Epiphanius of Salamis: source notes

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Topic: icons

See icons reasoning.

ICO S1: Letter to John of Jerusalem, in Jerome Letter 51.9

• Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3001051.htm
• Text: “It bore an image either of Christ or of one of the saints … Seeing this, and being loth that an image of a man should be hung up in Christ’s church contrary to the teaching of the Scriptures, I tore it asunder”.
• Context: Late 4th century. Epiphanius objects to images in churches, and the custodians “murmured”, which shows that images were already in use. The letter survives in Jerome’s Latin (Jerome, Ep. 51; New Advent). Iconoclastic writers used Epiphanius; iconophiles disputed the authenticity of iconoclastic Epiphanius fragments (including this curtain episode). Modern scholarship is divided: Steven Bigham, Epiphanius of Salamis, Doctor of Iconoclasm? (Rollinsford, NH: Orthodox Research Institute, 2008) argues the iconoclastic corpus is inauthentic; other studies defend authenticity of the postscript. This note does not settle the authorship question; it records the dispute and quotes the transmitted Latin.
• Bears on: I1, I3
• Status: verified (English; authenticity disputed—noted, not overclaimed)