Testament to the Citizens · §2 · Epiphanius of Salamis

The testament's first command against images

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Epiphanius is issuing a binding testament to the citizens, and this section states its first command: not to bring images into churches or cemeteries.

They put forward, then, a testament directed to the citizens, in which it urges that images not be brought into churches or into the cemeteries.

Greek

∆ιαθήκη πρὸς τοὺς πολίτας.

31 προτείνουσι δ' οὖν ὅμως διαθήκην πρὸς τοὺς πολίτας διατεταγμένην, καθ'

ἣν μὴ ἀναφέρειν εἰκόνας ἐπ' ἐκκλησίας ἢ ἐν κοιμητηρίοις παρεγγυᾷ.

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About this text

Epiphanius charges his people to hold fast to tradition and bring no images into churches, cemeteries, or homes, but keep God in their hearts.

Epiphanius of Salamis (c. 310/320–403) was bishop of Salamis, the chief city of Cyprus, from about 367 until his death. The work urges them to keep the traditions they had received and not to turn aside from them.

He extends the prohibition even to an ordinary house, because a Christian must not be distracted through the eyes and the wanderings of the mind.

A reader will meet only Epiphanius as the speaker and the citizens as the recipients. The argument is simple: keep God in memory in your hearts, not in pictures. Anyone who deliberately tries to comprehend the divine character of God's Word according to the incarnation from material colors is to be anathema. The work does not cite specific books of the Bible. A reader should know that testament here means a binding ordinance, images means religious pictures, and cemeteries means the burial places of the saints.

Printed text used

Translated from PG 41 – 43 (Greek)

This work has passed our source check. 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.

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