truly man, and after He lived upon the earth and dwelt among men”
“The more frequently they are seen in representational art, the more are those who see them drawn to remember and long for those who serve as models, and to pay these images the tribute of salutation and respectful veneration. Certainly this is not the full adoration (latria) in accordance with our faith, which is properly paid only to the divine nature … Indeed, the honour paid to an image traverses it, reaching the model, and he who venerates the image, venerates the person represented in that image.”
“This commandment does not forbid the making of any graven thing or likeness, but the making thereof for the purpose of adoration, wherefore it is added: "Thou shalt not adore them nor serve them." … But because in the New Testament God was made man, He can be adored in His corporeal image.”
“Moreover, that the images of Christ, of the Virgin Mother of God, and of the other saints, are to be had and retained particularly in temples, and that due honour and veneration are to be given them; not that any divinity, or virtue, is believed to be in them, on account of which they are to be worshipped; or that anything is to be asked of them; or, that trust is to be reposed in images … but because the honour which is shown them is referred to the prototypes which those images represent”
“The practice of placing sacred images in churches so that they may be venerated by the faithful is to be maintained. Nevertheless their number should be moderate and their relative positions should reflect right order. For otherwise they may create confusion among the Christian people and foster devotion of doubtful orthodoxy.”
“The divine injunction included the prohibition of every representation of God by the hand of man. … Nevertheless, already in the Old Testament, God ordained or permitted the making of images that pointed symbolically toward salvation by the incarnate Word: so it was with the bronze serpent, the ark of the covenant, and the cherubim.”
“The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, "the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype," and "whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it." The honor paid to sacred images is a "respectful veneration," not the adoration due to God alone”