Letter to Emperor Theodosius · §2 · Epiphanius of Salamis

No ancient bishop painted Christ or the saints

Click or tap any sentence to jump there. The side buttons skip a paragraph.

Epiphanius is asking the emperor whether any ancient bishop ever painted Christ or the saints, and is beginning to explain why painters who do so are inventing false appearances.

Which 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.

Greek

τίς τῶν ἀρχαίων ἐπισκόπων Χριστὸν

ἀτιμάσας ἐζωγράφησεν; τίς τὸν Ἀβραὰμ καὶ Ἰσαὰκ καὶ Ἰακώβ, Μωυσέα τε καὶ τοὺς

προφήτας ἢ Πέτρον ἢ Ἀνδρέαν ἢ Ἰάκωβον ἢ Ἰωάννην ἢ τοὺς λοιποὺς ἀποστόλους

οὕτως παρεδειγμάτισεν καὶ ἐθριάμβευσεν; 24 ἅμα δὲ καὶ ψεύδονται, ἐξ ἰδίας αὐτῶν

ἐννοίας μορφὰς τῶν ἁγίων ἄλλως καὶ ἄλλως ἀνατυποῦντες, ποτὲ μὲν γέροντας ποτὲ

δὲ νεωτέρους τοὺς αὐτοὺς*, ἃ μὴ ἑωράκασιν ἐμβατεύοντες. κόμην γὰρ ἔχοντα τὸν

σωτῆρα γράφουσιν ἐξ ὑπονοίας διὰ τὸ Ναζωραῖον αὐτὸν καλεῖσθαι, ἐπείπερ οἱ

Ναζιραῖοι κόμας ἔχουσιν.

Σφάλλονται δὲ οἱ τοὺς τύπους αὐτῷ συνάπτειν πειρώμενοι· οἶνον γὰρ ἔπινεν

ὁ σωτήρ, ὃν οἱ Ναζιραῖοι οὐκ ἔπινον. 25 οὐ πρέπον ... ἐστὶ θεὸν ἔχειν ἡμᾶς ἐν

χρώμασι καὶ μέλεσι ζωγραφούμενον.

Report a mistake in this passage

About this text

Epiphanius begs the emperor to remove religious images, and explains why Christ must not be painted.

Epiphanius of Salamis (c. 310/320–403) was bishop of Salamis on Cyprus and a vigorous defender of what he considered orthodox Christian practice. He wrote this letter to the emperor Theodosius to oppose the painting of images of Christ and the saints in churches and on door curtains, and to urge their removal.

Epiphanius writes that the devil introduced idolatry into the world and is now deceiving believers back into it through painted images. He claims no ancient father or bishop painted Christ or the saints, and that those who do so dishonor Christ and invent false appearances from their own imagination.

A reader should know that Epiphanius uses the word image for a painted portrait, especially of Christ or the saints, and idolatry for the worship of images as gods. He argues that painters wrongly depict Christ with long hair by confusing the title Nazorean with Nazirites, who took a vow involving uncut hair and abstinence from wine, even though Christ drank wine. He also reasons that if Christ had distinctive long hair while the other disciples were shorn, the Pharisees and scribes would not have needed Judas to identify him with a kiss. He asks that curtains with such images be used for burying the poor, wall paintings be whitewashed, and images already painted in a shrine be removed if possible, with no new images painted.

Printed text used

Translated from PG 41 – 43 (Greek)

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Greek on any section to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

Report a mistake