The icon of the Transfiguration constitutes the key to Orthodox theology on the vision of God. The light which appeared to the Apostles was the expression of the Divine brilliance, of the timeless and uncreated glory, the recognition of the two natures of Christ, the divine and the human. At the same time, it was a prototype, an icon of the transfigured human nature and of the theosis (deification) which is granted by the redemptive work of Christ. The Transfiguration of Christ on mount Tabor is the corresponding event in the New Testament of the event in the Old Testament in which God is revealed to Moses on Mount Horeb. Already from the first Christian centuries we have indications that the Transfiguration of Christ was celebrated in the Church, while from the end of the 6th century of the Christian era the date of this celebration was fixed to be the 6th of August. It is from the same period that we derive the first examples of the iconographic art.
The Light of the transfigured Christ
constitutes the main expression of the Hesychastic movement through the
theology of the “Hesychastic Fathers” which was recorded in the 14th
century. Their leader, St. Gregory Palamas, declared that God is called
“Light” not according to his being (ousia), but according to his
“energy”, and that this “uncreated” light can be sensed by our senses
through prayer and as long as certain presuppositions apply (purity of
heart, ceaseless memory of God… etc.). This dogma of the Church resulted
in certain iconographic changes in the composition of the icon of the
Transfiguration, especially in the rendering of the Glory of Christ. So
the icon of the Transfiguration is depicted not only in accordance with
the Gospel accounts – it is recorded by all the Evangelists (Matthew
17-‐1-‐9, Mark 9: 2-‐13, and Luke 9:28-‐36) with the exception of
John, – but also in accordance with its spirit. It is because of the
dogmatic significance of this event, that the iconographic theme has
undergone the least of changes in the course of centuries. This
depiction was not only for the theologians but also for the
iconographers the pretext for producing extended scholia (commentaries)
concerning the way in which that uncreated light had to be depicted with
transient material means. This is the point where the theology of the
icon meets with hesychastic theology and the vision of the divine and
uncreated light. In the icon of the Transfiguration we have the
projection of a deliberate antithesis, which is truly amazing to a very
high degree. The composition contrasts the motionless Christ who lies
above and is engulfed in superb peace and glory, which are derived from
him, and bathe with divine splendor the figures of Moses and Elijah, who
stand bending towards the Lord and form a perfect circle of what lies
beyond the veil, and the vivid dynamism of the Apostles who lie below –
being still completely human – and are overthrown and utterly toppled by
the impact of the Revelation.
The transfigured Christ appears high up
in the middle of the icon, above the middle peak of Mount Tabor of
Galilee. He blesses with one of his hands, while the other holds a
folded scroll, where his Law is written. He is dressed with a white
garment and he is flooded with light inside his hanging Glory – since
the light is the first property of God (Ps. 27:1, Is. 60:19-‐20 and
42:6) – as the miracle of his revelatory epiphany proclaims. Mark
describes the scene as follows: “and he was transfigured before them,
and his garments became glistening, intensely white, as no fuller on
earth could bleach them” (9:2-‐3).
The uncreated light is depicted in the
icon by symbolic schematizations and colors with which Christ is vested.
The two homocentric circles symbolize the presence of the other two
persons of the Holy Trinity, a wholeness of the spheres of the created
universe. The circle is iconographically the most perfect shape and
symbolizes perpetual endurance, the divine. Christ – the second person
of the Holy Trinity – at the moment of His Transfiguration is
circumscribed by the following three symbols of light: the rays which
form a ellipsoid square, the golden lines (chrysography), the luminous
crown (halo) around his head and the white vestments. The rays which
escape from his body indicate the sun, the golden lines the transmission
of the divine life, the halo recalls the sun’s sphere, a symbol of the
sacred and of the spiritual energy which radiates, and the whiteness of
the vestments purity and incorruptibility. Theologically, this light of
Tabor makes the icon an iconographic proof of divine existence.
“The brilliance which characterizes
Christ and his garments which “white like the light” (Matth. 17: 2)
which were glistening, sparkled and reflected flashes of divine splendor
is what is stressed in all the descriptions of the Apostles. The white
as symbol of light has the attribute of spreading as it drives through
space. As such it represents what is timeless. It denotes the innocence
of the soul, purity and sanctity of life, joy, virginity, faith and
glory. Related references are also made in the Holy Scripture: ”wash me,
and I will be whiter than snow” (Ps. 50:9). White garments are put on
by the newly baptized as an indication of their birth into the true
life. The white becomes the color of Revelation, of Epiphany, of Grace.
As St. John says, “God is Light ” (I John, 1:5).
Christ is depicted with a luminous crown
that bears the cross and on its antennas the letters «Ο Ω Ν» which
means “He who Is, or He who is Present.” This is a reminder that He is
the authentic “icon” and co-‐existing (homoousios) with the Father. God
is revealed to Moses on Mount Horeb, saying “I am He who Is” (Εxod.
3:14). It is exactly this that is stamped upon the halo of Christ,
indicating that He is co-‐existing with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
The shape of the cross within the halo indicates the event of
redemption through the Cross.
Being in His divine Glory, Christ offers
a blessing having His face turned towards the observer – to whom it is
addressed anyway. The gesture of blessing with the two fingers raised
(the index and the medial) and the three others united refer to his two
natures, the divine and the human, and respectively to the three persons
of the Holy Trinity. In his descent from mount Tabor Christ blesses in a
different way. He touches the thumb with the ring finger and he has the
other three fingers raised. In this way he indicates again the two
natures and the three hypostases (persons), while at the same time the
fingers form in their present position the Greek monogram IC XC (=Jesus
Christ), which is inscribed as a title on all the Orthodox icons of
Christ, even in Russia. In the “three peaks composition,” as the scene
is described by Dionysios of Fourna, Christ is paneled together with the
two standing figures of the Prophet Elijah on the left and of Moses
holding the tablets of the Law of God on the right. These two figures
are presented as prototypes of the Apostles, because God has appeared to
both of them; to Elijah on Mount Carmel and to Moses on mount Sinai.
Moreover, in the Christian tradition, the mountain is a place where
heaven meets the earth, and ascent to a mountain has a metaphorical
meaning, which refers to an ascent of the stages of sanctity. The two
Prophets – from among the greatest figures of the Old Testament – appear
to have a conversation with Christ: “and behold two men talked with
Him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of His exodus
which He was going to accomplish in Jerusalem” (Luke, 9:30-‐31).
“Christ appears with the brilliance of
His divine glory in order to prepare and strengthen his disciples
spiritually as they were going to be drawn into the temptation of the
hard ordeal of the cross. Moses and Elijah are presented in a more human
form than the Savior, and they symbolize respectively the Law of the
Old Testament and the Prophets. They also symbolize the dead (Moses) and
the living (Elijah, who was transposed to heaven from the earth on a
fiery chariot). Christ reminds them that He is the one who brought
together the Law of Moses with the Old Testament Oracles of the Prophets
– which are represented here by Elijah – and denotes His superiority
over these Scriptures through the witness of the Father, “This is my
Son…”
In contrast to the two Prophets who
stand motionless, the three Apostles below the feet of Christ, being
terrified by what happens, are depicted fallen. Blinded by the divine
appearance, the divine energy, they are depicted in positions of intense
astonishment and being possessed by great agitation and disturbance, as
Matthew reports in his account: “When the disciples heard this, they
fell on their faces and were filled with fear” (17:6). In the Holy
Scripture we have one more example where man is unable to behold at the
divine presence: this is the face of Moses which radiated with divine
light after he came down from Sinai, so that the people could not look
at him (Exodus, 34, 27-37).
The energy of light of the divine nature
of Christ transforms into light the Apostles who have lost every
possible human balance. Indeed, the Apostles Peter, James and John are
chosen for their liveliness as “eyewitnesses of His majesty … being with
Him on the holy mountain” (II Pet. 1:16-‐18). The masterly way in
which the positions of the Apostles are depicted with their terrified
expressions, creates a dramatic impression compared to the calm majesty
of the “timeless” stance of the figures which are depicted on the upper
part of the scene. If motionlessness expresses the peace of God and the
supernatural life, mobility by contrast bears witness to imperfection of
spiritual life, i.e., to humanity’s sinful condition. Besides, the same
sense of mobility and agitation belongs to the earthly world, the lower
realm and not the heavenly state of affairs.
The hymns which are sung on the 6th of
August, the day of the celebration of the Transfiguration, stress the
divine glory manifested to the Apostles in accordance with the ability
and the degree of receptivity which each of them exhibits. Their
postures symbolize the different ways of response to divine revelation
that human beings exhibit. So, John, the youngest of them, in the
middle, and James on the right with the green vesture are thrown down on
the ground, holding their face as they are unable to gaze at the divine
radiance, while Peter on the left, being older, holds his face with his
left hand, but it is turned upwards. At the same time this depiction
preserves the respect of the symbolism of the ages.
“The “vision of God” was regarded by the
faithful Jews and Christians as the highest experience and virtue that a
human being might acquire: “Show Yourself”, said Moses to God (Exod.
33:18). This experience, however, appears to be something unachievable:
“No one has ever seen God,” John writes in his Gospel (John, 1:18). Here
at Tabor the three disciples become the irrefutable witnesses of a
momentary manifestation of the divine glory: “We have seen his glory”
(John 1:14). The word was not accidental: they were present (according
to the idiomelon of the Vespers of the Feast) at that brilliant event,
“so that by seeing the wonders of Jesus “they might not be dismayed by
his passions” later on at the crucifixion. Moreover, another purpose of
the Transfiguration of Christ was to serve as the foretelling of the
Resurrection.
St. Gregory Palamas says this about the
three disciples who were witnesses to the scene: “So, neither that light
was sensible (created), nor was it simply seen by sensible (created)
eyes, but they were transformed by the power of the divine Spirit”
(Migne P.G. 151, 433Β). And further on, he says again: He who encounters
the divine light, encounters the mystery of God. This is the crossing
of the threshold, the “hypostatic beauty”, the divine Initiator
(Mystagogue), the Holy Spirit. This is why St. Basil the Great said that
the light which radiated at the Transfiguration of Christ was the
prelude of His glory which will appear at His Second Coming.
When Peter saw Christ in full glory and
the two Prophets standing beside him, he proposed: “Master, it is well
that we are here; let us make three tents, one for you, and one for
Moses and one for Elijah,” and as he said this, “a cloud came and
overshadowed them…and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my
Son, my Chosen, listen to him” (Luke 9:33-‐35). This reveals that the
Father is “in the voice” and the Holy Spirit “in the cloud.” The Father
bears witness to the genealogy of Jesus, so that his disciples may later
understand that his suffering was willful. “Now is the Son of man
glorified, and in him God is glorified” (John 13:31). At the same time
the Transfiguration of the Savior who “wears the light as a garment”
reveals the person of Christ, the beloved and transcendent Son, who
possesses the same glory with the Father. It is also a reminder of the
fact that man is made “according to the image of God.”
The icon of the iconographer of the
Dodekaortion (the icons of the twelve major Feasts) of the Monastery of
Dionysiou (on the Holy Mountain) is a unique iconographic variation of
the theme of the Transfiguration of the Savior. Following exactly the
Gospel accounts, the iconographer includes in his composition, besides
the central theme, the scenes of the ascent and descent to Mount Tabor.
On the left side we see Christ having his head turned towards the three
disciples and his left hand raised in a gesture of addressing them,
while on his right hand he holds the divine Law. It seems that he is
preparing his disciples for the experience which they will acquire. His
purpose is not to astonish them with his Transfiguration, but to reveal
to them his divine glory. After the heavenly vision they are depicted
descending from the other side of the mount. The unsettled disciples
turn their glance to their Lord who reassures them by blessing them. At
the same time he tells them: “Tell no one of the vision, until the Son
of man is raised from the dead” (Matth. 17:9).
This variation is employed especially on murals, but it also appears on portable icons.
This tradition of adding several
secondary incidents around the central theme is purely Byzantine and
goes back to the iconography of Byzantium. Its deeper meaning is
connected with the thought that on every “divine” manifestation
(theophany) – “icon” – the abiding eternal present is revealed, and this
allows the possibility of presenting on an “iconographic” surface – an
icon – a sequence of related events.
In the past, every iconographer began
his “divine art” with the icon of the Transfiguration. Here the
tradition believed that the scene is depicted not with the colors of the
artist, but with the very light of Tabor. The guiding presence of the
Holy Spirit is expressed in the dazzling luminosity of the whole
composition, and removes any other possible source of light being
involved.
The message that this icon communicates
to the faithful is that, since through baptism they have become
participants in the mystery of the Resurrection (which is prefigured in
the Transfiguration), they are called now to be constantly transfigured
more and more by the grace of the Lord (II Cor. 3:18).
Translated by Fr.George Dion.Dragas
(The Forerunner, June-July-August 2012, Volume 10, Issue 6,7,8)
(Taken from http://www.saint.gr/217/texts.aspx)
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