*********ST. GREGORY THE DIALOGIST
From St. Gregory the Dialogist (Pope of Rome ca. 590-604)… “For what writing presents to readers, this a picture presents to the unlearned who behold, since in it even the ignorant see what they ought to follow; in it the illiterate read” (Epistle to Bishop Serenus of Marseilles, NPNF 2, Vol. XIII, p. 53). Icons are therefore the Bible written in picture.
One of the hardest understandings for man is the Triune God. Rublev was the first of the icon writers to attempt this explanation, using the same Scripture, but a different perspective…Genesis 18:1-8; The LORD appeared to Abraham by the terebinth of Mamre, as he sat in the entrance of his tent, while the day was growing hot. Looking up, he saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to greet them; and bowing to the ground, he said: “Sir, if I may ask you this favor, please do not go on past your servant. Let some water be brought, that you may bathe your feet, and then rest yourselves under the tree. Now that you have come this close to your servant, let me bring you a little food, that you may refresh yourselves; and afterward you may go on your way.” “Very well,” they replied, “do as you have said.” Abraham hastened into the tent and told Sarah, “Quick, three seahs of fine flour! Knead it and make rolls.” He ran to the herd, picked out a tender, choice steer, and gave it to a servant, who quickly prepared it. Then he got some curds and milk, as well as the steer that had been prepared, and set these before them; and he waited on them under the tree while they ate. “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him. “There in the tent,” he replied. One of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah will then have a son.” Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent, just behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years, and Sarah had stopped having her womanly periods. So Sarah laughed to herself and said, “Now that I am so withered and my husband is so old, am I still to have sexual pleasure?” But the LORD said to Abraham: “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I really bear a child, old as I am?’ Is anything too marvelous for the LORD to do? At the appointed time, about this time next year, I will return to you, and Sarah will have a son.” Because she was afraid, Sarah dissembled, saying, “I didn’t laugh.” But he said, “Yes you did.” The men set out from there and looked down toward Sodom; Abraham was walking with them, to see them on their way. The LORD reflected: "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, now that he is to become a great and populous nation, and all the nations of the earth are to find blessing in him?
Most iconographers used the hospitality of Abraham (above), to explain the Trinity, being faithful to add all the subjects in the Scripture because of the Biblical prohibition against depicting God. In Abraham’s hospitality, they used Abraham and Sarah, the servant killing the fatted calf, and the three wanders to teach of God. Rublev left out all of these details and focused entirely on the three wanders, the angels. In his icon the angels are equaly important, thereby challengeing people to look at the dogmatic understanding of the icon which reveals to the heart and eyes of all who meditate upon this icon, that the three hypostasis are love, that which fills the Triune God pointing ever-foward to the Eucharist - the chalice in the center of the table.
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