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<< The Catechism of the Catholic Church Today!The Catechism of the Catholic Church Today on Pictures and Images.
This is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church states on this issue:
I. Names And Images Of The Church
751 The word "Church" (Latin ecclesia, from the Greek ek-ka-lein, to "call out of") means a convocation or an assembly. It designates the assemblies of the people, usually for a religious purpose. (cf. Acts 19:39) Ekklesia is used frequently in the Greek Old Testament for the assembly of the Chosen People before God, above all for their assembly on Mount Sinai where Israel received the Law and was established by God as his holy people. (cf. Exodus 19) By calling itself "Church," the first community of Christian believers recognized itself as heir to that assembly. In the Church, God is "calling together" his people from all the ends of the earth. The equivalent Greek term Kyriake, from which the English word Church and the German Kirche are derived, means "what belongs to the Lord."
752 In Christian usage, the word "church" designates the liturgical assembly, (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:18; 14:19,28,34,35) but also the local community (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:2; 16:1) or the whole universal community of believers. (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:9; Galatians 1:13; Philippians 3:6) These three meanings are inseparable. "The Church" is the People that God gathers in the whole world. She exists in local communities and is made real as a liturgical, above all a Eucharistic, assembly. She draws her life from the word and the Body of Christ and so herself becomes Christ's Body.
Symbols of the Church
753 In Scripture, we find a host of interrelated images and figures through which Revelation speaks of the inexhaustible mystery of the Church. The images taken from the Old Testament are variations on a profound theme: the People of God. In the New Testament, all these images find a new center because Christ has become the head of this people, which henceforth is his Body. (cf. Ephesians 1:22; Colossians 1:18; Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 9) Around this center are grouped images taken "from the life of the shepherd or from cultivation of the land, from the art of building or from family life and marriage." (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 6)
754 "The Church is, accordingly, a sheepfold, the sole and necessary gateway to which is Christ. It is also the flock of which God himself foretold that he would be the shepherd, and whose sheep, even though governed by human shepherds, are unfailingly nourished and led by Christ himself, the Good Shepherd and Prince of Shepherds, who gave his life for his sheep. (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 6; cf. John 10:1-10; Isaiah 40:11; Ezekiel 34:11-31; John 10:11; 1 Peter 5:4; John 10:11-16)
755 "The Church is a cultivated field, the tillage of God. On that land the ancient olive tree grows whose holy roots were the prophets and in which the reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles has been brought about and will be brought about again. That land, like a choice vineyard, has been planted by the heavenly cultivator. Yet the true vine is Christ who gives life and fruitfulness to the branches, that is, to us, who through the Church remain in Christ, without whom we can do nothing. (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 6; cf. 1 Corinthians 39; Romans 11:13-26; Matthew 21:32-43 and parallels; Isaiah 51-7; John 15:1-5)
756 "Often, too, the Church is called the building of God. The Lord compared himself to the stone which the builders rejected, but which was made into the corner-stone. On this foundation the Church is built by the apostles and from it the Church receives solidity and unity. This edifice has many names to describe it: the house of God in which his family dwells; the household of God in the Spirit; the dwelling-place of God among men; and, especially, the holy temple. This temple, symbolized in places of worship built out of stone, is praised by the Fathers and, not without reason, is compared in the liturgy to the Holy City, the New Jerusalem. As living stones we here on earth are built into it. It is this holy city that is seen by John as it comes down out of Heaven from God when the world is made anew, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 6; cf. 1 Corinthians 3:9; Matthew 21:42 and parallels; Acts 4:11; 1 Peter 2:7; Psalm 118:22; 1 Corinthians 3:11; 1 Timothy 3:15; Ephesians 2:19-22; Revelation 21:3; 1 Peter 2:5; Revelation 21:1-2)
757 "The Church, further, which is called 'that Jerusalem which is above' and 'our mother', is described as the spotless spouse of the spotless lamb. It is she whom Christ 'loved and for whom he delivered himself up that he might sanctify her.' It is she whom he unites to himself by an unbreakable alliance, and whom he constantly 'nourishes and cherishes.'" (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 6; cf. Galatians 4:26; Revelation 12:17; 19:7; 21:2,9; 22:17; Ephesians 5:25-26,29)
In Brief
777 The word "Church" means "convocation." It designates the assembly of those whom God's Word "convokes," i.e., gathers together to form the People of God, and who themselves, nourished with the Body of Christ, become the Body of Christ.
1160 Christian iconography expresses in images the same Gospel message that Scripture communicates by words. Image and word illuminate each other:
1161 All the signs in the liturgical celebrations are related to Christ: as are sacred images of the holy Mother of God and of the saints as well. They truly signify Christ, who is glorified in them. They make manifest the "cloud of witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1) who continue to participate in the salvation of the world and to whom we are united, above all in sacramental celebrations. Through their icons, it is man "in the image of God," finally transfigured "into his likeness," (cf. Romans 8:29; 1 John 3:2) who is revealed to our faith. So too are the angels, who also are recapitulated in Christ:
1162 "The beauty of the images moves me to contemplation, as a meadow delights the eyes and subtly infuses the soul with the glory of God." (St. John Damascene, De imag. 1,27:PG 94,1268A,B) Similarly, the contemplation of sacred icons, united with meditation on the Word of God and the singing of liturgical hymns, enters into the harmony of the signs of celebration so that the mystery celebrated is imprinted in the heart's memory and is then expressed in the new life of the faithful.
In Brief
1192 Sacred images in our churches and homes are intended to awaken and nourish our faith in the mystery of Christ. Through the icon of Christ and his works of salvation, it is he whom we adore. Through sacred images of the holy Mother of God, of the angels and of the saints, we venerate the persons represented.
IV. "You Shall Not Make For Yourself A Graven Image".
The honor paid to sacred images is a "respectful veneration," not the adoration due to God alone:
In Brief
2141 The veneration of sacred images is based on the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word of God. It is not contrary to the first commandment.
"You may begin from parables: Where is the lost sheep sought for by the Lord, and carried back upon His shoulders? Let the very pictures of your chalices come forth, if even in them the interpretation of that animal will clearly shine forth, whether it portray the restoration of a sinner that was a Christian, or a Gentile." De Pudicti. n. 7, p. 559. In this fragment occurs the following passage: "Reflect that God has various images of Himself; some made, as it were, of gold, formed, that is, of a spiritual and purer substance, such are the angels; but some made of plaster or of brass such are men. Since then, here on earth, every image of a king, on account of his figure that is impressed thereon, is valued and honored, so is it by no means to be thought that we, who are the image of God, are so far to be dishonored as to have to be utterly annihilated." St. Methodius, Bibl. PP. t. iii. pp 831-832. "The images of earthly kings, even though they may not be made of the more precious substances of gold and silver, have honor from all men; for men, after venerating those made of the more precious material, do not make small account of those made of a viler material, but honor every such image on earth, even though it be of plaster or of brass ; and whosoever utters a contumelious word against any one such whatever, is not let go as if he had despised a piece of clay, or judged as having slighted a piece of gold, but as having acted impiously against the King himself, and Lord. The golden images which we make of the Lord's angelic principalities and powers, we make unto His honor and glory." The above extract is given by St. John Damascene as being from St. Methodius, in his: "Since I have fallen upon the mention of this city (Cæsarea-Philippi), I do not think I ought to pass over a circumstance which deserves to have its remembrance preserved amongst us. They say that the woman who labored under an issue of blood, and who obtained a cure of her complaint from our Savior, as we learn from the sacred Gospels, was born here, that her house is shown in the city, and that there remains a wonderful monument of the Savior s bounty towards her. For near the gates of her house there is said to stand, on a lofty pedestal of stone, a representation in brass of a woman on her knees, and with her hands stretched out before her as in the act of supplication; and facing this another upright statue of a man, made of the same material, fairly enveloped in an outer garment, extending a hand to the woman. At the feet of this statue, out of its base, there is said to grow a strange kind of plant, rising up to the hem of the robe of brass, and that it is a choice cure for all kinds of diseases. They say that this statue is the image of Jesus. It has remained to this day, as we, when dwelling in that city, saw with our own eyes. And it is no wonder that they of the Gentiles who were formerly benefited by our Savior should have done this, when we have learnt, that the images also of the Apostles, Peter and Paul, and even of Christ Himself, are preserved in paintings. As is likely, the men of old were accustomed without discrimination (or, unguardedly), in this manner to honor amongst themselves after a Gentile custom such a had been their benefactors." H. E. L. vii. c. xviii. Frequent mention is made by Eusebius of various images of the cross used under Constantine, and it will not be unprofitable to cite a few passages, in order to enable the reader to understand in what light this practice was viewed by this historian. Having described (L i. De Vita Const, c. xxviii.) the appearance of the cross to Constantine, he says in the next chapter: "The emperor said that he doubted within himself what this appearance could be, and that night came on him whilst still pondering and busied in reflection; that then Christ the Son of God appeared to him during his sleep, with the sign which he had seen in Heaven, and ordered him to make a representation of the sign which he had seen in the heavens, and to use it as a defense, on his standards, for his armies." Then follows a description of the (Labarum. In c. xxiii. Ibid), he tells us that Constantine sent for certain Christian priests to interpret the meaning of the vision and sign: "they told him it was God, the only-begotten Son of the one and alone God; and that the sign which he had seen was the symbol of immortality, and a trophy of the victory over death which he had gained when he came upon this earth." In the second book he introduces the pagan Licinius as scoffing at the cross, "as a disgraceful symbol with which Constantine dishonored his army," and then goes on to remark that, in the battles that ensued, complete victories were gained, "the saving sign being advanced in front of the emperor's armies" "For where soever this sign appeared the enemy fled, and the victorious soldiers pursued. Which, when the emperor perceived, as soon as he noticed any division of his troops in difficulty, he ordered the saving sign to be advanced there as the means of securing victory, and victory instantly followed upon his order, resolution and strength, by a kind of divine certainty, being added to the combatants." In chapters viii. and ix. he states that he learnt from Constantine's own lips, that of the fifty chosen to carry the Labarum, not one fell that clung round it; and he adds, that he had it from the same authority, that the staff which bore the cross received the weapons aimed at the standard-bearer, and served as a perfect defense. In chapter xvi. he notices that "Licinius, having discovered by facts, what a divine and ineffable power there was in the saving trophy, by means of which the army of Constantine had learned to conquer, ordered his soldiers not to advance on any account against it, nor even incautiously to cast their eyes upon it; for it was fearful in power, and his enemy fought against him." In the third book (c. ii.), having remarked that Constantine gloried in the name of Christian, he says: "At one time signing his countenance with the saving sign, at another glorying in the victorious sign." (c. iii.) "He also on a lofty tablet placed before the vestibule of his palace, placed, to be seen by all, the saving sign painted as resting on his head; but that enemy and adverse wild beast, which, by means of the tyranny of the ungodly, had vexed the Church, he represented under the shape of a dragon rushing headlong down. ... I am filled with wonder at the powerful understanding of the emperor, who, as it were, by a divine inspiration, symbolized those things which the words of the prophet had long before proclaimed." Also The Faith of Catholics, Volume 3, Page 307-308 In the same work (I. iii. c. xlix.) he says: "You might see at the fountains, in the middle of the market-places, representations of the Good Shepherd, well known to those acquainted with the divine word, and Daniel with the lions, fashioned in brass. . . . And so great was the love of God that possessed the soul of the emperor, that, in the noblest chamber of the royal palace, he fixed up the symbol of the saving Passion, and this the godly emperor seems to have made the defense of his empire." Also The Faith of Catholics, Volume 3, Page 308 "The emperor honored that sign which brings victory, having learnt by experience the divinity that is in it. For by this he subdued the hosts of hostile troops; by this the powers of invisible demons are troubled (or, expelled); by this the vauntings of those who warred against God were repressed; by this slanderous and impious tongues were silenced; by this barbarous tribes were subdued; by this the childish follies of superstitious deceit were refuted; to this the perfection of all good things, the emperor, as if paying back a debt, has built in every part of the earth triumphal monuments." De Laudio. Constant c. ix. p. 740. The following is the account given by Eusebius of the public respect shown by Constantine to the cross, immediately after his victory over Maxentius: "He (Constantine), as if piety towards God had been inbred in him, was no wise moved by their acclamations, nor elated by their praises; but feeling deeply the assistance which he had received from God, he immediately ordered the trophy of the Lord's passion to be placed in the hand of his own statue; and the Romans having set up his statue, holding in its right hand the saving sign of the cross, in the most thickly peopled part of Rome, he ordered this very inscription, in the Latin language, to be placed on the base: "By this saving sign, the true proof of manly resolution, I freed your city from the yoke of the tyrant." H. E. 1. ix. c. ix. "White and shining robes are such as are given to angels when they are represented in a bodily shape, this being, I fancy, a symbol of the purity of their nature." T. i. Orat. xxiii. p. 409. After having condemned a number of superstitious practices in use amongst Christians, he says: "Now, that amongst Greeks (Gentiles) indeed these things should be done, is no marvel, but that, amongst those who worship the cross, and have been made partakers of ineffable mysteries, and who hold principles so sublime, this unseemliness should prevail, this is indeed a matter that deserves many tears. God has honored thee with a spiritual anointing, and dost thou defile thy child with mud? God has honored thee, and dost thou dishonor thyself? And when thou ought to inscribe the cross on his forehead, the cross, which affords an invincible security, dost thou put this aside, and fall into a Satanic madness? . . , How canst thou ask for the seal to be put, by the hand of the priest, where thou hast been smearing the mud? Let not these things be, brethren; but, from earliest childhood, encompass them with spiritual weapons, and instruct them to seal the forehead with the hand; and before they are able to do this with their (own) hand, do you imprint upon them the cross." T. x. Hom. xii. in 1 Ep. ad Cor. n. 7, p. 126. "Whilst our father's house is burning, we are slumbering in a deep and senseless sleep. Yet whom has not this fire touched? Which of the images (or, statues) that stood in the Church?" T. xi. Hom. x. in Ep. ad Ephes. n. 2, page 89. "Whilst on my journey to the world's mistress, Rome, a hope sprang up within me, that Christ would be triumphant. I was lying prostrate on a tomb, which a sacred martyr, Cassian, with his body dedicated (to God) made beautiful. Whilst with tear I was considering within myself my wounds, and all the labors and bitter pains of life, I raised my face upwards; there was before me, painted in dark colors, the representation of the martyr, covered with countless wounds, lacerated in every limb, and with the skin minutely punctured. Around him, oh sad sight, there was a countless crowd of boys who with their pens pierced the wounded limbs. . . . The keeper of the building said, in answer to my inquiries, That which thou seest, stranger, is no empty or idle fable. The picture tells a history [after the well-known history, he continues:] These are the circumstances which, expressed in colors, have excited your wonder: This is Cassian's glory. If thou hast any just, or praiseworthy desire, if there be anything that thou hope for; if thou be inwardly troubled, but whisper it. The most glorious martyr hears, believe me, every prayer, and those which he sees deserving of approval, he renders effectual. I then ran through the list of my secret difficulties; I then murmur forth my desires, and my fears, my household left behind in hopes of future good. I am heard. I visit Rome; I am successful; I return to my home, and I loudly praise Cassian." Galland. T. viii. Hymn. ix. pp. 452-3. "As your Scripture no where permits you to adore the cross, why then do you adore it? Reply to this to us Jews and Greeks, and all the Gentiles who put this question to you." Answer: "On this account, O foolish and shameless of heart, did God perhaps permit every nation that venerated Him, without exception, to adore something on earth that was the handiwork of man, that you might not be able to reclaim against Christians in the matter of the cross, and the veneration (adoration) of images. As, therefore, the Jews venerated (adored) the ark of the covenant, and the two molten images of gold of the cherubim, and the two tables that Moses polished, though it was nowhere permitted of God that these things should be adored or worshipped, so neither do we Christians worship the cross as God, but as showing the sincere affection of our souls towards Him that was crucified." Galland. t. vii. p. 530; ap. S. J. Damase; l. iii. De Imag. t.i. page 385. "Thence I went to the temple of God to pray at leisure; and after having done this, as I was passing hurriedly through one of the porticoes, I saw there a certain picture, and the sight of it completely arrested me. You would have said it was one of Euphranor's skillful pieces, or of one of those old painters, who raised their art to so great eminence, making their canvas (tables) well nigh breathe into life. Come, if you please, for I have now leisure for the narrative, and I will explain the painting to you. . . . A certain holy woman, a spotless virgin, had consecrated her virginity to God. They call her Euphemia. By a tyrant of that time persecuting the truly religious, she very readily chose to encounter death. Her fellow-citizens and associates in the religion for which she died, admiring her as a resolute and holy virgin, reverencing her sepulcher, and also placing her bier near the temple, pay her honor, celebrating her anniversary as a common and crowded festival. . . . And the painter also has piously, by his art, to the best of his ability, represented on canvas the whole history, and placed the sacred spectacle near her sepulcher. And the beautiful work is as follows. The judge is seated aloft on his throne, looking at the virgin intently and fiercely . . . there are the magistrate's attendants, and numerous soldiers, and men with their writing tablets for their notes, and styles in their hands, one of whom has raised his hand from the wax, and looks earnestly at the virgin who is being questioned, with his whole countenance bent towards her, as though bidding her speak louder. . . . The virgin stands there in a dark robe, indicating her wisdom by her dress, and is of a beautiful countenance, as the painter has fancied her, but, to my judgment, beautified in mind by her virtues. Two soldiers force her towards the president (archon), one dragging her forward, the other urging her from behind. . . . One of the soldiers has seized the virgin's head and bent it back, and presents the virgin's face as to the other soldier, in a favorable posture for punishment, and he standing by her has dashed out her teeth. . . . The instruments of punishment are seen to be a mallet and chisel. At this I burst into tears, and my feelings intercept my words. For the painter has so plainly depicted the drops of blood, that you would say that they were really flowing from her lips, and would go your way sorrowing. After this there is a prison, and again the venerable virgin in her dark robes is seated alone, stretching out both her hands to Heaven, and calling upon God, the helper in trouble; and there appears to her whilst in prayer, above her head, the sign which it is the custom of Christians both to adore and to represent in colors, a symbol, I think, of the passion which awaited her. The painter then, a little further on, has lit up in an other compartment, a vehement fire . . . and has placed her in the midst of it, with her hands stretched out towards Heaven ; her countenance bears on it no sign of sadness; but, on the contrary, is lit up with joy, for that she is departing unto a blessed and incorporeal life." Combefis, t. i. Enar. in Martyr. S. Euphem. pp. 207-210. St. Paulinus Of Nola expostulates with Sulpicius Severus for having placed, in the baptistery of his basilica, a painting representing St. Martin of Tours, and his friend, the writer Paulinus. "You did right to have a painting of St. Martin in the place where man is formed anew; he, by a perfect imitation of Christ, portrayed the image of a heavenly being; and thus the image of a celestial soul would meet, as an object of imitation, the eyes of those who were putting off in the laver the old man of earthly form. But what does my picture there, I, who neither equal children in innocence, nor men in wisdom?" Ep. xii. ad Severum, p. 191, T. ii. Bib. Max. SS. PP. In one of the poems, given by Gallandius, St. Paulinus tells us, that a thief stole "an image of the cross, little thinking that it would prove instead of his treasure, his betrayer." Its recovery he describes as effected by the prayers of a boy to St. Felix. Carm. Nat. xi. Galland. T. viii. p. 215, v. 381- 600. Speaking of certain writings falsely ascribed to our Savior, he says: "When they wished to feign that Christ wrote something of this sort to His disciples, they reflected to whom especially it would be most readily believed that He might have written, as to persons who had been more familiarly attached to Him, unto whom this matter might be fitly entrusted as a secret; and there occurred to them Peter and Paul: I suppose they saw them painted together with Him in many places, for Rome is accustomed to honor with greater solemnity the merits of Peter and also of Paul on account of their martyrdom being on the same day. So did they indeed deserve to err, who sought for Christ and His Apostles, not in the holy writings, but on painted walls: no wonder that forgers were deceived by painters." T. iii. De Consens. Evangelist. L.i.c.x.n.16, col. 1253. "As the hymns of the Consubstantialists were seen to be, in those chantings of hymns by night, accompanied with more splendor, for he (St. John Chrysostom) devised silver crosses, which supported lighted torches of wax, the Empress Eudoxia furnishing the money that was required for them, the Arians." H.E.L. vi. c. viii. p. 322. He gives the following advice to Olympius, who was about to build a church in honor of the martyrs, and who proposed to cover the walls with hunting and fishing scenes, so as to represent all the animal creation, and to erect therein "countless crosses," and "images of plaster," "To what you have written I will answer, that it would be trifling and puerile to delude the eyes of the faithful with the things named above, but it would be the act of a solid and masculine mind to represent, in the sanctuary towards the east, one, and only one cross; for through one saving cross is the human race saved, and to the hopeless is hope everywhere proclaimed. And fill the holy building on every side with the histories contained in the Old and New Testament, done by the hand of the most skilful painter; in order that they, who are not acquainted with letters, and are unable to read the divine Scriptures, may have a remembrancer of the worthy actions of those who have nobly served the true God, and be excited to emulate the glorious and celebrated excellencies, by which they despised earth for Heaven, and prized things invisible above the visible. But in that common building, when divided into many and various chambers, it is enough that each chamber have placed in it the precious cross." L. iv. Epist. Ixi. pp. 491-92. Having spoken of the veneration in which Saint Simon Stylites was held, and of the crowds that flocked to him from all parts, not only of Europe, naming amongst the rest the British, but also from Asia, he says: "as to Italy, it is superfluous to speak. For they say, that he has become so celebrated in mighty Rome, that they have set up at the entrances to all the workshops, small images of him, deriving (or devising) thence to themselves a kind of protection and safety." Side note: The entire basilica seems to have been adorned with paintings. In one of his histories he tells us that the main events, both of the Old and New Testament, were represented; and he gives us a list and description of the chief among them, together with his reasons for having recourse to this kind of ornament. See Carm. Nat. ix. pp. 289-90. T. iii. Hist. Reliq. c. xxvi. p. 1272. "Now Greeks, Romans, and Barbarians, treat of as God, the crucified, and venerate the sign of the cross." T. v. Curat. Grcec. Affect. Disp. vi. p. 880. Of the statue said to have been erected at Caesaraea-Philippi, by the woman spoken of in the Scriptures as laboring under an issue of blood, he says: "As soon as Julian (the apostate) learnt that in a city of Phoenicia, called Paneas, there was a remarkable statue of Christ, which the woman who had been freed from her infirmity, dedicated there, he overthrew it, and set up his own. But a sudden fire fell from Heaven, and tore the parts about the breast of that statue, and threw down the head and neck. . . . And, from that day to this, it has stood in this state, covered with the blackness caused by the lightning. But as to the statue of Christ, the Pagans of that time dragged it away, and broke it. But afterwards, the Christians having gathered the pieces together, placed them in the church, where they are even now preserved." H.E. L. v. c. xxi. p. 212.
God alone is the object of our worship and adoration but Catholics use pictures and images similar to relics for:
to honor and venerate them and to enliven their memories towards heavenly things, beyond what is due to every profane figure. They don't believe there is any virtue in the picture or image, but the honor given to the picture or image is referred to the prototype, or the thing being represented. Christians and even secularists do this today when they carry a picture or image of their family in their wallets.
In the Old Testament, only images of strange gods were prohibited as appears not only from the words in Exodus 20:5 and Deuteronomy 5:7, but also from the cherubim (Exodus 25:18) and the brazen serpent (Numbers 21:8), which Yahweh ordered to be made. The mural decorations of the Jewish synagogues in the early Christian period from excavations abundantly attest to this.
There is a question therefore, not of a separate commandment which forbids the worship of all images, but of an application of the precept forbidding the worship of strange gods. The prohibition of image worship, already discussed, does not contemplate the case of an image of Yahweh, most probably forbidden in the Book of the Covenant. Deuteronomy 4:16 insists, however that he did not appear in material form lest the people should be led to make an image out of him and misapprehend his spiritual nature. The prohibition of idols is found in the Book of the Covenant. It appears here in an amplified form most probably as a later addition to the decalogue to illustrate and safeguard the first commandment. The Latin division of the commandments is thus the more reasonable one and the more likely to be original.
The Church's Scriptures that support Pictures and Images:
Jesus recounts Moses lifting up the carved image of a serpent in the wilderness
The Lord commands Moses to make two (statues|images) of cherubims from beaten gold
The Lord commands Moses to make a (statue|image) of a brazen serpent
The Israelites display an ungodly use of the images the Lord commanded Moses to make
Solomon furnishes the temple with carved images of cherubim, palm trees and open flowers
Products of Hiram the Bronzeworker done for Solomon: lions, oxen, and cherubim.
Solomon carved cherubim on the walls.
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