The Icon of the God-bearer “The Burning Bush” #
The tradition of venerating the icon of the Most Holy God-bearer known as “The Burning Bush” (Neopalimaya Kupina) traces its origin to the ancient divine manifestation described in the biblical Book of Exodus. Moses, who was destined to become the prophet and lawgiver of the Hebrew people, spent the middle years of his life in the land of Midian, tending the flocks of his father-in-law Jethro, a priest of Midian. One day, while in a desolate place on the slopes of Mount Horeb (also known as Sinai), Moses beheld a thorn bush (kupina in Church Slavonic), a common desert plant, engulfed in flames but not consumed. Moses approached to understand the cause of this strange phenomenon. “And God called unto him out of the midst of the bush,” the Bible continues, “and said, Moses, Moses! And he said, Here am I. And God said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover, He said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God” (Ex. 3:4–6).
The Lord told Moses that He willed to deliver the Israelites from Egyptian slavery and to bring them into the land of Canaan, “a good and spacious land, flowing with milk and honey.” He also declared that He had chosen Moses to lead His people out of Egypt. Moses, however, hesitated and asked God: “Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, ‘The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you,’ and they shall say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say unto them?” To this God replied, “I AM THAT I AM.” And He said, “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel: ‘I AM hath sent me unto you’” (Ex. 3:13–14). “I AM” (ho ōn) means the eternally unchanging One. In this name lies the foundation for the Church’s dogma of the consubstantiality of the persons of the Trinity: the common power and glory of the Trinity—as well as the power and glory of each of Its hypostases, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—is eternal and unchanging.
Theologians of Christ’s Church have long taught that it was specifically the Son of God, the Divine Word, consubstantial and co-eternal with the Father, who appeared in the fire of the bush. The manifestation of God in the burning yet unconsumed bush is understood by the Holy Fathers as a prophetic image of the Incarnation—the mysterious and incomprehensible union of divinity with humanity in the one person of the Lord Jesus.
“…As fire is unbearable to thorns, so too is the Godhead to humanity,” writes St. Cyril of Alexandria. “Yet in Christ it became bearable, ‘for in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,’ as the wise Paul testified (Col. 2:9). […] That is, God indwelt in the temple of the Virgin, having condescended to marvelous gentleness, as though tempering the invincible might of His nature, to become accessible to us” (Glaphyra, or Explanations on Selected Passages from Exodus).
“…By this we are also taught the mystery revealed in the Virgin,” says St. Gregory of Nyssa, “from whom, at His birth, the Light of Divinity shone forth, and preserved the burning bush unconsumed—so that even after birth the stem of virginity withered not” (On the Life of Moses).
The Burning Bush, understood as a prophetic revelation of the mystery of the Most Holy God-bearer, inspired Church hymnographers, especially St. John of Damascus:
“The shadow of the law hath passed away with the coming of grace: for as the bush burned but was not consumed, so hath the Virgin borne a child and remained a virgin. In place of the pillar of fire, the Righteous Sun hath shone forth; in place of Moses, Christ, for the salvation of our souls” (Dogmatikon of Tone 2).
That the voice of God commanded Moses to remove his sandals as a sign of reverence, John of Damascus applies to the defense of the veneration of holy icons. If even the ground before the image of the Mother of God—the Burning Bush—was so holy as to demand reverence, he writes, then how much more worthy of veneration is the icon itself?
These patristic theological interpretations, along with liturgical hymns, inspired iconographers to create a particular icon of the Most Holy God-bearer that expresses her veneration as the dwelling place of the uncontainable Fire—God the Word. Thus, the image of the Mother of God with the Christ Child in this icon is placed within symbolic diamond-shaped representations of the ranks of angels surrounding the divine Throne. (The same arrangement is found in icons of the Lord Sabaoth and of Christ entitled “Savior in Power”.)
At the points and intersections of these diamonds are depicted symbols of the four Evangelists, figures of angels governing the elements, and in the corners of the icon’s ark (frame) appear symbolic images of the Virgin drawn from the Scriptures: Jacob’s ladder from his vision, the sealed gate seen by Ezekiel, the tongs with the burning coal that cleansed Isaiah’s lips, and others.
Although depictions of the “Burning Bush” and the prophet Moses venerating it existed from ancient times, the icon as we have described it here took shape no earlier than the 16th century in Russia. In the Psalter with Follow-up Services, published under Patriarch Joseph, a service titled “Office of the Holy Bush” was printed—said to be taken from a monastery on Mount Sinai. (This monastery, founded in the 6th century by the pious Emperor Justinian on the very site of the bush’s manifestation, exists to this day.) And although the text of the service does not explicitly mention an icon of that name, it became customary to serve this office specifically before the icon, to which the faithful ascribe grace for protection against fire and lightning.
Nevertheless, it is beyond doubt that the veneration of the image of our Protectress, the Mother of our Savior, must not be purely utilitarian. We do not pray before her various icons merely because, for example, the Kazan icon is believed to grant healing from blindness, or the Tikhvin icon to preserve the health of infants, and so on. Whatever image of the Virgin is before our eyes—or even when we pray to Her without any image—our prayer should include, first, thanksgiving to the Sovereign Lady for bearing our Savior in her most pure womb, and for her mercies to the Christian people; and second, it should teach us to imitate her virtues to the extent of our strength—especially her obedience to the will of God. “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word,” said the young Mary to the angelic messenger, and with these words, the Word of God descended into her virginal womb, to be born into the world for our salvation. Let these words be ever on our lips and in our hearts, and be made manifest in our actions. Then, all the circumstances, sorrows, and trials of this life will become beneficial to us and lead us to the highest good—the life of the age to come, where we shall be with the saints, the most pure God-bearer, and God Himself.
Tropar, Tone 1
Thou who in the fire didst show unto Moses Thy coming in the flesh upon the earth, Thou who didst prefigure the law of priesthood in Aaron through the image of the rod— O Benefactor, her who gave Thee birth, by her prayers, O Christ our God, do Thou make peaceful our life, for Thou lovest mankind.
Kondak, Tone 8
Let us also be inwardly purified by the Spirit divine, and in faith let us ascend unto Mount Sinai, that we may there behold the Bush bearing fire— prefiguring the birth-giving of the Virgin. And having seen, let us all worship with reverence, crying aloud: Rejoice, O Bride Unwedded!