What is the Catholic position on Exodus 20:4?

Question

This weekend my son and I participated in our Scouting council's annual Ten Commandments hike in which we walked to 10 different churches and heard a short talk on each of the 10 commandments from Exodus 20. The lone Catholic church on our route (churches were largely represented based on proximity, not theology) was assigned the following passage:

You shall not make yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the waters under the earth.—Exodus 20:4 (NJB)

(My very first problem in researching this question is that, while this was labeled the second commandment by the organizer of the hike, it's the second half of the first according to Catholic tradition.)

It seems we had some bad luck since the priest who was representing the Catholic position did not do a very good job of explaining idolatry to us. He mostly explained that the stained-glass windows (which were not unusual in the other churches we visited) and the statues (which were absolutely unique to that church) were not worshiped. Rather they were to be a reminder of the great saints of the past, their deeds, and that we could ask them to pray for us as we might ask a friend.

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The particular difficulty I'd like to resolve in my own mind is why Catholic churches use statues, which are carved, rather than flat images. The Orthodox church specifically uses icons in order to avoid idolatry. Stained glass, for better or worse, has become a nearly universally accepted church decoration. To me, either of these art forms go a long way to helping remind us (and especially visual learners) the deeds of the saints without risking they will be worshiped. So what is the Catholic reasoning for including carved statues in places of worship?

Update: It occurs to me that if I'd asked the question a month or so ago, I would have been confronted with the statues many Protestants do set up in our churches: the Nativity scene. My parent's church, where I was baptized, even includes a little ritual of having a child bring new figures to be added to the scene over the weeks of Advent. In my rush to judgement, I didn't stop to think if I had a plank in my own eye. Talk about hypocrisy! So, I really am not trying to "score points" on my Catholic brothers and sisters or further the cause of the Reformation. I want to understand.

Answer 1

I was just reading this EWTN article on the 10 commandments in connection with another post on this site, but it's appropriate here too.

And I won't attempt to justify my Church beyond what the Catechism says:

2131 Basing itself on the mystery of the incarnate Word, the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea justified against the iconoclasts the veneration of icons - of Christ, but also of the Mother of God, the angels, and all the saints. By becoming incarnate, the Son of God introduced a new "economy" of images.

2132 The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, "the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype," and "whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it."70 The honor paid to sacred images is a "respectful veneration," not the adoration due to God alone:

Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. the movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is.

CCC 2131-2132

Exodus states a few chapters after the Decalogue

Make two cherubim of beaten gold for the two ends of the propitiatory, fastening them so that one cherub springs direct from each end. The cherubim shall have their wings spread out above, covering the propitiatory with them; they shall be turned toward each other, but with their faces looking toward the propitiatory.

Exodus 26:18-20

I'm not trying to point out inconsistencies. I assume that the Bible is internally consistent and it's done a good job of ordering society for a long time. It's pretty apparent that the Jews of the Bible had no problem smashing opposing nation's idols and there's no history of ancient busts of David or Solomon popping up.

So, as I meant to say a bit ago, when I referenced the EWTN article on the 10 commandments, they reflect the Natural Law. They're not strange and arbitrary commands of God, as they would be if they favored iconography over sculpture. One could say that you'd be less given to idolatry given an icon over a statue, but that'd be a natural law argument, not a purely theological one.

Finally, if Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, and the Sabbath is made for man and not the other way around, then why is art not made for man?

Sacramentals do assist in prayer, some austere monastic types not like them, but others do. To be able to talk to Mary, who hears your prayer and intercedes on your behalf, is something that can be helped through art.

A good priest will tell you, if you need something, turn to Mary. Turning, is a physical act which requires a subject and when you see a statue of Mary in a Church, and to her left is Jesus, Body blood soul and divinity in the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. You've got a good basis for a spiritual platform from which to voice your petition.

The gist of it is, sacred art assists, rather than detracts, in the authentic worship of God.

Answer 2

I'm relatively new to Catholicism, and on top of that I'm an Eastern Rite (Maronite) member so please take what I am about to say as private opinion. First off, we aren't called to uphold all the Jewish laws. I forget the passage, but Paul basically gives the statement that we have a new law in Christ and we don't have to go through circumcision, avoid mixing milk and cheese, and all the other stuff that Jewish law dictates. It may be generally a good idea to follow the spirit of the law of the old testament, but with few exceptions, we are not to slavishly follow the law. Secondly, as the commenter above noted, icons, statues, stain glass windows, etc. are not idols in the Old Testament sense as we use them as objects of cynosure and not as items of worship. Cynosure means "something that serves as a guide" and has connection to the navigation by the stars (the dog star to be exact). The statue, the window, or the icon are never to be worshiped, but to be more like a guiding star.

Answer 3

The prohibition in Exodus: "Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them (Exodus 20:3-5)." When Moses wrote this the population of heaven consisted of only Angels and God, all of whom are pure spirits, having no physical substance. As such, any image -- mental, drawn, graven, gilded (eg: calf), or otherwise -- would be inaccurate because an image, by it's very nature, depicts something which exists in the physical world. The conclusion being: any image that purported to be a likeness of any thing that is in heaven couldn't possibly be accurate and would only serve to confuse the mind of the beholder. After the Incarnation this changed: now the Word was made flesh: He had a physical substance that could be represented in the form of a humanly visible image.

The veneration of images was dealt with in detail in the fourth session of the second Council of Nicea in the discussion on the Veneration of Images -- you can read a lot more about that at the Catholic Encyclopedia. In short, similar to the reference above, the Saints and the Blessed Mother really existed in physical form so images of them are not idolatrous as long as it is understood that it's not the image that is being venerated but the person of whom the image is meant to be a likeness.

Answer 4

The Images

We know that the Jews did not understand the command of the absolute prohibition of the images, for we find a number of them in the temple. If God absolutely prohibits in making images, God will not instruct Moses to build an Ark with full images. God only prohibits the craven images of idols and false gods.

In the temple there were:
1. Golden Cherubims (Exodus 25:18-22)
2. Carve a face of man and face of lion (Ezekiel 41:18-19)
3. Carve of lions in Kings' Thrones (I Kings 10:19)
4. Worshipping infront of an Images, the ARK where two images of angels (cherubims) in the ark that represent GOD

(Joshua 7:6) and Joshua vent his clothes and fell to the earth upon his face before the ARK of the lord until the eventide he and the Elders of Israel and put dust upon their head.

Catholics does not worship the image, but the one the person represented by that image.

Kinds of worship

1. Worship of ADORATION( due to God alone)

   Matthew 4:10 thou shalt worship the lord thy God and him only shall thou serve

2. worship of VENERATION (honor, respect, reverence to saints)

   Worship of veneration to holy persons

   Daniel 2:46 then the king of Nabuchadnezzar fell upon his face and worshipped Daniel (worship of veneration of holy man Daniel)

3. Worship of veneration of Angel

   Joshua 5:14 and he said, nay, but as captain of the Host of the lord am I how to come. And Joshua fell on his face on the earth and did worship and said unto him what saith my lord unto his servant

   Our right to venerate the Saints can be deduced from the veneration offered to the angels as attest by holy writing in Joshua 5:14. The grounds for veneration of the angel to their supernatural dignity which is rooted in their immediately joined to God (Matthew 18:10)

   Our Saints are immediately in union with God because they also become as Angels

   Matthew 22:30 for in resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.