Editing Icon (section)

====Icons in Eusebius to Philostorgius (425 AD)====
Elsewhere in his ''Church History'', [[Eusebius]] reports seeing what he took to be portraits of Jesus, [[Saint Peter|Peter]] and [[Paul the Apostle|Paul]], and also mentions a bronze statue at [[Banias]]/Paneas under Mount Hermon, of which he wrote, "They say that this statue is an image of Jesus".<ref>Eusebius, ''Church History'', 7:18</ref> Further, he relates that locals regarded the image as a memorial of the healing of the [[woman with an issue of blood]] by Jesus (Luke 8:43–48), because it depicted a standing man wearing a double cloak and with arm outstretched, and a woman kneeling before him with arms reaching out as if in supplication.

John Francis Wilson<ref>John Francis Wilson: ''Caesarea Philippi: Banias, the Lost City of Pan'' [[I.B. Tauris]], London, 2004.</ref> suggests the possibility that this refers to a pagan bronze statue whose true identity had been forgotten. Some{{who|date=September 2016}} have thought it to represent [[Aesculapius]], the Greek god of healing, but the description of the standing figure and the woman kneeling in supplication precisely matches images found on coins depicting the bearded emperor [[Hadrian]] ({{reign|117|138}}) reaching out to a female figure—symbolizing a [[Roman province|province]]—kneeling before him.

When asked by [[Flavia Julia Constantia|Constantia]] (Emperor [[Constantine I|Constantine]]'s half-sister) for an image of Jesus, Eusebius denied the request, replying: "To depict purely the human form of Christ before its transformation, on the other hand, is to break the commandment of God and to fall into pagan error."<ref>David M. Gwynn, From Iconoclasm to Arianism: The Construction of Christian Tradition in the Iconoclast Controversy [Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 47 (2007) 225–251], p. 227.</ref> Hence [[Jaroslav Pelikan]] calls Eusebius "the father of iconoclasm".<ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/article/answering-eastern-orthodox-apologists-regarding-icons/|title=Answering Eastern Orthodox Apologists regarding Icons|website=The Gospel Coalition}}</ref>

After the emperor Constantine I extended [[Edict of Milan|official toleration of Christianity]] within the Roman Empire in 313, huge numbers of pagans became converts. This period of the [[Historiography of Christianization of the Roman Empire]] probably saw the use of Christian images become very widespread among the faithful, though with great differences from pagan habits. Robin Lane Fox states<ref>Fox, ''Pagans and Christians'', [[Alfred A. Knopf]], New York, 1989.</ref> "By the early fifth century, we know of the ownership of private icons of saints; by {{c.|480–500}}, we can be sure that the inside of a saint's shrine would be adorned with images and votive portraits, a practice which had probably begun earlier."

When Constantine himself ({{reign|306|337}}) apparently converted to Christianity, the majority of his subjects remained pagans. The [[Roman Imperial cult]] of the divinity of the emperor, expressed through the traditional burning of candles and the offering of incense to the emperor's image, was tolerated for a period because it would have been politically dangerous to attempt to suppress it.<ref>{{Cite web |last=BDEhrman |date=2024-08-27 |title=The Conversion of the Emperor Constantine |url=https://ehrmanblog.org/40368-2/ |access-date=2025-04-28 |website=The Bart Ehrman Blog |language=en}}</ref> In the 5th century the courts of justice and municipal buildings of the empire still honoured the portrait of the reigning emperor in this way.<ref name="Dix 1945 413–414">{{cite book |first=Dom Gregory |last=Dix |title=The Shape of the Liturgy |location=New York |publisher=Seabury Press |date=1945 |pages=413–414}}</ref>

In 425 [[Philostorgius]], an allegedly [[Arian]] Christian, charged the Orthodox Christians in Constantinople with [[idolatry]] because they still honored the image of the emperor Constantine the Great in this way. [[Gregory Dix|Dix]] notes that this occurred more than a century before the first extant reference to a similar honouring of the image of Jesus or of his apostles or saints known today, but that it would seem a natural progression for the image of Christ, the King of Heaven and Earth, to be paid similar veneration as that given to the earthly Roman emperor.<ref name="Dix 1945 413–414"/> However, the Orthodox, Eastern Catholics, and other groups insist on explicitly distinguishing the veneration of icons from the worship of idols by pagans.<ref>[http://orthodoxinfo.com/inquirers/icon_bowing.aspx "Is Venerating Icons Idolatry? A Response to the Credenda Agenda"].</ref>{{crossreference|printworthy=y|(See further below on the doctrine of veneration as opposed to worship.)}}