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Christ Pantokrator mosaic from Daphni, Greece, ca. 1080-1100

Pantocrator or Pantokrator (from the Greek Παντοκράτωρ) is one of many titles ascribed to the Divine. When the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek as the Septuagint, Pantokrator was used to translate the Hebrew title El Shaddai. Early Christians ascribed this title to Jesus of Nazareth.

Meaning

The most common translation of Pantocrator is "Almighty" or "All-powerful." In this understanding, Pantokrator is a compound word formed from the Greek words for "all" and the noun "strength" (κρατος). This is often understood in terms of potential power; i.e., able to do anything, or omnipotent.

Another, less literal translation is "Ruler of All" or "Sustainer of the World." In this understanding, Pantokrator is a compound word formed from the Greek for "all" and the verb meaning "To accomplish something" or "to sustain something" (κρατεω). This translation speaks more to God's actual power; i.e., God does everything (as opposed to God can do everything).

The Pantokrator, largely a Byzantine or Eastern Orthodox theological issue is by that name largely unknown to Roman Catholicism and most Protestants. In the West the equivalent image is known as Christ in Majesty, which developed a rather different iconography. Pantokrator is roughly synonymous with the western concept of omnipotence. But omnipotence is power in stasis while the power of the Pantokrator is dynamic.

Uses in the New Testament

In quoting the Septuagint, Paul uses Pantokrator once (2 Cor. 6:18). Aside from that one occurrence, the author of the Book of Revelation is the only New Testament author to use the word Pantokrator. The author of Revelation uses the word nine times,^[1] and while the references to God and Christ in Revelation are at times interchangeable, Pantokrator appears to be reserved for God alone.

Use by early Christians

The primary transference of the title "Pantokrator" to refer to Christ rather than the Creator was a result of the Christological shift that occurred during the fourth century, reflected through iconography; Christ Pantocrator and has come to suggest Christ as a mild but stern, all-powerful judge of humanity.

The icon of Christ Pantokrator is one of the most widely used religious images of Orthodox Christianity, though the earliest remaining examples of the subject are all in Italy. Generally speaking, in Byzantine church art and architecture, an icon of Christ Pantokrator occupies the space in the central dome of the church, or simply on the ceiling, over the nave. Some scholars (Latourette 1975: 572) consider the Pantocrator a Christian adaptation of images of Zeus, such as the great statue of Zeus enthroned at Olympia. The development of the earliest stages of the icon from Roman Imperial imagery is easier to trace.^{[2] [3]}

The icon, traditionally half-length when in a semi-dome^[4], which became adopted for panel icons also, depicts Christ fully frontal with a somewhat melancholy and stern aspect, with the right hand raised in blessing, or in the early encaustic panel at St. Catherine's, the conventional rhetorical gesture that represents teaching. The other holding a closed book with a richly decorated cover featuring the Cross, representing the Gospels. An icon where Christ has an open book is called "Christ the Teacher", a variant of the Pantocrator. Christ's brown hair is centrally parted, and his head is surrounded by a halo. The icon is usually shown against a gold background comparable to the gilded gropunds of mosaic depictions of Christ or of the Christian emperors.

In some variants, on each side of the halo are Greek letters: IC and XC. Christ's fingers are depicted in a pose that represents the letters IC, X and C, thereby making the Christogram ICXC (for "Jesus Christ").

The usual Western Christ in Majesty is full-length icon and in the early Middle Ages usually shows Christ in a mandorla or other geometric frame, surrounded by the Four Evangelists or their symbols.

Icons of Christ Pantocrator

The iconic image of Christ Pantocrator ("Christ, Ruler of All") was one of the first images of Christ developed in the Early Christian Church and remains a central icon of the Eastern Orthodox Church. In the half-length image, Christ holds the New Testament in his left hand and makes the gesture of teaching or of blessing with his right.

The oldest known surviving example of the icon of Christ Pantocrator (illustration, right) was painted in encaustic on panel in the sixth or seventh century, and survived the period of destruction of images during the Iconoclastic disputes that racked the Eastern church, 726 to 787 and 814 to 842, by being preserved in the remote desert of the Sinai, in Saint Catherine's Monastery.^[5] The gessoed panel, finely painted using a wax medium on a wooden panel, had been coarsely overpainted around the face and hands at some time around the thirteenth century. It was only when the overpainting was cleaned in 1962 that the ancient image was revealed to be a very high quality icon, probably produced in Constantinople. The subtlety, immediacy and realism of the image are immediately apparent, when the image is compared to any of the more familiar stiffened and hieratic icons— following the same model (illustration, top right)— that were painted after iconoclasm had been decisively rejected. Christ here is Christ the Teacher: the gesture of Christ's right hand is not the gesture of blessing, but the orator's gesture; the identical gesture is to be seen in a panel from an ivory diptych of an enthroned vice-prefect, a Rufius Probianus, ca 400, of which Peter Brown remarks, "With his hand he makes the 'orator's gesture' which indicates that he is speaking, or that he has the right to speak."^[6]

See also

• Salvator Mundi
• Christ the Redeemer
• Images of Jesus
• Transfiguration of Jesus

Notes

References

• Latourette, Kenneth Scott, 1975. A History of Christianity, Volume 1, "Beginnings to 1500". Revised edition. (San Francisco: Harper Collins)
• Christopher Schonborn, Lothar Kraugh (tr.) 1994. God's Human Face: The Christ Icon. Originally published as Icôn du Christ: Fondements théologiques élaborés entre le Ie et IIe Conciles de Nicée (Fribourg) 1976

External links

• Orthodox Iconography by Elias Damianakis
• Monastery of Christ Pantocrator, Constantinople, founded by Emperor John II Comnenus (1118-1143)
• Galavaris, George (Jan 1, 1981). The Icon in the Life of the Church, 11. Google Print. ISBN 90-04-06402-8 (accessed November 3, 2005). Also available in print from Brill Academic Publishers.
• The Christ Pantocrator Icon at St. Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai

Further reading

• Chatzidakis, Manolis, (Gerry Walters, tr.) "An Encaustic Icon of Christ at Sinai" The Art Bulletin 49.3 (September 1967), pp. 197-208.