Oftentimes, Catholics say that Protestants reject the Deuterocanon because it contains “essential doctrines” like prayers for, and to, the dead. Ironically, the opposite is true. 2 Macc 12 never endorses the practice and Wisdom of Solomon 14:12-21 actually condemns such creeping idolatry:
Idols were made in the images of man and beast. However, not all idols began as gods…
For the idea of making idols was the beginning of fornication,
and the invention of them was the corruption of life;
for they did not exist from the beginning,
nor will they last forever.
For through human vanity they entered the world,
and therefore their speedy end has been planned.
Gabriel the Child Martyr was honored by his parents after he was found murdered.
For a father, consumed with grief at an untimely bereavement,
made an image of his child, who had been suddenly taken from him;
he now honored as a god what was once a dead human being,
and handed on to his dependents secret rites and initiations.
Alexei Nikolaevich, son of Tsar Nicholas II, last Tsar of Russia
Then the ungodly custom, grown strong with time, was kept as a law,
and at the command of monarchs carved images were worshiped.
Tsar Nicholas II and his family, saints venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
When people could not honor monarchs in their presence, since they lived at a distance,
they imagined their appearance far away,
and made a visible image of the king whom they honored,
so that by their zeal they might flatter the absent one as though present.
A modern icon of Constantine.
Then the ambition of the artisan impelled
even those who did not know the king to intensify their worship.
For he, perhaps wishing to please his ruler,
skillfully forced the likeness to take more beautiful form,
and the multitude, attracted by the charm of his work,
now regarded as an object of worship the one whom shortly before they had honored as a human being.
A massive statue of the supposed “Queen of Heaven” in Santa Clara, CA.
And this became a hidden trap for humankind,
because people, in bondage to misfortune or to royal authority,
bestowed on objects of stone or wood the name that ought not to be shared.
Yep, idolatry is bad.
Do you have objections to icons or depictions of the saints? You use most beautiful ones all the time in your posts, especially ones related to the Fathers. Also, this post doesn’t really touch on praying for the dead. (Perhaps to the dead, but the 2 Macc quote is certainly more about assisting the dead by our prayers.)
By the way, thank you for your Easter greeting! I’ve been busy–indeed, I’m distracting myself this very moment from what I ought to be doing–but I hope you had a joyful Easter!
Max
Thanks Max! The post quotes WoS 14 where it says idolatry begins with a father missing a child who died. In a sense, the veneration of the martyrs has risen to curiously similar heights as seen in chapter 14. The saints pray with us, to presume upon the idea an icon is a window into heaven and gives us such access is idolatrous and elevates men to gods.
Concerning 2 Mac 12:43-45 it states:
In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection in mind; for if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought.
Why was the prayer good? According to 2 Macc, it was because it affirmed the resurrection. The author even expresses some doubt as to whether eve this conviction made the prayer a good thing, hence the use of the word “but” and the recapitulation of the correct doctrine that there will be a resurrection of the Godly.
I honestly don’t know why Catholics quote the passage to support prayers for the dead. It actually mitigates against the practice by subtly rejecting it and emphasizing that the prayer was good for only one thing: it affirmed a different doctrine, the doctrine of resurrection.
Many blessings to you,
Craig
Even if prayer for the dead were only good for affirming the truth of the resurrection, wouldn’t that suffice for its goodness? Nothing seems to be lost by it. The “but” seems to contrast doing with a view to the resurrection or without a view to the resurrection. It is the latter case that would make it “superfluous and foolish”, not any other reason.
Maybe, but I guess the text does not pass more comment on it, so I am forced to accept the reasoning that the text gives and not add that it means prayers for the dead is some sort of normative practice, especially when the text indicates in the case presented that it was used wrongly, but merely reflected the misguided devoutness of Maccabeus. I certainly would not go about making paintings of these people, pray to the paintings, thinking that’s a workable way of skyping heaven 😉
Specifically referring to the issue of iconography, which you’ve alluded to, have you read Images, Iconoclasm, and the Carolingians by Thomas F. X. Noble? It is a very excellent history of the Latin/Western response to Byzantine Iconoclasm as well as a pretty good summary of the Byzantine issue in full. It details a lot of the theological arguments that were swirling about throughout Late Antique and early medieval Christianity. However you feel about iconography, I would consider this book fundamental on the early history of the issue.
i never read the book, but when does the history start? Though there were some early iconoclasts in western Christianity in the west during the fourth century, men are mostly silent on the issue and archaeology shows some religious imagery from the third century on, growing with time.
The book begins with the fourth century. However, the heart of its focus is on the eighth and ninth centuries.