Images of Peter, the Gospel of Luke and a Hell Mouth in Belgium.

For Third Sunday after Trinity I offer viewers three images related to either the Epistle or Gospel reading. The Epistle reading, 1st Peter 5:5b-11, includes a very famous and evocative verse which is also the First Chapter reading for the Compline office in the AIC Bookstore Publication, Hear Us, O Lord: Daily Prayers for the Laity. Here is the NKJV translation, as used in the book with an image of Peter from a 13th C. Byzantine icon.

St. Peter, Byzantine style icon in tempera and gold on panel, possibly from an iconostasis in Eastern Europe. It was discovered in a street art market in Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1982. It was acquired for the Byzantine Collection, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. after an extensive investigation concluded that no church in Eastern Europe had reported anything like it missing from its collection.

BRETHREN, be sober, be viligant, because your adversary the devil walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him steadfast in the faith (1 Peter 5:8, 9 NKJV).

Of the many images in which artist visualizes 1 Peter 5:8, 9, is shown above. Technically, it could easily be used in the connection with the concept of the Harrowing of Hades, Jesus’ descent into Hell/Hell rescuing the dead mentioned in the Apostles’ Creed. It is fearsome outdoor relief placed at sidewalk level on a building on the Rue du Grand Hospice, Brussels, Belgium. It is thought to date to the mid-19th C. The artist was not identified by the source of the image. Similar images are used as examples of a Hell Mouth in the AIC Bookstore Publication, Easter: The Resurrection of Our Lord in Scripture, Art & Christian Tradition.

The Gospel reading, Luke 15:1-10, is St. Luke’s version of the Parable of the Lost Sheep, in which St. Luke quotes Jesus with a different theme than verse 12 in St. Matthew’s account (Matthew 18:10-14), upon which the third and final image is a based.