Orthodox icon gallery

korg · Feb 20, 2026

HindutvaKing said:
...NOT!
Sepphoris was her family's hometown, so she would have stayed there. It was the capital of Galilee, a regular hub that her family passed through, which would explain Joseph's trade connections.
Where's the historical evidence that Mary wasn't in Sepphoris? If you're going to pull out the historical evidence card, where's the evidence she was even from Nazareth?

All sources I've find stated that Panthera's unit was in Judea around the time. All sources I've found state that Panthera was atleast Semitic of some sort.

>It appears this First Cohort of Archers moved from Palestine to Dalmatia in 6 AD, and to the Rhine in 9 AD. Pantera came from Sidon, on the coast of Phoenicia just west of Galilee, presumably enlisted locally. He served in the army for 40 years until some time in the reign of Tiberius. On discharge he would have been granted citizenship by the Emperor (and been granted freedom if he had formerly been a slave), and added the Emperor’s name to his own. Tiberius ruled from 14 AD to 37 AD. Pantera’s 40 years of service would therefore have started between 27 BC and 4 BC.

>As Pantera would probably have been about 18 when he enlisted, it means he was likely born between 45 BC and 22 BC. He could have been as old as 38 or as young as 15 at the time of Jesus’ conception in the summer of 7 BC.

>In 6 AD when Jesus was 12, Judas of Galilee led a popular uprising that captured Sepphoris, the capital of Galilee. The uprising was crushed by the Romans some four miles north of Nazareth. It is possible (and appealing to lovers of historical irony) that Pantera and Joseph fought on opposite sides. As Joseph is never heard of again he may well have been killed in the battle, or have been among the 2,000 Jewish rebels crucified afterwards.

>So Tiberius Iulius Abdes Pantera is indeed a possibility as Jesus’ father. The only thing we know for certain is that Mary’s husband Joseph wasn’t the father, and that Mary was already pregnant when they married. It could have been rape, or Mary may have been a wild young teen who fell for a handsome man in a uniform, even if he was part of an occupying army. It happens.

Most biblical scholars, even if they don't think Panthera was Jesus's father, think that he was a distant paternal relative of sometime, perhaps Joseph's cousin.

1) The assumption that Mary was located in Sepphoris places the burden of proof on those who say otherwise. There is no 1st-century source which locates Mary in Sepphoris or identifies Sepphoris as her family's home town; instead, the earliest traditions, such as the Gospel of Matthew and Gospel of Luke, locate her in Nazareth. The fact that there is no evidence she did not live in Sepphoris is not sufficient evidence that she did.

2) Although Sepphoris would be an important city during the time of Herod Antipas, simply because Sepphoris was located near the place where Joseph's family may have lived does not mean they resided in Sepphoris. Many people lived in nearby villages for many generations without ever residing in the city capital. As stated before, no ancient source indicates Mary's family had any connection to Sepphoris. Therefore, this is a case of "what would make sense" rather than documented history.

3) Even if Pantera's military unit (cohort) were active in Judea or Syria, it does not follow that Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera was in Sepphoris in 4 B.C.E. or that he even met Mary. Military units are mobile and, therefore, there is no way to document where any member of a unit was stationed at any particular time. Being present in a region does not provide evidence of being involved in the life of an individual.

4) The idea that Joseph was killed in a revolt led by Judas of Galilee is purely speculative and has no basis in any historical record. There is no record of Joseph participating in rebellion, or being executed by crucifixion, and no documentation exists which placed Pantera in that revolt. This is an imaginative addition to the historical record, not actual history.

5) There is no scholarly agreement among mainstream scholars that Pantera was a relative of Jesus or Joseph. The assertion that Pantera was related to the family of Jesus is found in 2nd-century polemical writings against Christianity preserved through the writings of Origen and Celsus. Pantera's tombstone is a genuine artifact of antiquity, however, no evidence exists which links Pantera to Jesus' family.

6) In general, your argument attempts to stack up possible scenarios and treat them as probabilities. We have the earlier Christian accounts and the later hostile counter-accounts, but there is no contemporary account which links Mary, Sepphoris, and Pantera together. The theory remains speculation and not established history.

korg · Feb 20, 2026

LesothoSoldier1488 · Feb 20, 2026

This one's a bit disturbing

PuertoRican · Feb 22, 2026

Idkchud said:
most of these seem pretty old any shit newer?

I think that in being ancient, iconography is very beautiful and important

PuertoRican · Feb 22, 2026

73 said:
Lived in a mostly catholic town for more then a decade and I have almost never seen any icons irl, hecking crazy

In Catholicism, icon and image are synonyms and can be either statues, carvings or paintings. Byzantine style icons are not as common because historically in the west statues have been more common. I do own a handpainted icon from Ethiopia but I got that from overseas.

PuertoRican · Feb 22, 2026

korg said:
they don't mean submit to rome as in become romans, they mean submit to the papacy which is based in rome
still hate caca who say that though

As a Catholic it does make me cringe to read that and I do not say that, because you will never convert or convince anyone by saying that and it just comes off as smug

korg · Feb 22, 2026

PuertoRican said:
As a Catholic it does make me cringe to read that and I do not say that, because you will never convert or convince anyone by saying that and it just comes off as smug

exactly, just as me saying "begome orthodox" wouldn't work

PuertoRican · Feb 22, 2026

korg said:
exactly, just as me saying "begome orthodox" wouldn't work

Yeah, pretty much that. By the way, the icons in this thread are beautiful.

PuertoRican · Feb 22, 2026

PuertoRican said:
In Catholicism, icon and image are synonyms and can be either statues, carvings or paintings. Byzantine style icons are not as common because historically in the west statues have been more common. I do own a handpainted icon from Ethiopia but I got that from overseas.

Expanding on this I said yesterday, examples of this can be seen in, for example, what has been written by King Alfonso X de Castilla y León, who was a very well read Catholic king from Spain, in the 1200s and his court. In one of his collections there is a story told of a siege in Constantinople that happened hundreds of years before. It tells that the moors went to siege it with many ships and cut the water supply. In the city there was a beautiful image of the Glorious Virgin that was painted by St. Luke before the Virgin died, in order to destroy that sect of the Jews and of the devil that always tries to trick us. A knight who believed much in the Virgin told the people of the town to lift the image before the sea. The people did so and prayed while lifting the image, and then the ships of the moors all sunk to the bottom, causing the invaders to drown.
In that same collection another story with the refrain "As is great the belief of the man who doesn't see yet believes, as such is a bad believer he who doesn't believe in what he sees." tells of a king that was happily bringing a wooden image of the Virgin Holy Mary, and a false friar that didn't believe in God started talking behind the king's back, unaware that the king was hearing him. Once the friar said "I think that this king believes in idols" the king had enough and reprimanded the false friar saying "I think this friar is crazy, false and daring, and that he is lost. From now on his life will not go as he wants and the Virgin will not want him to succeed." And what the king said then happened to the false friar.
Both instances cover different kinds of images from different areas (A painted byzantine icon and a wooden image from the west) yet both are just referred to as images and treated with due respect. There's plenty of other instances of these stories in that collection such as one where a woman is praying before a statue in France and a gambler calls her an old woman and calls the image an idol, throws a rock at it and then the gambler dies, but these are two that I think well encapsulate all this.