[OrthodoxPresbyterian]

The Jewish tradition states that we should not make graven images of God. Is this in the Christian tradition as well? Because I have seen Catholics wearing crosses with Jesus on them and even houses having hung crosses with Jesus on them. How is this justified? Thanks ~~ Yonif

A graven image is something (like the golden calf) worshipped in place of God. We do not worship graven images. ~~ B Knotts

IMHO, this is not technically true. The Golden Calf was not "worshipped in the place of God".

Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. He took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, "This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt." (New American Standard)

Some translations render "God" in the plural. I haven't checked my interlinear Hebrew to be sure, but I do know that the Hebrew Old Testament often refers to God in the plural -- something the Jews have never dealt with adequately IMO.

In other words, Aaron did not set up the Golden Calf "in the place of God". The Idolatry was far more egregious -- Aaron told the Israelites that the Golden Calf WAS God, the very image of the God who had brought them out of Egypt.

In other words, Aaron was not merely allowing the people to turn away to the worship of "Lesser Gods".... he was directing their worship of the One True God towards a cow. Telling them, "This IS the One TRUE GOD".

This was a blasphemous and totally-unsanctioned Icon.

---

Ahh, but there's the rub, Yonif -- it was an unsanctioned Icon.

For do not your Jewish Ten Commandments read as do ours?

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above...

AND YET...

Exodus 25:17-19
And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof. And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat. And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof.

Tsk, tsk, tsk.... you NAUGHTY, NAUGHTY Jews!! Making graven images of Heavenly Cherubim when the Commandments tell you "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above..." How dare you?

And the correct answer which you can (and must) give, is simply this: "We dared to fashion the graven Cherubim, for these were the Biblically-sanctioned Icons which were ordered for us."

Yes, indeed. But that's exactly the point.

For Jesus Christ is, likewise: the Living Word, the Torah Enfleshed, the Express Image, the One and Only Biblically-sanctioned Icon of the One True God.

THE EPISTLE OF APOSTLE PAUL TO THE HEBREWS, Chapter 1 verses 1-3
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.

And no man can see the Father Most High, unless he looks upon the Son:

JOHN 14: 8-10
Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

And this is the great tragedy of the Jews.

You will allow yourselves to acknowledge the Graven Cherubim as a Divinely-sanctioned Icon not prohibited by the First Commandment; and yet, you will not permit yourselves to look upon the Divinely-sanctioned Icon of God Himself, the Living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ -- and to be Saved in Him.

best, OP

---

Hmm. Speaking of the Mercy Seat, must post Punk Rock lyrics from "Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds". Sorry, folks. We all gotta do what we all gotta do.

I hear stories from the chamber,
How Christ was born into a manger,
And like some ragged stranger
Died upon the Cross.
And might I say it seems so fitting in its way,
He was a carpenter by trade,
Or at least that's what I'm told

And the Mercy Seat is waiting,
And I think my head is burning;
And in a way I'm yearning
To be done with all this measuring of truth,
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,
And anyway I told the truth,
And I'm not afraid to die.
~~ Nick Cave, "The Mercy Seat", 1988

[OrthodoxPresbyterian]

a Divinely-sanctioned Icon not prohibited by the First Commandment

Errata: The *Second Commandment*. (My typing got ahead of my brain)

"We dare not allow our interpretation of the second commandment to lead us into a docetic diminution of the Reality of the Incarnation." ~~ Rev. Dr. Greg Bahnsen, Orthodox Presbyterian (RIP)

[Hermann the Cherusker]

There are plenty of Jewish Synagouges with stained glass windows of Biblical scenes and persons (like Moses). You are quite right to observe that the 2nd Commandment prohibits the worship of idols as God. That doesn't say anything about stories in glass.

[biblewonk]

Not true. God told Israel ~"When I spoke to you I didn't appear in any form, therefore don't make any image to represent me". You totally miss that point.