"There Shall Be Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth" Depicted in a 14th Century Fresco

14th century fresco in the Narthex of the Church of Panagia Forviotissa (more popularly known as Panagia Asinou) in Cyprus

"So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 13:49-50).

"For whereas He Himself is the sower, and that of His own field, and out of His own kingdom He gathers, it is quite clear that the present world also is His. But mark His unspeakable love to man, and His leaning to bounty, and His disinclination to punishment; in that, when He sows, He sows in His own person, but when He punishes, it is by others, that is, by the angels... For lest, on being told, 'They cast the bad away,' you should suppose that ruin to be without danger; by His interpretation He signified the punishment, saying, 'They will cast them into the furnace.' And He declared the gnashing of teeth, and the anguish, that it is unspeakable" (St. John Chrysostom)

 

Orthodox Iconography as an Eschatological Art

By Steven Bigham

For Christians, eschatological “time” and “space” are our time and our space transfigured by the glory of Christ. We use quotation marks to speak of time and space for the following reason: since our words describe the reality of our world, they lose some of the relevance when we try to talk about what goes beyond our experience of the world. This is why poetry, parables, and image language are better suited for talking about the end time than discursive, rational, scientific language. All the eschatological passages of the Bible, especially those of Daniel and Revelations, use verbal imagery that seems, to our far-too-earthly eyes, very close to pure fantasy.

We can easily see that every word that tries to express the reality of the Kingdom of God must necessarily be deformed and stretched toward imagery so as to perceive “through a mirror dimly” (1Cor.13:12) that which we only know by foretaste. The same conditions apply to the icon but are expressed in a different manner: the icon has the task of representing, making visible, people and events in the light of the Kingdom of God. Such persons lived, such events took place in history, our history, according to the conditions that govern our existence, but they allow us to glimpse a reality which is not ruled by those conditions. Iconography, therefore, must use material and techniques that belong to our world (colors, lines, brushes, little colored stones, etc.) to show forth the Kingdom of God. The icon’s relation with the word is once again brought out: What poetry and parables are to the ear, iconography is to the eye.

The Second Coming of Christ on Mount Athos

The beautiful and detailed icon above is titled "The Second Coming of Christ on the Holy Mountain" and was painted by Elder Panteleimon of Kavsokalyva.

It depicts the future Judgement Day when the Lord will sit in judgment. Behind Him is Mount Athos, with the ladder of divine ascent leading to heaven, where the Theotokos stands on a cloud interceding. On the right and left of Christ are the resurrected monks brought to judgement, the righteous of whom stand at His right hand, having the Theotokos as their advocate. On the left hand is the lake of fire, prepared for the damned.

A Rare Icon from 1500 Kerkyra titled "Allegory of the Jerusalem Above"

The icon above is called "Holy Zion" by the brotherhood of the Holy Monastery of Saint Athanasios in Kerkyra, and is a copy of a portion from the icon below called "Allegory of the Jerusalem Above", which dates to 1500 and is also located in Kerkyra, in the Holy monastery of the Most Holy Theotokos the Platytera.