Why is the fiery furnace story used to show faith of God in the Christian faith? The following artworks show a theme of the faith of these men. How these men desired to serve their God even in the face of death. They also show how God protected them because of their faith. These men were told to do things that went against their faith, bowing to Nebuchadnezzar as a god, which they refused to do, getting them sentenced to death by fire. There faith in God did not allow them to worship any other person or idol, and due to their faith, God saved them from harm. These pieces were created to tell people to be faithful in their belief of God, and used later, to remain faithful to Jesus Christ so that they can be good servants of God. Some of these pieces were made when Christianity was in its early stages of spreading. The believers were being persecuted in Rome and the story of these three men was used as a way of encouragement to believers to show them that God does care for them even in a land that hates them, and will protect them Himself, and you will benefit from staying faithful. This is a visual representation of a story of strong faith that pleases God and so he protects the men due to their unwavering faith. He sends his angel to protect these men from trials and tribulations so that they may continue to thrive and serve Him.
This first piece is a carving on the side of a sarcophagus made in the 300s. It shows three men with their hands in the air standing on a brick foundation with fire under it. On the sarcophagus there are other scenes of the life of Christ and other figures from the Bible that have had direct touches from God, either because of their lack or their strong, devout faith. It was restored in the late 1870s and some scenes have been changed. The piece shows “ two Old Testament scenes foretelling mankind’s salvation by Christ: Three Hebrews in the Fiery Furnace and Adam and Eve after the Fall by the Tree of Knowledge.”
This piece is a showing on the human triumph over death. The figures standing around the actual painting of the Hebrews in the fire are all martyrs. They were burned during the persecutions during the Roman Empire. They were sentenced to death by burning, however they were untouched by the flames when the heathens were burned away. This also seems to be another example of devout faith saving people from death and the fire would have completely destroyed them.
This piece has two struggles: the lion's den and the fiery furnace. The lions are on the left side of the piece, with plants separating that story from the furnace on the other side. It is made of a bronze that now has faded to a very shiny black. Similar to the lamp, the plant seems to be of some sort of importance. This also shows people went through more than one ordeal.
This piece shows the three men standing in a fire with an eagle above their heads. They are all standing with their hands raised, which was a common pose showing how they were trying to imitate Christ on the cross. This was carved and painted into a catacomb where they would secretly meet for their faith , because at the time of the piece being created, they were being persecuted very aggressively. This would have again, probably been used as a way to tell people to stay strong in their faith.
This piece is a lamp with the three Hebrews standing in front of Nebuchadnezzar. There are two smaller holes on it that are encircled by more carvings and one larger hole where you would set the oil ablaze. It was thought that by having the carvings on these pieces it would have brought protection, similar to what the three Hebrews experienced when they were going through these trials due to refusing to worship Nebuchadnezzar which was the reason they were sentenced to burn in the furnace.
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