Friday, February 8, 2013

Resurrection and the Bride of Christ - Le Donne

James McGrath asks of the theological significance of this ancient Greek wedding gesture:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/exploringourmatrix/2013/02/the-resurrection-in-orthodox-iconography-and-the-marriage-gesture-of-cheir-epi-karpo.html

This interests me greatly. I will be checking in on the comments to see what sort of conversation emerges.

-anthony
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2 comments:

  1. James F. McGrathFebruary 8, 2013 at 7:58 PM

    Thanks for sharing this. Let me know if you get any interesting suggestions posted here!

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  2. AnonymousFebruary 9, 2013 at 8:14 AM

    Very quick glance at some scholarship on Byzantine icons says nothing about "bride of Christ" symbolism, but does note that this motif begins in the early 8th c. and is sometimes described as a "rescue" type of the Anastasis genre. The image on Jim's blog, which pictures Jesus holding the cross like the Super Bowl trophy, belongs to a related, "victory" type. Variants of this scene sometimes show the risen Christ grabbing both Adam and Eve by their wrists, show Eve behind Adam, or show Jesus displaying his crucifixion wounds to them, presumably before leading them out of Hades. The Gospel of Nicodemus and the writings of St. John of Damascus are said to be the main (literary) inspiration for the motif, along with 1 Peter 3 and Acts 2 of course.

    So, yeah, that's not all that helpful for Jim's question, but maybe points in some directions for further searching.

    Eric

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