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Only the Catholics: Why do Graven Images When the Bible says, "You shall not make a graven image"?

In the Protestant Bible, the second commandment is "Thou shalt not make an idol". In the Catholic Bible's second commandment and the First Commandment are combined in the First Commandment.
  I do not think that Catholics worship images recorded or Catholics believe that Mary and the cult of saints.
  But can you explain why Catholics do sculptures of Mary and the saints in the form of statues, paintings and photographs, especially within the Church and in their homes when God says, "You shall not make a graven image."
  Can you explain why Catholics do sculptures … What did God mean "Thou shalt not make a graven image"?

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13 comments for “Only the Catholics: Why do Graven Images When the Bible says, "You shall not make a graven image"?”


  1. Catholic Church Defender says:

    Garbage. Anti-Catholic bigotry typical. Catholics do not worship Mary. An image size is about making a recorded image as an idol to worship.
      Making a recorded image itself is not idolatry is to worship the graven image that becomes idolatry.
      Otherwise why did God command the construction of images recorded in Exodus 25 and Numbers 16, with the brazen serpent? It is clear that a statue of idolatry is nothing that God would be a hypocrite.
      Do you think you have a photo of his deceased relative is idolatry?

  2. Pray for us Holy Mother of God!! says:

    The sculptures of the Old Testament are false gods and were worshiped instead of worshiping the true God, not worship statues of Mary or the saints, we remember God and His blessings to us.
      Catholics do not worship idols. It's like having a photo of one of the family. We could have a statue of Uncle Ed, definitely not a graven image,

  3. Jesus, I trust in You! says:

    an "idol" is an idol of worship and made to do as bad, but do not worship the images more than the worship of a photograph of a loved one. I add that God himself ordered the execution of the snake that whoever I think should be cured. That too was not a cult image, but to be used as a tool

  4. Karenita EWTN ((Allecat)) says:

    The statues, paintings, etc. were used in medieval times to teach those who could not read or write about the Church and its teachings and traditions. It is a tradition that has carried out today to teach adults who can not read or write about the Catholic Church and teach children who have yet to learn to read and write about the Church.

  5. MAD DOG says:

    An image recorded is creating something, but that does not mean we worship.
      I love to draw and I'm proud of my accomplishments, but that does not mean I worship. I thank God for giving me a talent.
      You're right, do not worship the Virgin or the Saints. We ask the Blessed Virgin to intercede for us with the rosary and the saints with prayers. Nowhere in the 10 commandments that says we can not ask them to pray for us.

  6. momo5j7 says:

    Not everyone could read, and you could probably could not afford to have a Bible, because it took time to write. Thus, the church was painted Biblical scenes, sculpted, etc. so that the illiterate know the word of God.
      BTW, this question is asked a lot. And the answer much. Maybe people this question in the future may do some searching first before asking the same question again.

  7. Rudy says:

    Before Jesus came from heaven, there was no physical way to represent God. So any image or statue that just may be an idol and not God. But now God has a physical form in the person of Jesus. Therefore, the image of Jesus is an idol, because He is God.

  8. Kevin A.R.T. says:

    So a picture of his dead grandmother is a graven image?

  9. Wolfebla says:

    For starters, there is no "right way" to the number of the Ten Commandments, as the original texts have no verse or chapter markers. The Catholic Church gives its members credit for understanding what to do and worship * * an image is idolatry - not the mere creation of an image.
      Do or a statue of Mary or the saints, does not violate the injunction because, as noted above, or do not worship the image or the person it represents. The images remind us that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses (all believers in heaven), to intercede for us during our earthly pilgrimage.
      If you take a picture was forbidden, then God himself is guilty of its own mandate when it is specified how the temple should be built. Among other images, which were the cherubim covered the ark, the bronze (brass) bulls that supported the Sea of brass, bronze shells that decorated the temple, etc.
      The difference between the decoration and idolatry came when the Israelites began to worship the bronze serpent created by Moses and called Nehustan. The snake was destroyed because it had become an idol worshiped instead of God, so we have a clear example of the problem.
      Today, we see the same with photographs, paintings and sculptures of real things and people. They can be images, but hopefully that is not worship. The line is clearly crossed when some religions make figures of their gods and worship such figures as the god himself. That is idolatry.
      Simply draw a picture of something for the sake of memory or the decor is not idolatry. Otherwise a lot of people who would be in deep shit idolatry to take pictures of his mother in his wallet or the black velvet Elvis painting on the wall of the room.

  10. johnnyde says:

    we do not. obvioulsy you do not know what a graven image is, as you do not know what the Bible says, as you serve the father of the father of lies.
      You do not know if an image carved bit him in hiney …
      If you were blind would be without sin, but you notice that we see WE SEE that we see both your sin remains.
      You are worshiping an idol and you do not know the words of God that calls the Word of God. Jesus is the Word of God (the logos of the debh … the Alpha and the Omega. The Bible is God's word only in the sneeze that contains the words of God. It is the Bible who loves and has become an idol for you. worship the Word of God, Jesus Chrsit in spirit and in truth. The irony here is that worte that …
      You have to serve what is going to be the Bible or Jesus
      Jesus> Chruch> bibloe
      But yes, by all means pursue their objective of crusdain against the Church that Jesus founded personally. It's just ignorance, which even offers epossibility or salvation. But now I've brought you to have no excuse. God bless John Paul the Great.
      Unless you eat my flesh and drinks my blood NO LIFE WITH YOU!
      He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life!
      TURN or burn!
      and please this is boring to show that Wold in sheep's clothing that is driving - your pastor who can communicate with him and offer you savlation nad his followers.
      Sola Scriptura?
      Go get a copy of the Marine Corps. manual take-home study. Do not forget to start the five chapters that contradict what he is doing.
      Get other people who meet to study, implement in their lives, get people under study with its implementation in the life there.
      Oh, do not forget to get your match official Marine Corps manual, so you can look up words and phrases like "Simper Fi", "Iwo Jima", "Helmet", "Granada" and "honor" ;, etc.
      But is this that you Marines?
      I think not.
      It is losing nearly everything it means to be a Marine. You have not had the training they have done for years is not history - to understand what it means to be a sailor as approved in the Marine Corps founder of his lieutenants in the first and down through the ranks to Over the years - a direct link with the founder of the Marine Corps. and writers of the manual, nor is the word of testimony from the mouth (the written instructions that the founder himself - that certainly did not write the manual - his lieutenants went first things the Marines have been doing for years), nor is the true meaning of what the manual says. Because, of course, outside the Marine Corps., The manual makes no sense.
      People belonging to scholarship of the Bible believe in the doctrine of just writing, writing in the first place, the only scripture - the Scripture alone are not Christians who are the people who gathered to study the marine environment are manual Marines.
      Now that you and your friends have studied the Marine Corps manual. Go to the front of a Marine Corps. recruiting station and as people walk hand in hand to a section of the manual and come with you. Go with a Marine Corps. field and do the same to see if you will join marine corp. textbook scholarships. But do not call themselves that. I call, Marines. Go to the Veterans Day parade and distributing leaflets of the manual there, and tell them to come to the Marine barracks. Let people know you have the way that all they have to do is study the manual with you and they can also be Marines.
      Oh yes, and build marine corp. manual and universities graduate study what?
      Experts in misunderstanding the Marine Corps. manual.
      OHHHH And yes, do not forget to call yourselves, not just Marines, but "heroes (saints)", because after all, everyone who is part of the Marine Corps., Scholarships study manual is a "hero" (saint) ", after all the manual says no? Forget real marine honor "Heroes (Santos), as Colonel Luis C. Plain and John Basilon Gunnery Sergeant or Gunnery Sergeant Donald A. Levesque (RET), or The Marine. Jason Dunham … , Etc, because after all, the manual tells us not to do that, right?
      Then get on a real Marine (if you dare) say that what you are doing, and ask them what is wrong with him?

  11. cristoig says:

    I like most Catholics want to laugh when Protestants say that Catholics worship statues. For a Catholic who is pure foolishness and ignorance. The thing is that we Catholics really agree with the protesters condemning idolatry. However, realize what Catholics and Protestants fail to understand, perhaps because of his hatred of everything Catholic, is that God does not prohibit religious images when used properly. An example is as follows:
      (Ex. 25:1 DRB) And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
      (Ex. 25:18 DRB) shall make two cherubim of beaten gold, on both sides of the oracle.
      (Ex. 25:19 DRB) Come on, a cherub, on one hand and the other in the other.
      (Ex. 25:20 DRB) to cover both sides of the propitiatory, spreading their wings, and covering the oracle, and let them look towards each other, their faces turned toward the mercy with which the ark is to be covered.
      (Ex. 26:1 DRB) And thou shalt make the tabernacle this way: Thou shalt make ten curtains of fine twisted linen, and purple and purple and scarlet twice dyed, diversified with embroidery.
      Here God is saying that religious images are welcome.
      God speaks to us of how Aaron's garments should be decorated:
      (Ex. 28:33 DRB) And beneath the feet of the same tunic, round, do what you are pomegranates, of violet and purple, and scarlet yarn, with little bells set between:
      (Ex. 28:34 DRB) So there will be a golden bell and a pomegranate, and again another golden bell and a pomegranate.
      God tells Moses to make a sculpture of a snake to cure snake bites and as people began to worship the king who destroyed:
      (Numbers 21:8 DRB) And the Lord said: Ask a bronze serpent and set it up to a sign: whosoever being beaten look at it, shall live.
      (Numbers 21:9 DRB) therefore Moses made a bronze serpent and set it to a signal: that when he was bitten watching were cured.
      (2 Kings 18:4 DRB) destroyed the high places and broke the statues in pieces, and cut the forests, and broke the brazen serpent that Moses had done, because until then the children of Israel burned incense to it: Nohestan and called his name.
      Notice what God said about the temple:
      (1 Kings 6:12 DRB) As for this house, that construction is you, if you NEWS walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments, walking in them, I will fulfill my word to you, who spoke to David your father.
      (1 Kings 6:13 DRB), and I will dwell among the children of Israel, and I will not forsake my people Israel.
      (1 Kings 6:14 DRB) So Solomon built the house, and finished it.
      Solomon's temple was adorned with sculptures and statues:
      (1 Kings 7:25 DRB) And I was sitting on twelve oxen, three of whom looked to the north and three west and three south, three east, and the sea was above them, and their hinder parts were hidden inside.
      (1 Kings 7:36 DRB) also recorded on the plates, which were of brass, and in the corners, cherubs and lions, and palm trees, like a man standing, so that did not seem to be recorded, but added around.
      Scripture tells us that Solomon's wisdom came from God:
      (1 Kings 3:1 DRB) And the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon, and he made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, because he took his daughter and brought her to the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house and the house of the Lord and the wall around Jerusalem.
      (1 Kings 3:2 DRB), yet the people sacrificed in high places: for there was no temple built in the name of the Lord until that day.
      (1 Kings 3:3 DRB) and Solomon loved God, walking in the precepts of David his father, only sacrificed in high places, and burned incense.
      (1 Kings 3:4 DRB) was therefore Gibeon to sacrifice there: for that was the high place: a thousand victims of the holocaust, did Solomon offer upon that altar at Gibeon.
      (1 Kings 3:5 DRB) And the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream at night, saying: Ask what I shall give thee.
      (1 Kings 3:6 DRB) And Solomon said, Thou hast great mercy to thy servant David my father, as he walked before thee in truth and justice, and a right heart with you and you have kept your great mercy him and have given a son to sit on his throne, as it is today.
      (1 Kings 3:7 DRB) And now, Lord God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father, and I am a child, not knowing how to exit and enter;
      (1 Kings 3:8 DRB) And thy servant is in the midst of people you have chosen, a great people, which can not be numbered nor counted for multitude.
      (1 Kings 3:9 DRB) Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, and discern between good and evil. To be able to judge these people, your people, which is so large?
      (1 Kings 3:10 DRB) and the word was pleasing to the Lord, that Solomon had asked such a thing.
      (1 Kings 3:11 DRB) And the Lord said to Solomon: Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but hast asked for wisdom to know you jndgment ;
      (1 Kings 3:12 DRB): Behold, I have done for you according to your words, and I have taken a wise and understanding heart, while there's no one like you before thee, neither after thee shall arise .
      (1 Kings 3:13 DRB) Yes, and also the things you do not ask, I have given, namely, riches and glory: so that no one has been like thee among the kings of every day so far.
      (1 Kings 3:14 DRB) And if you want to walk in my ways and keep my commandments and my commandments, as thy father walked, I will lengthen thy days.
      (1 Kings 3:15 DRB) and Solomon woke up and saw it was a dream, and when he came to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the LORD and offered burnt offerings and sacrificial victims of peace offerings, and made a big party for all his servants.
      (1 Kings 3:16 DRB) Then came two women who were prostitutes, the king, and before him.
      (1 Kings 3:17 DRB) and one of them said: I pray thee, my lord, I and this woman lived in a house, and I gave birth to a son with her in the chamber.
      (1 Kings 3:18 DRB) And the third day after it was delivered, was also delivered, and we were together, and no other person with us in the house, only two of us.
      (1 Kings 3:19 DRB) and this woman's child died in the night: the sleep she overlaid it.
      (1 Kings 3:20 DRB) And rising in the dead time of night, she took my son from me, while I, your servant, was asleep, and put it in his bosom, and laid her dead child in my breast.
      (1 Kings 3:21 DRB) And when I got up in the morning to give my child suck, behold it was dead, but considering most diligently, when day was clear, I found that I was not mine had.
      (1 Kings 3:22 DRB) And the other woman replied, not how sayst you, but your son is dead, and mine is alive. By contrast, he said, lie: that my son lives, and your son is dead. And so they strove before the king.
      (1 Kings 3:23 DRB) And the king said: He who says: My son is alive, and your son is dead. But the other: "No, but your son is dead, and my lives.
      (1 Kings 3:24 DRB) The king then said, "Bring me a sword. And when he had brought a sword before the king,
      (1 Kings 3:25 DRB) divide, he said, the living child in two and give half to one and a half to the other.
      (1 Kings 3:26 DRB) But the woman whose son was alive, "said the king, (for his guts were transferred to his son) I beg you, my lord, give her the living child, not kill him. But the other said: Let it be neither mine nor you, but divide it.
      (1 Kings 3:27 DRB) The king answered and said: Give the living child to this woman, and do not let them died, because she is the mother thereof.
      (1 Kings 3:28 DRB) And all Israel heard the sentence which the king had judged, and they feared the king, as the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.
      God was not upset by what Solomon had done:
      (1 Kings 9:3 DRB) And the Lord said: I heard thy prayer and thy supplication that you have done before me: I have consecrated this house which thou hast built, to put my name forever, and my eyes and heart will be there forever.
      The question to those who condemn Catholic practices in terms of images is why the evidence that the images can please God when they ask for our minds to God, you condemn them when it pleases God. After all, Christ Himself is called the image (eikon) of the invisible God:
      (Col 1:15 DRB) Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
      In Christ
      Fr Joseph

  12. Michael M says:

    The Catholic Church understands these verses in the context of banning the worship of images as gods, and bow before the images as gods.
      The use of images for religious purposes is not automatically against the will of God. The mercy was to have two golden cherubim (Exodus 25:18) - This was only 5 chapters after the first commandment. Furthermore, Solomon's Temple contained 12 statues of oxen (1 Kings 7:25-26), God commanded Moses to create a bronze serpent to be used in healing victims of snake bites (Numbers 21:8 ) and Jesus referred to this snake when he describes how he would be "up" (John 3:14). There were images of lilies, walnuts and pomegranates (Exodus chapters 25, 28) and Solomon's Temple contained statues of oxen (1 Kings 7:25-26), statues of cherubim (1 Kings 6:23), the size of the palm trees and flowers (1 Kings 6:32), his throne, surrounded by carved lions (1 Kings 10:19-20).
      They bow before images, such as Catholics, is automatically bad, as many Protestants think. Joshua and the elders of Israel fell to their faces before the ark of the Lord praying to the Lord. This was not a violation of the commandment.
      "And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the ground on his face before the ark of the Lord until evening, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads. Joshua said: Ah Lord GOD: Why did you go to this people over Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us? I pray that the contents had been, and dwelt on the other side of Jordan! "- Joshua 7:6-7
      When God told them to pose, said: "Why, so you lie on your face" (v. 10), explaining that Israel sinned by having "taken of the accursed" (this is the story of Achan, who was stoned). God does not condemn them to kneel before the ark, even with gold statues of cherubs. Nowhere were Joshua and the others found guilty of violating the commandment to do this.
      Similarly, Solomon prayed to God while standing at the altar of God. This was not a violation of the commandment:
      "And Solomon at the altar of the LORD, before all the congregation of Israel, and spread his hands toward heaven: And he said O LORD God of Israel, there is no God like you in the sky, or below of the earth, keeping covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart "- 1 Kings 8:22-23
      More significantly, Solomon prayed to God when he kneels before the altar of God. Nowhere was Solomon pleaded guilty to violating the commandment to do this:
      "And so, when Solomon had made an end of all this prayer and supplication to the LORD, and rose before the altar of the Lord, kneeling on their knees with their hands outstretched to heaven." - 1 Kings 8 : 54
      Praying to God on his knees before the ark, with its statues of gold angel?
      Praying to God while standing and kneeling before an altar?
      Who did Joshua and Solomon, I think they were Catholics? :-)
      Catholics do not see the second commandment Protestant and a universal ban against bowing to any picture at all, because if it were, Joshua and Solomon have been punished for violating the injunction. They were not.
      Loraine Boettner is often quoted as saying: "God has forbidden the use of images in worship." I can not verify that quotation, but on the basis of all the above quotations from Scripture, it should be clear why Catholics simply We can not agree.

  13. Catholic @ Heart says:

    First, you have to understand what a graven image in the context of the Old Testament. To make a graven image is to create an image of a medium such as clay or wood, and worship as a god.
      We see an example of the breaking of this commandment in the account in Exodus 32 when God condemned the Israelites make a golden calf, leaving God for this false god. It was the realization of the recording itself, idolatry or performance of recorded images to be their god of idolatry (the Catholic view)?
      Let's look at Exodus 32:2-4, 24:
      2: And Aaron said, "Take off the gold rings that are in the ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters, and bring them to me." 3: And all the people took off the gold rings that were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 4: And he took in his hand, and forms with chisel and made a molten calf, and said: "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!" …
      22: Aaron said, "Let not the anger of my lord burn hot; know the people, set in evil. 23: For I said, `Make us gods to go before us, as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know what happened to him. 24: And he said: "Let anyone take it away with gold ', so I gave it, and threw the fire and out came this calf."
      The statues or images of Mary is not worshiped as a god. If a Catholic worships a statue of Mary as a God, are guilty of idolatry.
    Here between Exodus 20, which gives the command, and Exodus 32, where the Israelites break the commandment to worship other gods and are killed by idolatry. In fact, God commands Moses to make images recorded: Exodus 25:16-20, 26:1, 31:
      16 And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you. 17: And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half its width. 18: And thou shalt make two cherubim of gold, of beaten against them, on both ends of the mercy seat. 19: Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other extreme, one-piece with the mercy you shall make the cherubim on its two ends. 20: The cherubim spread their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces at each other, toward the mercy seat faces of the cherubim be.
      26:1 1: "Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, blue and purple and scarlet stuff, with cherubim ability to work will make them … 31: "Make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet and fine linen cloth, and skilled labor are to be applied with cherubs;
      God commanded Moses to make an image recorded with cherubs. Thus, they are ordered in the ark of the covenant in which God lived. Even the ark itself is gold that is refined, cut to decorate a place where God resides in a special way. There is a mercy seat of pure gold. That in itself is an idol. Furthermore, it is purely done in a religious context and conduct of these images was to bring more glory to God. Note also that God wants those cherubim to be well made (vv. 1, 31). Why would I want to be well made, if it was a sin to make such cherubim?
      It is the Catholic view that can look both at the commandment of having no other gods besides him, and not ascribe divinity to the recorded images, but also shows that the ornament business image can also be use to bring more honor and glory to God with such statues.
      We see elsewhere that the images are ordered by God to become even save people from death! Numbers 21:7-9:
      The Law of God is docked on the First Commandment. Worship We are not anything other than God. No golden calf statue, relic, icon … God alone deserves worship.



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