Christ the Teacher
In icon painting, as well as in church frescoes or book illustration, this iconographic theme is also entitled, quoting from Revelation 1:8,: “I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, says the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is to come.” Almost the same phrase is present also in Revelation 21:6 and 22:13. Christ the Teacher is but a slightly different version of the usual iconographic representation known as Christ Pantokrator. In the first, Jesus is always presenting the onlooker an open codex held in the left hand, while in the latter the codex is usually shut. The right hand is depicted in a blessing gesture. The character is seen frontally, as a young man with wavy hair and a short, round beard. He is dressed in a long tunic over which there is a draped chiton. A nimbus cruciger encircles the head.
In icon painting, as well as in church frescoes or book illustration, this iconographic theme is also entitled, quoting from Revelation 1:8,: “I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, says the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is to come.” Almost the same phrase is present also in Revelation 21:6 and 22:13. Christ the Teacher is but a slightly different version of the usual iconographic representation known as Christ Pantokrator. In the first, Jesus is always presenting the onlooker an open codex held in the left hand, while in the latter the codex is usually shut. The right hand is depicted in a blessing gesture. The character is seen frontally, as a young man with wavy hair and a short, round beard. He is dressed in a long tunic over which there is a draped chiton. A nimbus cruciger encircles the head.
