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101-530: The word comes from the Greek for "four forms" or "shapes". In English usage, each symbol may be described as a tetramorph in the singular, and a group as "the tetramorphs", but usually only in contexts where all four are included. The tetramorphs were especially common in Early Medieval art , above all in illuminated Gospel books , but remain common in religious art to the present day. In Christian art ,

202-835: A Physician the Lord our God, Jesus the Christ, the only-begotten Son and Word, before time began, but who afterwards became also man, of Mary the virgin." Justin Martyr argued that the incarnate Word was pre-figured in Old Testament prophecies. The Catechism of the Catholic Church discusses the Incarnation in paragraphs 461–463 and cites several Bible passages to assert its centrality ( Philippians 2:5–8 , Hebrews 10:5–7 , 1 John 4:2 , 1 Timothy 3:16 ). The Nicene Creed

303-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,

404-406: A body", but incarnation (a term these groups would avoid) requiring Jesus having the temptable and mortal nature of His mother. In contrast to the traditional view of the incarnation cited above, adherents of Oneness Pentecostalism believe in the doctrine of Oneness. Although both Oneness and traditional Christianity teach that God is a singular Spirit, Oneness adherents reject the idea that God

505-558: A fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes , a limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in

606-560: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on

707-540: A foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near

808-580: A human being. While all Christians believed that Jesus was indeed the Unigenite Son of God , "the divinity of Christ was a theologically charged topic for the Early Church." Debate on this subject occurred during the first four centuries of Christianity, involving Jewish Christians , Gnostics , followers of Arius of Alexandria, and adherents of Pope Alexander of Alexandria , among others. Ignatius of Antioch taught that "We have also as

909-486: A lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle. They are described later in the Book of Revelation : And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. The association of the four living creatures with the four evangelists originated with Irenaeus in

1010-512: A view of the incarnation in keeping with the personal pre-existence of Christ. Whiston considered the incarnation to be of the Logos Who had pre-existed as "a Metaphysick existence, in potentia or in the like higher and sublimer Manner in the Father as His Wisdom or Word before His real Creation or Generation." Jacob Bauthumley rejected that God was "onely manifest in the flesh of Christ, or

1111-665: A virgin birth. Sozzini, Przypkowski and other Socinian writers were distinct from Servetus in stating that Jesus having "come down from heaven" was primarily in terms of Mary's miraculous conception and not in Jesus having in any literal sense been in heaven. Today the number of churches with Socinian Christology is very small, the main group known for this are the Christadelphians , other groups include CoGGC and CGAF . Modern Socinian or " Biblical Unitarian " writers generally place emphasis on "made flesh" not just meaning "made

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1212-486: Is St Mark's Basilica in Venice , where the winged lion is the city's mascot and St Mark is the city's patron saint. Most illuminated Gospel books were prefaced with Evangelist portraits , often combined on a single page. Insular manuscripts were very focused on abstract linear patterns that combined Mediterranean, Anglo-Saxon and Celtic influences, the latter mostly traceable from surviving metalwork. The artists of

1313-498: Is Matthew, because Matthew's Gospel depicts Christ royal character, he who descended from the tribe of Judah; the ox is Luke, because Christ is shown in his priestly character; the man is Mark, because of the humanity of Christ shown in that Gospel focusing on the things the man did; and the eagle is John, because the mystery of the Word ascends to heaven. Augustine departs from Jerome's scheme saying, "This latter formulation focuses only on

1414-487: Is a statement of belief originating in two ecumenical councils, the First Council of Nicaea in 325, and the First Council of Constantinople in 381. As such, is it still relevant to most Christian churches today. The Incarnation is always professed, though different Rites use different translations . The Roman Catholic Church's current translation is: "For us men and for our salvation, he came down from heaven: by

1515-538: Is a Trinity of persons. Oneness doctrine teaches there is one God who manifests Himself in different ways, as opposed to a Trinity, where God is seen as one being consisting of three distinct persons. To a Oneness Pentecostal, Jesus is seen as both fully divine and fully human. The term Father refers to God Himself, who caused the conception of the Son in Mary, thus becoming the father of the child she bore. The term Son refers to

1616-804: Is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout

1717-539: Is also one of the key factors which, alongside humans made in the image and likeness of God, forms Christian Anthropology. Specifically, incarnation is vital for understanding the concept of Divinisation of the Man, most well and elaborately developed in Orthodox Christianity and most well expressed by Church Fathers, such as St. Athanasius of Alexandria ("Therefore He was not man, and then became God, but He

1818-479: Is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before the arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During

1919-419: Is clear from the table that various interpretive schemes have been followed through church history. The four main schemes are summarized below with their most well-known proponent and rationale. The given rationale usually has to do with how each Gospel begins, major themes in each Gospel, or the aspect of Christ emphasized in each Gospel. 1st scheme—Irenaeus The man is Matthew, because his Gospel begins with

2020-477: Is how each Gospel narrative begins. Matthew is the man because he begins with a genealogy; Mark is the lion, roaring in the desert with prophetic power; Luke is the ox, because he begins with temple sacrifice; and John is the eagle, flying heavenwards like the divine Word. It must be said that at a certain point, once enough interpretive authorities in the church backed this scheme, many who followed simply defaulted to their authority. 3rd scheme—Augustine The lion

2121-550: Is involved in being human. In Christian belief it is understood that Jesus was at the same time both fully God and fully human, two natures in one person. The body of Christ was therefore subject to all the bodily weaknesses to which human nature is universally subject; such are hunger (Matthew.4:2), thirst (John 19:28), fatigue (John 4:6), pain, and death. They were the natural results of the human nature he assumed. Approaches such as Nestorianism , Ebonism, Arianism , Appoliniarianism, and Eutychianism have attempted understanding of

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2222-415: Is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki ,

2323-610: Is not an eternally existing being, but rather the more abstract Logos (a manifestation of the One True God, not a separate person) incarnate. For this reason, Servetus refused to call Christ the "eternal Son of God" preferring "the Son of the eternal God" instead. In describing Servetus' theology of the Logos , Andrew Dibb (2005) comments: "In Genesis God reveals Himself as the Creator. In John He reveals that He created by means of

2424-519: Is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of the language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to

2525-848: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern Incarnation (Christianity) In Christian theology ,

2626-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,

2727-674: The Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from

2828-624: The Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are

2929-474: The Catholic Church , an ecumenical council's declarations are infallible , making the incarnation a dogma in the Catholic Church . The incarnation implies three facts: (1) The divine person of Jesus Christ; (2) The human nature of Jesus Christ; (3) The hypostatic union of the human with the divine nature in the divine person of Jesus Christ. Without diminishing his divinity, he added to it all that

3030-627: The Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute the objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of

3131-495: The Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to a lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It

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3232-573: The First Council of Nicaea in 325, the Council of Ephesus in 431, and the Council of Chalcedon in 451. These councils declared that Jesus was both fully God (begotten from, but not created by, the Father) and fully man, taking his flesh and human nature from the Virgin Mary . These two natures, human and divine, were hypostatically united into the one personhood of Jesus Christ. According to

3333-624: The Holy Qurbono of St. James (c. AD 60) have a similar ma‛neetho , a poetic hymn, traditionally attributed to St. Severus, the Patriarch of Antioch (c. 465–538): I exalt Thee, Lord and King, Only-begotten Son and Word of the heavenly Father, immortal by nature, Thou came down by grace for salvation and life for all human race; was incarnate of the holy glorious, pure Virgin Mary, Mother of God and became man without any change;

3434-574: The Incarnation of Christ . The lion of St Mark represents courage, resurrection, and royalty, coinciding with the theme of Christ as king in Mark's gospel. It is also interpreted as the Lion of Judah as a reference to Christ's royal lineage. The ox, or bull, is an ancient Christian symbol of redemption and life through sacrifice, signifying Luke's records of Christ as a priest and his ultimate sacrifice for

3535-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as

3636-657: The Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of

3737-584: The Polish Brethren such as Samuel Przypkowski , Marcin Czechowic and Johann Ludwig von Wolzogen saw the incarnation as being primarily a function of fatherhood . Namely that Christ was literally both 'Son of Man' from his maternal side, and also literally 'Son of God' on his paternal side. The concept of the incarnation —"the Word became flesh and dwelt among us"— was understood as the literal word or logos of Ps. 33:6 having been made human by

3838-668: The Reformed Protestants in Geneva, Switzerland . The French reformer John Calvin , who asserted he would ensure the death of Servetus if he set foot in Geneva because of his non-Reformed views on the Trinity and the sacrament of baptism, requested he be beheaded as a traitor rather than burned as a heretic, but the authorities insisted on executing Servetus by fire. Post-Reformation Arians such as William Whiston often held

3939-680: The Rider-Waite tarot deck . It is also depicted in some Islamic art . Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized :  Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized :  Hellēnikḗ ) is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of

4040-559: The incarnation is the belief that the pre-existent divine person of Jesus Christ , God the Son , the second person of the Trinity , and the Logos ( Koine Greek for "word"), "was made flesh" by being conceived in the womb of a woman, the Virgin Mary , also known as the Theotokos (Greek for "God-bearer" or "Mother of God"). The doctrine of the incarnation then entails that Jesus

4141-611: The life of Christ . The significance of the incarnation has been extensively discussed throughout Christian history , and is the subject of countless hymns and prayers . For instance, the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (c. 400), as used by Eastern Orthodox Christians and Byzantine Catholics , includes this "Hymn to the Only Begotten Son": O only begotten Son and Word of God, Who, being immortal, Deigned for our salvation To become incarnate Of

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4242-492: The nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by the genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in

4343-468: The 2nd century. The interpretation of each creature has varied through church history. The most common interpretation, first laid out by Victorinus and adopted by Jerome , St Gregory , and the Book of Kells , is that the man is Matthew, the lion Mark, the ox Luke, and the eagle John. The creatures of the tetramorph, just like the four gospels of the Evangelists, represent four facets of Christ. It

4444-647: The Ancient Egyptians, Assyrians , and Greeks. The image of the sphinx , found in Egypt and Babylon , depicted the body of a lion and the head of a human, while the harpies of Greek mythology showed bird-like human women. The prophet Ezekiel lived among the Jews who were exiled to Babylon in the 6th century BC. The creatures in his vision, from which the images of the tetramorph are derived, are reminiscent of ancient Assyrian art. The animals associated with

4545-695: The Christian tetramorph originate in the Babylonian symbols of the four fixed signs of the zodiac: the ox representing Taurus ; the lion representing Leo ; the eagle representing Scorpio ; the man or angel representing Aquarius . In Western astrology , the four symbols are associated with the elements of, respectively Earth, Fire, Water, and Air. The creatures of the Christian tetramorph were also common in Egyptian , Greek , and Assyrian mythology. The early Christians adopted this symbolism and adapted it for

4646-661: The Evangelist typically occupied a full page. Though numerous examples of Late Antique portraits featured each figure in a standing position, the Evangelists were predominantly depicted in a seated position at a writing desk or with a book or scroll, both in reference to the Gospels. The symbols of the tetramorphs were most common in the Middle Ages until the Romanesque period before they fell out of favour and images of

4747-654: The Evangelists in their human forms became more common. However, the tetramorphs were still used and were found in artwork of the Renaissance and even in modern art . A notable 20th century example is the massive tapestry by Graham Sutherland which hangs in Coventry Cathedral. The tetramorph of the four living creatures is depicted on the World card of many tarot decks, including the Tarot of Marseilles and

4848-420: The Evangelists on western facades, externally around eastern apse windows, or as large statues atop apse walls. Generally all four creatures of the tetramorph will be found together in either one image or in one structure, but it is not unheard of to have a single Evangelist dominate the imagery of the church. This is usually found in cities that bear one of the Evangelists as their patron saint . A notable example

4949-588: The Father. After resurrection, Jesus is seen as assuming temporary human forms, though resuming his spirit form eventually. According to Latter-day Saint theology , two of the three divine beings of the Godhead have perfected, glorified, physical bodies, namely God the Father ( Elohim ) and God the Son ( Jehovah ). Instead of considering the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost as one in substance or essence with one another, Latter-day Saints understand

5050-486: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit

5151-442: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in

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5252-629: The Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of the syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow

5353-446: The Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in the country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community

5454-458: The Hebrews ) have been proposed throughout the centuries, but all were rejected by Nicene Christianity . The incarnation is commemorated and celebrated each year at Christmas , and reference can also be made to the Feast of the Annunciation ; "different aspects of the mystery of the incarnation" are celebrated at Christmas and the Annunciation. The noun incarnation derives from the ecclesiastical Latin verb incarno , itself derived from

5555-406: The Incarnation in which only God the Son , temporarily possessed an incarnated, physical body while God the Father is and has always remained unembodied. Despite these differences, Latter-day Saint doctrine accepts a similar version of so-called ethical monotheism (which developed out of the Jewish tradition ), in that Latter-day Saints believe that the Light of Christ (alternatively referred to as

5656-519: The King of kings and Lord of lords, Christ our God , comes forward to be sacrificed , and to be given for food to the faithful; and the bands of angels go before Him with every power and dominion, the many-eyed cherubim , and the six-winged seraphim , covering their faces, and crying aloud the hymn, Alleluia , Alleluia, Alleluia. The West Syriac Churches – Syriac Orthodox, Malankara Orthodox, Syro-Malankara Catholic, Syriac Catholic and Maronite Catholic – principally celebrating

5757-485: The Last Judgment. This image of Christ in Glory often features Christ pantocrator in a mandorla surrounded by the creatures of the tetramorph is often found on the spherical ceiling inside the apse, typically as a mosaic or fresco. Older Roman churches, such as Santa Pudenziana and Santa Maria in Trastevere , mosaics often depict the four creatures in a straight line rather than in a circular formation. Medieval churches also feature sculptures of bas-relief symbols of

5858-433: The Word, or Logos. Finally, also in John, He shows that this Logos became flesh and 'dwelt among us'. Creation took place by the spoken word, for God said 'Let there be...' The spoken word of Genesis, the Logos of John, and the Christ, are all one and the same." Condemned by both the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches on account of his heterodox Christology , Servetus was burnt at the stake for heresy in 1553, by

5959-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),

6060-402: The ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in the earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of

6161-406: The atonement, such as Substitution , Satisfaction or Christus Victor , Christ must be human in order for the sacrifice of the cross to be efficacious, for human sins to be "removed" and/or "conquered". In his work The Trinity and the Kingdom of God , Jürgen Moltmann differentiated between what he called a "fortuitous" and a "necessary" incarnation. The latter gives a soteriological emphasis to

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6262-443: The beginnings of the books and not on the overall plan of the evangelists, which is what should have been examined more thoroughly." 4th scheme—Aimee Semple McPherson The Eagle is Matthew, who presents Jesus as the King who will soon return to seek his people, Jesus Will Return; the ox is Luke, where he presents Jesus as the suffering servant who bore our sickness, Jesus Healing; The Face of Man (representing Mark) presents Jesus as

6363-426: The depiction of St Mark in particular, the use of wings distinguish him from images of St Jerome, who is also associated with the image of a lion. The perfect human body of Christ was originally represented as a winged man, and was later adapted for St Matthew in order to symbolise Christ's humanity. In the context of the tetramorphs, the winged man indicates Christ's humanity and reason, as well as Matthew's account of

6464-407: The four Evangelists as the tetramorph, which first appears in Christian art in the 5th century, but whose interpretative origin stems from Irenaeus in the 2nd century. The elements of the Christian tetramorph first appear in the vision of Ezekiel, who describes the four creatures as they appear to him in a vision: As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of

6565-436: The fully human person, Jesus Christ; and the Holy Ghost refers to the manifestation of God's Spirit inside of and around His people. Thus the Father is not the Son – and this distinction is crucial – but is in the Son as the fullness of His divine nature. Traditional Trinitarians believe that the Son always existed as the eternal second person of the Trinity; Oneness adherents believe that the Son did not come into being until

6666-419: The future of humanity. The eagle represents the sky, heavens, and the human spirit, paralleling the divine nature of Christ. In their earliest appearances, the Evangelists were depicted in their human forms each with a scroll or a book to represent the Gospels. By the 5th century, images of the Evangelists evolved into their respective tetramorphs. By the later Middle Ages, the tetramorph in the form of creatures

6767-473: The genealogy of Jesus; the lion is John, because his Gospel begins full of confidence; the ox is Luke, because his Gospel begins with priestly sacrifice; and the eagle is Mark, because his Gospel begins with the prophecy of Isaiah. Irenaeus originates this connection between the four living creatures and the four evangelists because he is looking for an answer to the question "Why four Gospels?" 2nd scheme (most common)—Jerome The rationale given for this scheme

6868-512: The holy Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, And became man without change; You were also crucified, O Christ our God, And by death have trampled Death, Being one of the Holy Trinity, Glorified with the Father and the Holy Spirit— Save us! Additionally, the Divine Liturgy of Saint James includes this chant of " Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence " in its offertory : Let all mortal flesh be silent, and stand with fear and trembling, and meditate nothing earthly within itself:— For

6969-407: The incarnation, when the one and only true God took on human form for the first, last and only time in history. The Jehovah's Witnesses believe Jesus to be the only direct creation of God through whom God created everything else. His incarnation is considered to be temporary, after which Christ, accordingly, resumed his spiritual and angelic form. Christ is not seen as divine or co-equal with God

7070-409: The incarnation: the Son of God became a man so that he could save us from our sins. The former, on the other hand, speaks of the incarnation as a fulfilment of the love of God , of his desire to be present and living amidst humanity, to "walk in the garden" with us. Moltmann favours "fortuitous" incarnation primarily because he feels that to speak of an incarnation of "necessity" is to do an injustice to

7171-487: The inclusion of wings or human traits, such as hands in place of talons or the animal standing upright. The Evangelists and tetramorphs were highly featured in Ottonian manuscripts as the Gospel books, pericopes , and the Apocalypse were most popular. While they imitated the Byzantine artistic style, Carolingian illuminations consciously revived the early Christian style , and was much more elaborate than Celtic or Insular art. For most illuminated manuscript portraits,

7272-439: The infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of the dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn

7373-467: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write

7474-452: The lion to the left of the ox. These positions reflect the medieval great chain of being . The use of the tetramorph in architecture is most common in the decoration of Christian churches. On medieval churches, the symbols of the Evangelists are usually found above westerly-facing portals and in the eastern apse , particularly surrounding the enthroned figure of Christ in Glory in scenes of

7575-633: The lowly Servant, Ox; Matthew the Angel; and John the Eagle . In Christian art and iconography , Evangelist portraits are often accompanied by tetramorphs, or the symbols alone used to represent them. Evangelist portraits that depict them in their human forms are often accompanied by their symbolic creatures, and Christ in Majesty is often shown surrounded by the four symbols. Images of unions of different elements into one symbol were originally used by

7676-453: The man called Christ". Instead, he held that God "substantially dwells in the flesh of other men and creatures" rather than solely Christ. Servetus rejected Arianism because it denied Jesus' divinity so it is certain that he would have also rejected Socinianism as a form of Arianism which both rejects that Jesus is God, and, also that Jesus consciously existed before his birth, which most Arian groups accept. Fausto Sozzini and writers of

7777-576: The membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in the regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek

7878-441: The modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and

7979-399: The noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However, the morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks

8080-706: The older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from the 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as

8181-585: The oneness of the Godhead as symbolic of Their perfectly united characteristics and purpose, while yet acknowledging that they are three separate and distinct beings. To explain this divergence from Trinitarian oneness as literal rather than symbolic, Latter-day Saints commonly cite Christ's Intercessory Prayer in John 17:20-23, which reads: This conception of the Godhead differs from the Trinitarian view of

8282-528: The perfect man who came to save us, Jesus Saves; The Lion is John presents Jesus as the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit. The creatures of the tetramorph, as they appear in their animal forms, are predominantly shown as winged figures. The wings, an ancient symbol of divinity, represent the divinity of the Evangelists, the divine nature of Christ, and the virtues required for Christian salvation. In regards to

8383-434: The period were initially more comfortable with images of animals than humans, so in early Gospel Books the Evangelists were represented as tetramorphic symbols rather than portraits. Their preferences for abstract, geometric, and stylized art led to a lot of differences in portrayals of the tetramorphs. Celtic artists would paint the creatures in a relatively realistic fashion, or their divine nature would be emphasised through

8484-460: The power of the Holy Spirit, he was born of the Virgin Mary and became man." The Apostles' Creed includes the article of faith "He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary." According to Pope John Paul II , by his incarnation Jesus is a figure of and has united himself to every human being, including the unborn at the moment of their life at conception . Eventually,

8585-541: The predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation

8686-523: The prefix in- and caro , "flesh", meaning "to make into flesh" or, in the passive , "to be made flesh". The verb incarno does not occur in the Latin Bible but the term is drawn from the Gospel of John 1:14 " et Verbum caro factum est " ( Vulgate ), King James Version : "and the Word was made flesh" . Incarnation refers to the act of a pre-existent divine person, the Son of God, in becoming

8787-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of

8888-419: The teachings of Alexander, Athanasius , and the other Nicene Fathers that the Son was consubstantial and coeternal with the Father, were defined as orthodox dogma. All divergent beliefs were defined as heresies . This included Docetism , Arianism , Nestorianism , Monophysitism , Adoptionism , and Sabellianism . The most widely accepted definitions of the incarnation and the nature of Jesus were made by

8989-516: The tetramorph is the union of the symbols of the Four Evangelists , derived from the four living creatures in the Book of Ezekiel , into a single figure or, more commonly, a group of four figures. Each of the four Evangelists is associated with one of the living creatures, usually shown with wings. The most common association, but not the original or only, is: Mark the King, Lion ; Luke

9090-406: The two natures of Christ; some of them have been condemned traditionally as heretical. In A Kryptic Model of the Incarnation , Andrew Loke evaluates many of these attempts and suggests a possible Divine Preconscious Model (DPM) that postulates that at the Incarnation, Christ's mind included the divine conscious and the divine preconscious along with a human preconscious. The incarnation of Jesus

9191-447: The various stages of the Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to the extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than

9292-529: The vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in the early 19th century that was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between

9393-479: Was God, and then became man, and that to deify us" ), St Cyril of Alexandria ("For we too are sons and gods by grace, and we have surely been brought to this wonderful and supernatural dignity since we have the Only Begotten Word of God dwelling within us." ) and numerous others . The link between the incarnation and the atonement within systematic theology is complex. Within traditional models of

9494-574: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or

9595-568: Was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of

9696-557: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe

9797-406: Was at the same time both fully God and fully human. In the incarnation, as traditionally defined by those Churches that adhere to the Council of Chalcedon , the divine nature of the Son was united but not mixed with human nature in one divine person , Jesus. This is central to the traditional faith held by most Christians. Alternative views on the subject (see Ebionites and the Gospel of

9898-628: Was crucified for us. O Christ, our God, Who by Thy death trampled and slaughtered our death, Who are One of the Holy Trinity, worshipped and honored with the Father and the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us all. During the Reformation, Michael Servetus taught a theology of the incarnation that denied trinitarianism , insisting that classical trinitarians were essentially tritheists who had rejected Biblical monotheism in favor of Greek philosophy . The Son of God, Servetus asserted,

9999-580: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect

10100-407: Was used less frequently. Instead, the Evangelists were often shown in their human forms accompanied by their symbolic creatures, or as men with the heads of animals. In images where the creatures surround Christ, the winged man and the eagle are often depicted at Christ's sides, with the lion and the ox positioned lower by his feet, with the man on Christ's right, taking precedence over the eagle, and

10201-673: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage

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