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Easter Icons

From a 13th Century Syriac Bible, Al-Za'faran Monastery - Turkey

                       
Feet Washing      Crucifixion         Resurrection

Other Syriac Icons

Feet Washing

This  Syriac icon that portrays Jesus washing the feet of one of his disciples.   Strangely four of the disciples who are standing are performing a certain gesture, where one is holding his nose, the other is covering his nose with a piece of cloth, while the other two are almost moving their hands to do the same.I don’t know if this implies that the person whose feet were being washed had smelly feet or not!  But that might have been the case, or at least that was what the artist thought then!

Pentecost & its Roots

           
Pentecost           King Ashurnasirpal

One of the famous traditions that the Syriac speaking churches practice to this date, is the day of Pentecost, A.K.A. (Also-Known-As) Nusardil or Rashash, (the sprinkling of water).

The Pentecost icon (to the left hand side) depicts the disciples of Jesus being showered with rays from the Holy Spirit depicted as a dove in the top center of the picture.  Also notice that some of the disciples are extending the index finger in a pointing posture.  What makes this icon interesting is that the pointing of the index finger has an ancient Assyrian religious significant that dates to pre-Christianity.  

To this date the Syriac Orthodox Church (A.K.A. Assyrian Orthodox Church) when they celebrate the mass commemorating the day of Pentecost, at one point of the ceremony all clergymen kneel down around the altar in a semicircular position, starting with the highest ranking clergyman closest to the altar, and the rest behind him with each row of descending ranks until they reach the altar boys as the final row.  Then each person starts taping at the shoulder of the person in front of him with his index finger, all through that segment of the prayers.  It is believed that the holy spirit emits its rays from the altar to the clergymen (representing the disciples) in a cascading way from the highest ranking to the lowest ranking person.

Now let us compare this tradition with an ancient Assyrian one, namely the picture of King Ashurnasirpal (to the right hand side) which is taken from his throne room, (only half of the picture is shown here, the remaining part of the picture is symmetrical).

Notice how similar those two pictures are:

1. The winged Solar Disk of Ashur, is at the center of the picture of King Ashurnasirpal, was replaced with a Dove representing the Holy Spirit in Christianity.
   
   
2. King Ashurnasirpal is pointing with his index finger, similarly some of the disciples of Jesus are pointing with their index fingers too, additionally the tradition of tapping with the index finger is still practiced to this date by the Assyrian Orthodox Church during the Pentecost ceremony.
   
   
3. Notice that at the bottom center of the Pentecost icon there is a shape that is identical to the Assyrian tree of life depicted in the picture of King Ashurnasirpal, even some of the decoration inside it is similar.
   
   
4. It is interesting to mention here that in most ancient Assyrian depictions of the Solar winged disk of Ashur and the tree of life, they used to show rays descending down from the winged solar disk of Ashur to the tree of life.  The same concept is depicted by the rays emitting from the dove representing the Holy Spirit in the Pentecost icon.
   
   
5. This feast is associated with the sprinkling of water, and in fact (to this date) during the church ceremony, the priest goes around from one end of the church to the other end, dipping plants in a bucket of water and shaking it at the congregation, which results in sprinkling them with water.  After the mass is over and people leave the church, some people go to the extreme by splashing water at each other and getting themselves soaking wet.  Now going back to the picture of King Ashurnasirpal, we see that the angel standing next to him, is carrying a water bucket with one hand and a plant in another, which he dips in the bucket of water and sprinkles at the king and the tree, similar to what the priest does at church during the Pentecost ceremony.

Ascension & its Roots

                                                           
Ascension of Jesus       Assyrian Winged Bull    Winged Disk of Ashur           King Sargon

If you look closely at the center of the icon and below the picture of Jesus you will see (from left to right), the head of a Lion, the head of a Man, the head of an Eagle, and below them the head of a Bull.  Those were the symbols of the four gospels: 

Those four symbols were combined together in the Assyrian Winged Bull that became the symbol of Christianity since the four gospels are the foundations of Christianity (see above picture of Assyrian Winged Bull).

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Copyright © 2000 Hanna Hajjar
Last modified: December 12, 2005