Letter to Emperor Theodosius

1The devil contrived idolatry in the world by his own evil art, sowed it in the world and established it, and turned human beings away from God. Now again, after the heresies and the idols, he has dragged the faithful down into the ancient idolatry and deceived them. Epiphanius brings himself forward in the letter as having followed the faith of the fathers at Nicaea from his youth, and as having parents who were born in that faith and held the same confession. For your piety will understand whether it is fitting for us to have a painted God made with colors. I have heard that some even promise to paint the incomprehensible Son of God; I do not recall ever seeing such a thing.

Which of the ancient fathers painted an image of Christ and set it up in a church or in his own house, or on the curtains of doors?

2Which of the ancient bishops dishonored Christ by painting him? Which of them made a public example of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of Moses and the prophets, of Peter or Andrew or James or John or the rest of the apostles, and paraded them in triumph in this way? At the same time they are lying, fashioning forms of the saints from their own thought in different ways—sometimes making the same ones old men, sometimes younger—entering into things they have never seen. They paint the Savior with long hair based on conjecture, because he is called a Nazarene, since Nazirites have long hair. But those who try to connect the types to him go astray, for the Savior drank wine, which Nazirites did not drink. It is not fitting for us to have God painted in colors and limbs.

3For the very thing they fashion from their own thought, they are lying about. The deceivers paint the holy apostle Peter as an old man, with his head and beard shorn. They also paint Saint Paul—some as bald in front, others as bald with a beard—and the other disciples as simply shorn. If the Savior had long hair while the other disciples were shorn, and he was not shorn yet appeared the same as them, then why were the Pharisees and scribes giving thirty pieces of silver to Judas for payment, so that after kissing him he might point out to them, “This is the one you are looking for”? Could they not have found him by themselves or through others, by the sign of the long hair, without giving a reward?

4He admits that at first his words were set before the many as mockery, on account of the nonsense he babbled, and then that when he advised his fellow bishops and fellow ministers to have these images removed, he was not listened to. We found at the end of the letter an indication containing this: that after speaking many times to my fellow ministers about removing the images, I was not heeded by them, nor did they endure to hear my voice even for a little.

He asks that the curtains bearing such painting be gathered and go forward for the burial of the poor, and that the paintings on the walls be whitewashed.

As for the images already painted in the shrine, since such a removal is difficult, if it is possible to remove them, that is good; but if it is impossible, to be content with what has already happened and no longer to paint anyone in this way.