{"id":996,"date":"2021-06-25T04:33:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-25T04:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=996"},"modified":"2025-09-28T00:54:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T00:54:15","slug":"the-reason-john-the-baptist-has-wings-in-orthodox-icons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=996","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;The reason John the Baptist has wings in Orthodox icons&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Who knew? As opposed to showing him without his head &#8230; Off the Catholic website<a href=\"https:\/\/aleteia.org\/\"> Aleteia<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/aleteia.org\/2018\/02\/24\/the-reason-john-the-baptist-has-wings-in-orthodox-icons\/?utm_campaign=NL_en&amp;utm_content=NL_en&amp;utm_medium=mail&amp;utm_source=daily_newsletter\">In most Christian traditions, St. John the Baptist is also known as the \u201clast prophet of the Old Testament,\u201d the \u201cforerunner of Christ,\u201d or the \u201cglorious prophet.\u201d Typologically related to the prophet Elijah, the Baptist is represented as having wings, presenting him as a divine messenger.In Greek, evangelos (from which we get the words \u201cangel\u201d and \u201cevangelist\u201d) literally means \u201cgood messenger,\u201d \u201cthe bearer of good news.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"450\" height=\"225\" src=\"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/6a00d834525a2f69e20282e10b1b34200b-450wi.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11190\" title=\"John the baptist wings\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/6a00d834525a2f69e20282e10b1b34200b-450wi.jpg 450w, https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/6a00d834525a2f69e20282e10b1b34200b-450wi-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But, if this is the case, <strong>why aren\u2019t other divine messengers represented with angelic wings? Shouldn\u2019t this apply also to the Apostles and other prophets of the Old Testament?<\/strong> The answer, according to <em><a href=\"https:\/\/iconreader.wordpress.com\/2013\/08\/29\/why-does-john-the-baptist-have-wings-in-orthodox-icons\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">A Reader\u2019s Guide to Orthodox Icons<\/a><\/em>, lies in the Gospels themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Gospels of both Luke (7:28) and Matthew (11:11), Christ explicitly says &nbsp;that \u201camong those born of women there is no one greater than John.\u201d A liturgical hymn sung on the feast of the Baptist\u2019s nativity proclaims John is \u201cthe culmination and the crown of the prophets.\u201d <strong>He is understood as holding a special place among the saints: he is a heavenly man, described as the \u201cAngel of the Desert\u201d (that is, the \u201cmessenger\u201d in the wilderness).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Baptist\u2019s life in the desert, according to tradition, <strong>was \u201cangelic\u201d for two main reasons<\/strong>. One of them is quite self-evident: <strong>as he proclaimed the coming of the Messiah, he became a messenger of God, a \u201cherald,\u201d just like the angels<\/strong>. But also, the Baptist is <strong>the prototype of monastic life<\/strong>: he lived a life of prayer, abstinence and chastity, disregarding material needs. <strong>This has been often referred to as an \u201cangelic\u201d life, and that\u2019s the reason the Baptist is the patron saint of hermits.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who knew? As opposed to showing him without his head &#8230; Off the Catholic website Aleteia. In most Christian traditions, St. John the Baptist is also known as the \u201clast prophet of the Old Testament,\u201d the \u201cforerunner of Christ,\u201d or the \u201cglorious prophet.\u201d Typologically related to the prophet Elijah, the Baptist is represented as having [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=996"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11191,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996\/revisions\/11191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}