ar vusonan’sanuouan rts st JOHN oF DAMASCUS Jon Bee Three Treatises on the Divine Images ‘Translation and Introduction by ANDREW LouTH First Edition | ‘CRESTWOOD, NEW YORK 10707gg fon, of Damas Sit. Tom the vine ges. ngs) toa anos on tbe divine ages /t John of Damascus aration nd eto by hr Lath, ms Sin Ps popalr ai i) roca bisipepierefornc( | Table of Contents isonet goss ‘Snes 0-HB1 07 vlan Cale. Teno, [Louth Ande, Iie, Seis Introduction 2569051 2003 7 sed “eat aoorans0 ed a9 ‘Treatise TL 38 “reatise I a Bibliography 359 & | } corraicit® ©2003 51 VLADIMIK'S SEMINARY PRESS | 75 Scarsdale Road, Crestwood, NY 20707 ewrmvaprescom + 1-800-204-2665 1s 978-0-6618-2451 A Rights Reserved PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICADefense against those who attack the holy images by our Father among the Saints John Damascene 1 Teis necessary for us always conscious of our unworthiness, to ‘ep silence and confes our sins before God, but since all things are good in their season, and Ise the Church, which God built pon the foundation ofthe apostles and the prophets, Christhis Son being, the head cornerstone, battered as by the surging sea overwhelming, itwith wave upon wave tossed about and troubled by the grievous assault of wicked spirits, and Chriss tunic, woven from top to bot- tom, rent, which the children ofthe ungodly have arrogantly sought to divide, and his body cut to pieces, which s the people of God and the tradition of the Church that has held sway from the beginning, | do not believeit right to keep silence and bridle my tongue, paying attention to the threatening judgment that says“ he shrinks back, ‘my soul has no pleasure in him," and “ifyou see the sword coming and do not warn your brother, his blood I shall require at your Jhand”? Compelled to speak by a fear that cannot be borne, Ihave ‘come forward, not putting the majetyof king before the trith but "He og cing Ha 4200. Sake 920 JOHN OF DAMASCUS ‘hearing David the divine ancestor sy“ poke before kings and was not ashamed goaded more and more o speak. For the word of king exercises teror oer his subjects. For there are few who would utterly neglect the royal constitutions established from above, who [know that the king reigns upon earth from above and as such the laws of kings hold sway. 12 Therefor, holding firm in thought tothe preservation ofthe ‘ordinances of the Church, through which salvation has come tous, ‘asakind of kee! or foundation, Thave brought my discourse tothe ‘Starting point as it were urging on awell-bridled hors. Fort seems to mea calamity, and more than a calamity, that the Church, domed with such privileges and arrayed with traditions reeived from above bythe most godly men, should return tothe poor cle- _ments, afraid where no fear was and, asf it did not know the tre ‘God, be suspicious ofthe snare of idolatry and therefore decline in the smallest degree from perfection, thus bearing a disfiguring mark inthe mids ofa face exceeding fi, tbus harming the whole by the slightest injury to its beauty. For what is smalls not small if it eo- ‘duces something big so the slightest disturbance of the tradition of| the Church that ha held sway from the bepianing is no small mat- tex that tradition made knowa tows by our forefathers, whose con duct we should look to and whose faith we shoul imitate. 4 Thee nt etnies ceig ear ree acme Le rrr Feira er opener ree Deer eeaehrere eaten Se et Ce als ts. see Treaise an “with Him all the people of God, the holy nation, the royal priest- hood with the good shepherd of Christ’ rational lock, who repre sents in himself the hierarchy of Christ to receive my discourse with kindness, paying no attention to my litle worth, nor expecting elo- quence in my words, for lam only too aware of my inadequacy, but :ather considering the power of my arguments ("for thekingdom of| ‘heaven isnot in word, butin power”); for my purposes natto con ‘quer butto stretch outahandto fight forthe tru, ahand stretched ‘ut in the power of ceil. Calling on the help of the one who is ‘ruth in person will make start on my discourse, 4. (1116) Tnov what the One who cannot lie sid: "the Lord your God is one Lord and "you shall venerate the Lond your God and him alone shall you worship” and "there ball be for you no ‘other gods" and "you shall not make any carved likeness, of any- ‘thing in heaven above or on the earth below and all who vener- ste carved {images shallbe put to shame"® and gods, who didnot ‘make heaven and earth, shall be destroyed?” and these words in 2 similar manner: “God, who of old spoke to the fathers through the prophets, has in these lst days spoken to us in his Only-begotten Son through whom he made the ages" T know the One who said: “Thisiseternllif, that they might know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you sent” I believe in one God, the one begin- ning of al things, himself without beginning, uncreated,impersh- able and immortal, eternal and everlasting, incomprehensible, bodiless, invisible, uncircumscribed, without form, one beinga jon on DAMASCUS ‘beyond being divinity beyond divin in thee persons, ater and ‘Sohand Holy Spirit, and | worship ths one aloe, nd to his one Stone Taf the encratin of ty worship. I veneatone Gd, one {Evniysbut ao T worship 2 tiny of persons, God the Father and ‘God the Son incarnate and God the Hay Spt one God, 1 donot ‘Strate the ction instead ofthe creator but venerat the Cre Ton crened for mys who came down to his reson without iting lowered or weakened that he might glorify my nature and {rng abou communion wih he divine nature Ivenratetogetet Whine Kngand God the purplerobe of his body, otra arent, oraz uth peson (Go forbid), bata called tobe and to ave ecome unchangebly egal © God, nd the source of anointing Tort ature ofthe fs dno become dvi but asthe Word ecame sh muta remaining what it was, 00 also the Ssh ‘ecme the Word without sing wht it was, being rather made Ufa to the Word hypotatcal, Therefore {am emboldened to