Apologia of St John Damascene Against those who Decry Holy Images Part 38

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Listen to our Lord’s words: “Ye foolish and blind, whosoever shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth in it; and he that sweareth by heaven sweareth by the throne of God, and by Him that sitteth thereon.” (Mt. 23.21-22) And he who swears by an image swears by the one whom it represents. It has been sufficiently proved that the tabernacle, and the veil, the ark and the table, and everything within the tabernacle, were images and types, and the works of man’s hand, which were worshipped by all Israel, and also that the cherubim in carving were made by God’s order. For God said to Moses, “See that thou doest all things according to the pattern shown to thee on the mount.” (Ex. 25.40) Listen, too, to the apostle’s testimony that Israel worshipped images and the handiwork of man in obedience to God:

If, then, he were on earth he would not be a priest; seeing that there would be others to offer gifts according. to the law, who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as it was answered to Moses, when he was to finish the tabernacle: See (says he) that thou make all things according to the pattern which was shown thee on the mount. But now he hath obtained a better ministry, by how much also he is a mediator of a better testament, which is established on better promises.

The house of Juda

For if that former had been faultless, there should not indeed a place have been sought for a second. For finding fault with them, he saith: “Behold the day shall come, saith the Lord: and I will perfect unto the house of Israel, and unto the house of Juda, a New Testament: not according to the Testament which I made to their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.” (Heb. 8.4-9) And a little further on: “Now in saying a New, he hath made the former Old. And that which decayeth and groweth old, is near its end. For there was a tabernacle made the first, wherein were the candlesticks, and the table, and the setting forth of loaves, which is called the Holy.

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