"Blessed is he who comes in the name of Adonai. We bless you from the house of Adonai.
Adonai is God, and he gives us light. Join in the pilgrim festival with branches all the way to the horns of the altar." (CJB)
Yeah, that's the way the Masoretic text reads. I prefer the Septuagint, which was quoted by the Apostles.
I had to do some research on this as I am not familiar with Orthodox beliefs. Hopefully I will be by the finish of our discussion
That would be most excellent.
e·piph·a·ny
1.( initial capital letter ) a Christian festival. . .
2. an appearance or manifestation, especially of a deity.
3. a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.
Is the holiday you spoke about connected to the first definition here or is it about all of the above?
There are several holidays called "Theophany" or "Epiphany". There's the one about the Magi. The most famous feast day called Theophany (and the one with the longest service, aside from Pascha and the Nativity of the Lord)
I know we have a "blessing of the fleet" near where I live. Is that also an exclusive Orthodox tradition or just for the Greek church?
Very interesting, I didn't even know there was such a thing. But then again, my home jurisdiction traces its ancestry back to Ruthenia in the Carpathian mountains, so we don't really have a fleet to bless.
I think it's more a practice of those Orthodox churches which have territory along the sea, such as the Greeks, Russians, etc.
Do all Orthodox churches share the same beliefs? Russian, Greek, Eastern etc? Or are there differences between them?
Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Antiochian Orthodox, Carpatho-Rusyn Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, etc. are all parts of the larger Eastern Orthodox Church. Each and every one of them share the same beliefs.
Eastern Orthodox Church
Orthodox Church organization
There are the Oriental Orthodox, who had a schism with us Eastern Orthodox in 451 after some misunderstandings. The Oriental Orthodox include the Coptic Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox and Syriac Orthodox. They pretty much share the same exact beliefs as us Eastern Orthodox, though we have a few semantical differences in how we view Christology--the Oriental Orthodox place a bit more emphasis on the unity of Christ's two natures (divine and human), whereas we Eastern Orthodox place a bit more emphasis on the distinction of Christ's two natures. We both have essentially the same Christology, however, and hierarchs on both sides of the fence have recognized this.
How does your church feel about the divine name and its usage? After all Jesus said "Hallowed be thy name" not "hallowed be thy title".
To be continued......
Given that the Divine Name could only be uttered once per year by the high priest in the Holy of Holies, we feel that the Divine Name should be treated with the utmost respect, and not just thrown around. It was the common practice, even in the New Testament to not use the Tetragrammaton, but instead to use such titles as Kyrios and Theos. As long as it is clear to Whom we are referring, there should be no issue. We can give glory to God's name without using it directly.
Hmmm....Click on the link below.....a brief look at these pics may take away any doubt that the halo is not exactly Christian.
Borrowed perhaps?
Picture Gallery
"Shining as illuminators in the world" doesn't mean having sunbeams coming out of your head surely?
Certainly not, but it is definitely one of the best ways to depict it. In doing so, we rehabilitate certain universal symbols, and put them back into their proper context—we show the true Light that comes from God, and not the false light of idols and so-called “gods.” Remember, God is called the “Father of Lights” in the Book of James.
I doubt that a halo was the thing mentioned in those scriptures.....especially when sun worshippers had the same halos depicted in their art. There is little in the way of Christian art until the later centuries because the first Christians were very mindful of the second commandment in Exodus 20, not to "make" images of "anything". An image does not have to be three dimensional....an icon is an image, is it not?
Actually, there’s little in the way of Christian art from the first century, because 1. Christians heard the Scriptures in synagogues on Saturday, with many synagogues already being artistically decorated and featuring images of animals, floral patterns, and Biblical scenes (which are very reminiscent of later Eastern Orthodox iconography, if you’ll remember the
synagogue links I posted earlier in the thread—here they are
again if you need them). And 2: Christians met in houses in the early days before we were chased into the catacombs, and many houses from them are no longer standing, so we have no examples of Christian art from that age.
Yes please, I'd like to hear how the Orthodox church justifies its use of images, statues, icons and such, since the scriptural command was not to "make" an image of "anything" at all. (Ex 20:4, 5) Even the crucifix is an image. The veneration of these things just compounds that commandment in my view, but by all means, an explanation is most welcome...I am curious.
The Scriptural command was to not make an image of anything
and worship or serve it.
This is easily seen, when God Himself tells the Israelites to make two cherubim. “18 And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. 19 Make one cherub at one end, and the other cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it
of one piece with the mercy seat. 20 And the cherubim shall stretch out
their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another; the faces of the cherubim
shall be toward the mercy seat.” (Exodus 25:18-20)
Solomon also ornately decorates God’s Temple with carved images, in 1 Kings 6: “The inside of the temple was cedar, carved with ornamental buds and open flowers. . . Inside the inner sanctuary he made two cherubim
of olive wood,
each ten cubits high. 24 One wing of the cherub
was five cubits, and the other wing of the cherub five cubits: ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other. 25 And the other cherub
was ten cubits; both cherubim
were of the same size and shape. . . 27 Then he set the cherubim inside the inner room; and they stretched out the wings of the cherubim so that the wing of the one touched
one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall. And their wings touched each other in the middle of the room. 28 Also he overlaid the cherubim with gold.
29 Then he carved all the walls of the temple all around, both the inner and outer sanctuaries, with carved figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. . . The two doors were of olive wood; and he carved on them figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold; and he spread gold on the cherubim and on the palm trees...”
Even after this, God blessed Solomon. Solomon didn’t violate God’s commandment by lavishly decorating the Temple. And God certainly didn’t violate His own commandment by instructing the Hebrews to make two gold statues of cherubim. So, making images and icons is a perfectly acceptable practice—as long as you don’t worship these images or icons.
In fact, there are two central ideas in Orthodox theology that are the basis for iconographic depictions of Christ and the Saints:
1: Christ Himself is the visible image of the invisible God. We cannot depict God the Father as He is, for “no one has seen God” as we have discussed, and no one as we currently are may see Him and live. But we can depict God the Son, because He came and took on flesh. He had a real, physical body, and it is acceptable to depict Him the way He looked while walking this earth. Christ is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15).
2: We ourselves, as humans, are made in the IMAGE and likeness of God. We all have the image of God within us. When we give respect to each other, we give respect to God in Whose image we are made—just as what we do unto the least of our brethren, we do unto Christ our God.
We venerate the Saints, because they are the ones in whom God magnified His will (Psalm 15:3). The Complete Jewish Bible renders that verse “The holy people in the land are the ones who are worthy of honor; all my pleasure is in them.” The Saints are worthy of our honor, in that they are examples of the faithful who walked in God’s ways and did His will."
Icons also aim to show the world in its redeemed state, with God’s light shining through everything. If you notice, in icons, there’s no clear light source as in realistic art. Rather, the light seems to come from
within people—symbolizing God’s divine Light that permeates all of creation. This is also why nearly all the backgrounds in icons are gold.
