A representation of the Nativity Icon in minuscule 157 (housed at the Vatican Library). |
It’s almost Christmas, so this might be a good opportunity
to momentarily detour from the world of New Testament textual criticism, going
slightly off-course into the field of New Testament iconography. Icons, like other non-textual features in manuscripts, can sometimes help trace a manuscript’s historical background and its relationship to other manuscripts. Let’s take some time to think about the Icon of the Nativity. The image shown here is based on the Nativity Icon found in the important minuscule 157, but the same basic icon is found in many other manuscripts, whether the accompanying text is Greek, Latin, Armenian, or something else.
The Nativity Icon depicts several scenes. The main scene, in the center, shows Mary resting on a bed,
or mattress, after giving birth to Jesus.
(Usually the mattress is red; the white mattress with red and blue stripes is a relatively rare feature in the icon in minuscule 157.) The location is a cave which served the
purpose of a natural barn for animals; the cave is pictured somewhat abstractly
by the opening on the hill behind Mary.
The infant Jesus is in swaddling cloths, and lying in a manger. A cave in Bethlehem
that is said to be the place of Jesus’ birth can be visited to this day. But the icon is not intended to only convey a
historical reality in its depiction of the cave. It also signifies that the Word of God took on flesh to bring God’s light into a dark world that was in rebellion against God. Jesus is the light; the world is the cave. And, setting a pattern of salvation, the cave did not come to Christ; Christ came to the
cave.
An ox and a donkey look curiously at Jesus over the edge of
the manger. These animals are not
mentioned in the Gospel-accounts, but the tradition about their presence at the
manger goes back at least to the 300s; they are included in sculptures
depicting Christ in the manger that were sculpted in that century. They are also mentioned in the fourteenth
chapter of a composition which has come to be known as the Gospel (or, Infancy Gospel)
of Pseudo-Matthew; it was not written
by Matthew but its author – hundreds of years after Matthew’s time – claimed
that Matthew wrote it in an attempt to promote its acceptance. Prominent atheist Bart Ehrman has spread the
claim that the tradition that Jesus was born in the cave at Bethlehem, and the
tradition about the ox and donkey, both originated with this late source;
however, Justin Martyr, in the first half of the 100s, mentions the cave at
Bethlehem in chapter 78 of his composition Dialogue With Trypho. So does the Proto-evangelium of James, which I will describe shortly. In addition, the presence of the
ox and donkey was mentioned by Ambrose of Milan, in the late 300s, in his
commentary on the Gospel of Luke.
A simple depiction of the Adoration of the Animals, from the 300s. |
Possibly the tradition about the animals began as an
explanation of Isaiah 1:3a – “The ox knows its owner and the donkey knows its
master’s crib.” Another passage,
Habakkuk 3:2, probably also had something to do with the spread of the
tradition about the animals: part of the Hebrew
phrase which, in modern English Bibles, is translated as “in the midst of the
years make known” was translated into Greek in intertestamental times as δύω
ζώων, that is, “two living creatures,” or, “two animals,” with the result that
in one form of the Greek Old Testament text, the sentence read, “You shall be
known between the two living creatures.”
A Nativity Icon at Saint Catherine's Monastery. |
An Armenian Nativity Icon. |
The Magi, pictured in a mosaic made in the mid-500s in Ravenna, Italy. |
● Gaspar (or Casper )
the elderly wise man gave gold;
● Melchior the middle-aged wise man gave frankincense from Arabia ;
● Balthazar the young wise man, who is often pictured as
black-skinned, gave myrrh from Yemen . Their names can be traced at least as far back
as the 500s; they are in a mosaic in Ravenna, Italy which was made in
565, and they are also recorded in a Latin text known as the Excerpta Latina Barbari, which was probably put together around the
year 500. The wise men are typically
distinguished in icons not only by their gifts but also by their unusual Persian
hats.
The Gospels provide no direct evidence that the wise men
were kings; however it is possible that they served as de facto ambassadors, and thus their actions may be regarded
indirectly as actions done in the name of a king, or kings, depending on how
many political entities sent the wise men.
It is in this sense that some interpreters have understood Psalm 72:10 and
Isaiah 60:3 to be fulfilled by the wise men – “The kings of Tarshish and of
distant shores shall bring presents; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer
gifts,” and “Nations shall come to Your light, and kings to the brightness of
Your dawn.”
An ivory panel-carving of the Nativity Icon, at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. |
In most Nativity-icons, Balaam and Balak are replaced by
shepherds. This might have been done by an artist who was unfamiliar with the significance of these characters, and
who was copying a small icon in which the names of the characters were not
given and the details were not clearly defined.
Feeling that the shepherds should be included, and seeing an angel
facing these two characters, the artist identified them as shepherds, and thus
Balaam and Balak disappeared from the scene.
(Balak’s crown, accordingly, was apparently redrawn as an unusual hat on one of the
shepherds.) There is something
thematically appealing to this development – emphasizing the teaching that we
are no longer under Law, but under grace – for as Balaam and Balak are replaced
by shepherds, the angel of the Lord who appeared to Balaam with a rebuke and a
sword now stands as the angel who proclaimed “Good tidings of great joy which
shall be for all peoples.”
4 comments:
What's that heading at the top of the icon?
"The birth of Christ."
Question :
In Katavasias of Christmas Ode 4:
"Jesse's root produced a branch, O Christ,
and You its flower blossomed forth, from the Virgin who by Habakkuk prophetically once was called overshadowed, dense mountain."
Does LXX Habakkuk 3:3 "overshadow dense mountain" (in this Christmas Orthodox chant) has anything to do with virgin Mary ? Any Second Temple period text or early Rabbinical Writings have hint ? Where did they get that idea?
Interesting article. One thought occurred to me while I was reading your article here. Where you said, "The word ζωή does not only refer to animals, but technically to any living creature," I was instantly reminded of the fact that the four beasts in Revelation 4 are referred to as such. Cherubim and angels could be referred to as "living beings" as in Revelation 4 or Ezekiel 1 and 10. I was also reminded of the fact that there were two angels standing at the head, and the foot, of the place where Jesus had lain (John 20:12). So basically, He is pictured as being between two angels while in the tomb.
Perhaps this could be intended as another reference to Christ being a type of the Ark of the Covenant. For more on this type, see also Psalm 80:1 and Psalm 99:1, where God is referred to as "thou that dwellest between the cherubims". Also, where it says in Psalm 47:5, "God is gone up with a shout" which could also be seen to refer to the Ark, as it says that the Ark was brought up "with shouting, and with the sound of a trumpet" in 2 Samuel 6:15.
Lastly, this is also very similar to when Christ returns in 1 Thessalonians 4, where it also says, "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God:"
Post a Comment