H
Holland
Guest
I wasn’t sure where to put this question so I will put it here. This is an art question. Someone asked me when they started to put halos on all the holy people and what prompted it? I have no idea what the answer is.
- Status
J
JJ59
Guest
Hey, a little unrelated, but I was wondering.
I’ve encountered the claim that adding halos to saints were taken from paganism. If anyone has heard similar things, what do you think of them? Are they true?
God Bless.
I’ve encountered the claim that adding halos to saints were taken from paganism. If anyone has heard similar things, what do you think of them? Are they true?
God Bless.
H
Holland
Guest
The Wikipedia site seems to support that. It has some good info on halos in general and in Christian art. I just wondered what prompted their use. I guess I will save my question for some nite when I can’t sleep. It seems like it would be a good late nite web surf.
T
thistle
Guest
I read somewhere that halos were actually circular plates above the heads of outside statues of Christ and the saints to protect them from the rain and that on icons due to lack of dimension they were painted as a circle behind the head.
G
Gottle_of_Geer
Guest
I’ve heard that one. But why does it matter ? The issue at the bottom of this often seems to be:
- If Pagans do X,
- X is for that reason forbidden to Christians,
- therefore, a Church that does X is (to that extent) no longer truly a Christian Church.
- that the OT people of God were forbidden to imitate the nations round about;
- the NT Church is the Christian People of God
- and is bound by the same command.
That, AFAI understand it, is what is at the bottom of this. The theology is specifically Calvinist. I hope I have not misdescribed any of it.
In reply, ISTM one can say that Christ has made all things new, & has “trans-valuated” them, & that as a result they can be “redeemed” & “baptised” for Christian use, except for those things that are inherently wrong: human sacrifice is unredeemable for that reason, unlike the use of religious art. A Calvinist might regard that as dangerously optimistic - but if the world really is Christ’s by right, ISTM difficult to conclude that some things in “paganism” can indeed be put to a Christian use.
W
wolfgang
Guest
It was a way to set apart deities and heroes from the mundane.
Are you asking why the symbol halo was chosen and not some other symbol?
Are you asking about Christianity only?
:angel1:
H
Holland
Guest
Yes and Yes
L
Luke65
Guest
I got into a debate with an anti-Catholic Protestant on this, so I became a little bit of an expert on halos. Unfortunately, I don’t have much time to go through all that right now, but here are a few things I found:
"And He Who sat there appeared like [the crystalline brightness of] jasper and [the fiery] sardius, and encircling the throne there was a halo that looked like [a rainbow of] emerald. (Revelation 4:3 AMP)
“Then I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven wrapped in a cloud, with a halo around his head; his face was like the sun and his feet were like pillars of fire.” (Revelation 10:1 NAB)
The Greek word is “iris”, its usually translated as “rainbow”, but the context makes much more sense if a halo was “encircling the throne” and “around his head”.
VINCENT’S WORD STUDIES - REVELATION 4:
“In classical Greek the word is used of any bright halo surrounding another body; of the circle round the eyes of a peacock’s tail, and of the iris of the eye.”
More…
“Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the temple when the man went in, and a cloud filled the inner court. Then the glory of the LORD rose from above the cherubim and moved to the threshold of the temple. The cloud filled the temple, and the court was full of the radiance of the glory of the LORD… Then the glory of the LORD departed from over the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim.” (Ezekiel 10:3-18)
“So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the LORD had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him… When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him.” (Exodus 34:4-30)
St. Jerome (Against the Pelagians): “And yet, perhaps, with your customary humility, you make your boast that the Lord Himself, Who teaches all knowledge, was your master, and that, like Moses in the cloud and darkness, face to face, you hear the words of God, and so, with the halo round your head, take the lead of us.” (Book 1:29)
“A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun” (Revelation 12:1)
And so, all three types of halos depicted in Christian art are in the Bible: above the head, around the head, and around the whole body.
H
Holland
Guest
Thanks a bunch for the info
S
Spirithound
Guest
1 Corinthians 9:25
Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
2 Timothy 4:8
Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
James 1:12
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
1 Peter 5:4
And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.
These are the passages of the Epistles that talk of “crowns” in the afterlife. I see halos as these crowns.
Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
2 Timothy 4:8
Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
James 1:12
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
1 Peter 5:4
And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.
These are the passages of the Epistles that talk of “crowns” in the afterlife. I see halos as these crowns.
G
Gottle_of_Geer
Guest
There’s an argument used against haloes that is worth being aware of (if you aren’t already 
):
- Biblical haloes = good, fine, allowable
- Catholic haloes = none of the above
- Catholic things are wrong because they are ultimately derived from paganism
- & pagan things are parodies or distortions of Biblical good things;
- therefore, any Catholic things that look or sound Biblically legitimate, are in fact nothing of the kind;
- in reality they are pagan or corrupted by paganism;
- and haloes in Catholicism are an example of this.
That may or may not be useful
L
Luke65
Guest
Yeah, I know, there’s an irrational bias against all things Catholic, but hopefully some will listen to reason. I like the way you laid out the case, do we have permission to copy/paste and fill in the blank? How’s this:There’s an argument used against haloes that is worth being aware of (if you aren’t already
The argument goes, that
- Biblical haloes = good, fine, allowable
- Catholic haloes = none of the above
In practice, the argument is more complex - as set out on pages on the Net, it tends to be full of allusions to anything connected with fire, rays, light, brightness, horns, & so on.
- Catholic things are wrong because they are ultimately derived from paganism
- & pagan things are parodies or distortions of Biblical good things;
- therefore, any Catholic things that look or sound Biblically legitimate, are in fact nothing of the kind;
- in reality they are pagan or corrupted by paganism;
- and haloes in Catholicism are an example of this.
That may or may not be useful
- Biblical incense = good, fine, allowable
- Catholic incense = none of the above
- Catholic things are wrong because they are ultimately derived from paganism
- & pagan things are parodies or distortions of Biblical good things;
- therefore, any Catholic things that look or sound Biblically legitimate, are in fact nothing of the kind;
- in reality they are pagan or corrupted by paganism;
- and incense in Catholicism is an example of this.
G
Gottle_of_Geer
Guest
Yeah, I know, there’s an irrational bias against all things Catholic, but hopefully some will listen to reason. I like the way you laid out the case, do we have permission to copy/paste and fill in the blank? How’s this:
The argument goes, that
- Biblical incense = good, fine, allowable
- Catholic incense = none of the above
- Catholic things are wrong because they are ultimately derived from paganism
- & pagan things are parodies or distortions of Biblical good things;
- therefore, any Catholic things that look or sound Biblically legitimate, are in fact nothing of the kind;
- in reality they are pagan or corrupted by paganism;
- and incense in Catholicism is an example of this.
That does seem to be pretty much how the argument goes for ruling out a lot of things thought of as distinctively Catholic - though the argument against incense is often as follows:
- It was good, fine, & allowable for OT worship
- but as it is part of the ceremonial law in the OT
- it was done away with
- when Christ fulfilled the Old law on the Cross
- And it is not prescribed for Christian use
- so it is no longer to be used by God’s People
- so the Church is not at liberty to make use of it.
P
prodromos
Guest
The ring of light floating above the head which is commonly used in the West to indicate angels or saints has only been in use since the renaissance. Up until the 14th century all Church frescoes in the West followed the Byzantine tradition where the glorified saint or angel had the area around their head filled with gold to symbolize the uncreated light.
After the schism, Church artists in the West began to lose touch with the traditional symbolism of the halo and it appears they were affected by the depiction of halos in statues where the halo was a physical disc behind the head. From the 14th century onwards, more and more Church frescoes depicted the halo as a physical disc floating behind the saints head. This floating disc often obscured the faces of other saints being depicted so the solution adopted by artists was to move this disc from behind to immediately above their head. You can see the final results of this development in the artwork of the renaissance where the disc becomes transparent and only light reflected off the edge is visible, or it becomes a barely visible ring above their heads as is the case of many in Raphael’s religious works.
Throughout this process of development, the symbolism of divine light radiating from their glorified bodies has been completely lost in Western religious art.
John
After the schism, Church artists in the West began to lose touch with the traditional symbolism of the halo and it appears they were affected by the depiction of halos in statues where the halo was a physical disc behind the head. From the 14th century onwards, more and more Church frescoes depicted the halo as a physical disc floating behind the saints head. This floating disc often obscured the faces of other saints being depicted so the solution adopted by artists was to move this disc from behind to immediately above their head. You can see the final results of this development in the artwork of the renaissance where the disc becomes transparent and only light reflected off the edge is visible, or it becomes a barely visible ring above their heads as is the case of many in Raphael’s religious works.
Throughout this process of development, the symbolism of divine light radiating from their glorified bodies has been completely lost in Western religious art.
John
- Status