What about images of the Father and the Trinity?
A portrait claim and a scriptural symbolic manifestation are different. The Son alone became incarnate.
Key points
- If icons are justified by the Incarnation, why do churches show the Father as an old man or depict invisible angels and the Spirit?
- Do not suggest that an old man is what the Father's divine nature looks like. The invisible God is not a bodily organism.
- Scripture supplies visible manifestations and symbolic imagery, including angels and the Spirit's appearance as a dove. These require explanation rather than literalizing the symbols.
- Orthodox traditions have disputed and regulated images of the Father and 'New Testament Trinity' compositions. Identify which image and which later ruling is being discussed.
- Do not attribute every later restriction to Nicaea II's dogmatic decree. The Hospitality of Abraham also has interpretive history; a three-angel composition is not proof that all three persons became incarnate.