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This is an online version of a handout I created for my weekly Education for Ministry seminar at Elmwood Correctional Facility (County Jail – in Milpitas, California). The students in EfM Year 1 (the Hebrew Bible) were reading Genesis 1:27 “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Here are 21 varied images of God, dated from 527 – 2017, plus Bible verses describing God, for class discussion.
Update June 2002: Trinity – Images of God (7 June 2020 Prelude) – images in this post were used in St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church – Trinity Sunday service. Update 22 October 2021, fixed broken link.
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List of Pictures:
| Description | More Information | Image Source |
| 1. Lamb of God (Jesus Christ) – mosaic in the presbytery, Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy (527 CE) | Basilica of San Vitale | Basilica of San Vitale – Lamb of God mosaic |
| 2. God in Heaven – mosaic in the apse, Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy (527 CE) | Basilica of San Vitale | Vault_mosaic_-_San_Vitale_-_Ravenna_2016 |
| 3. Christ Pantocrator – All Powerful – mosaic, chapel of San Zeno, Rome, Italy (822) | Santa Prassede | Mosaic of the vault of the chapel of San Zeno (IX century) |
| 4. God as Architect of the Universe – Frontispiece of Bible Moralisee, Paris, France (1230) | Bible moralisée | God the Geometer |
| 5. God the Father – painting by Giotto, Florence, Italy (1330) | Giotto | God the Father with Angels |
| 6. Ghent Altarpiece (detail) – painting by Hubert and Jan van Eyck, Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium (1432) | Ghent Altarpiece | Retable de l’Agneau mystique (Altarpiece of the Mystical Lamb) |
| 7. The Creation of the Heavenly Bodies (detail) – painting by Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, Sistine Chapel, Rome, Italy (1512) | Michelangelo | Sistine Chapel: Creation of the universe |
| 8. God the Father – painting by Cima Da Conegliano, Venice, Italy (1517) | Cima da Conegliano | Cima da Conegliano, God the Father |
| 9. God the Father – painting by Ludovico Mazzolino, Ferrara, Italy (1520) | Ludovico Mazzolino | Ludovico_Mazzolino_-_God_the_Father |
| 10. God the Father – painting by Girolamo dai Libri, Verona, Italy (1555) | Girolamo dai Libri | God_the_Father_with_His_Right_Hand_Raised_in_Blessing |
| 11. Picture Bible “Die Bibel in Bildern” (detail) – engraving by Julius Schnorr (1860) | Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld | Schnorr_von_Carolsfeld_Bibel_in_Bildern |
| 12. Holy Lord Sabaoth – Russian Icon (date?) | Russian icons | Holy Lord Saboath |
| 13. Kakure Kirishitan Heaven – scroll painting, Ikitsuki Island, Nagasaki, Japan (date?) | Kakure Kirishitan | The Hidden Christians (at Ikitsuki Museum, Nagasaki, Japan) |
| 14. God as Mother Hen – Dominus Flevit Church, Jerusalem, Israel (1955) | Dominus Flevit Church | Mosaic_Art_at_Dominus_Flevit |
| 15. God as Dove (Holy Spirit) – stained glass by James Scanlan, Cathedral of St. Mary & St. Anne, Cork, Ireland (1990) | Catholic Cathedral of St. Mary & St. Anne | Stained Glass at the Cathedral of St. Mary & St. Anne |
| 16. Father (and Holy Spirit) – stained glass at St. Virgil Church, in Morris Plains, New Jersey USA (contemporary, date?) | St. Virgil Parish | Top Panel, Stained Glass wall depicting Ascension of Jesus |
| 17. George Burns as God, from movies “Oh, God!” (1977), and “Oh, God, Book II” (1980) | Oh, God! | Classics of the Corn |
| 18. Alanis Morissette as God, from movies “Dogma” (1999), and “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” (2001) | Dogma (film) | View Askewniverse Wiki: God |
| 19. Morgan Freeman as God, from movies “Bruce Almighty” (2003), and “Evan Almighty” (2007) | Evan Almighty | Evan Almighty Morgan Freeman as God |
| 20. Ethiopian Orthodox Trinity – painted hide (2014) | Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church | Picture by Katy Dickinson – Painted icon purchased in Ethiopia 2016. Icon Pictures and More Icon Pictures |
| 21. “The Shack” – movie (2017) | The Shack | “The Shack – A Film Review,” Formed Faith, 20 June 2017 |
Pictures of God:
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Images of God in the Bible (Selected):
Beasts
- 1 Bear: “I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps” Hosea 13:8
- 2 Lamb: “This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing. The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, ‘Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’” John 1:28-29
- 3 Moth: “Like a moth you eat away all that is dear to us.” Psalm 39:12
Birds
- 4 Eagle: “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” Exodus 19:4
- 5 Eagle: “He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft.” Deuteronomy 32:10-11
- 6 Bird: “Hide me under the shadow of your wings.” Psalm 17:8
- 7 Bird: “Let me abide in your tent forever, find refuge under the shelter of your wings.” Psalm 61:4
- 8 Bird: “For you have been my helper, and under the shadow of your wings I will rejoice.” Psalm 63:7
- 9 Bird: “He shall cover you with his pinions, and you shall find refuge under his wings.” Psalm 91:4
- 10 Dove: “And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.” Matthew 3:16
- 11 Hen: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”
Luke 13:34 and also Matthew 23:37
Woman
- 12 “You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.” Deuteronomy 32:18
- 13 “From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who has given birth to the hoarfrost of heaven?” Job 38:29
- 14 “Yet it was you who took me from the womb; you kept me safe on my mother’s breast.” (God as a midwife) Psalm 22:9
- 15 “As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he has mercy upon us.” Psalm 123:2
- 16 “But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.” Psalm 131:2
- 17 “For a long time I have held my peace, I have kept myself still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor, I will gasp and pant.” Isaiah 42:14
- 18 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.” Isaiah 49:15
- 19 “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.” Isaiah 66:13
- 20 “Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them.” Hosea 11:3-4
Fire and Clouds
- 21 “The Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night.” Exodus has seven mentions, in: 13:21-21 through 33:10
- 22 “They have heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people; for you, O Lord, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them and you go in front of them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.” Numbers 14:14
- 23 “The Lord appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud; the pillar of cloud stood at the entrance to the tent.” Deuteronomy 31:15
- 24 “You led them by day with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire, to give them light on the way in which they should go.” Nehemiah 9:12 and 9:19
- 24 “He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; they kept his decrees, and the statutes that he gave them.”Psalm 99:7
See linked pages for individual image copyrights.
Image links updated from time to time. Additional text added 8 June 2020.
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