Animal peace
Animal peace describes a state in which predatory and prey animals live peacefully together. This vision of an original and future salvation, set against experience , hashistorically acted as a model and hope for people.
Animal Peace in the Bible
Heavenly peace
Genesis 1 describes the paradisiacal vegetarianism or primeval peace. Only after the fall of man does Abel appear as the first herdsman to slaughter animals ( Gen 4,4 EU ).
- Gen 1, 27-30: So God created man in his image; he created him in the image of God. He created them male and female. God blessed them and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, populate the earth, subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky and over all animals that move on the land. Then God said, I hereby hand over to you all the plants in all the earth that bear seeds, and all the trees with seed-bearing fruits. They should serve you as food. All the animals of the field, all the birds in the sky and everything that stirs on the earth, which has the breath of life in it, I give all green plants for food. So it happened.
Messianic peace
The Old Testament prophet Isaiah (8th century BC) describes in eschatological images a coming absolute kingdom of peace in which the so-called messianic animal peace prevails. Just as the animals live together in this vision, so will people or all creatures live together in the end times. Typical here is the naming of predatory and prey animals in pairs. In contrast to heavenly peace, sin and God's judgment play no role in Isaiah's peace. Isaiah describes animal peace as indicative of the reign of the expected Messiah King.
- Isa 11, 6-8: The wolves will dwell with the lambs and the leopard will lie with the goats. A little boy will drive calves and young lions and beef cattle together. Cows and bears will go to pasture so that their young will lie together; and lions will eat straw like oxen. And an infant will delight in the hole of the otter, and a weaned man will stick his hand in the den of the basilisk.
- Isa 65:25: Wolf and lamb shall graze at the same time, the lion shall eat straw like an ox, and the serpent shall eat earth. They shall not harm or destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.
Extra-biblical antiquity
Even in non-Jewish antiquity there is the idea that animals do nothing to each other and that people should take this as an example. The motif of the animal peace finds its ancient pictorial model in Orpheus . He beguiles the animals with the music of his lyre.
Representations of animal peace in art
For Christian antiquity, a delimited geographical area can be determined in which mosaics with animal peace motifs were found, especially in Syria , southern Turkey, Lebanon , Palestine , and Jordan . There are a total of twelve preserved mosaics, all of which are dated to the end of the 5th or beginning of the 6th century. The only medieval depiction of an animal peace motif can be found on the Speyer Cathedral .
- E.g. mosaic from Syria (5th / 6th century):
The mosaic shows the depiction of Adam, enthroned like Christ between animals that look up to him. The animals are not shown in pairs, which excludes a reference to the Isaiah motif. Adam can be seen here as an antitype to the type of Christ.
- E.g. basilica in Karlik - (end of 5th century):
The picture shows mated animals in peace in Isaiah. The animal peace mosaic is on the axis in front of the apse . The position of the subject is particularly important. Images of this motif are always in front of the apse or on the direct line of sight to the altar, with regard to Christ, who is sacrificed on the altar, as the ultimate goal of this line of sight. In the end, he is the one who will bring about the state of all-embracing peace. In the side aisle, the position of the animal peace motif would probably be too casual and would miss its central importance. There is no evidence of a depiction of the animal peace in an apse dome or on an apse front wall.
- Modern times:
The Kingdom of Peace painting by Edward Hicks
literature
- Bodo Gatz: Age of the world, golden age and related ideas. Hildesheim 1967, pp. 171-174.
- Rotraut Wisskirchen : On "animal peace" in late antique monuments (after Gen. 1.29f, Isa. 11.6 / 8 and 65.25). In: Yearbook for Antiquity and Christianity . No. 52, Aschendorff-Verlag , Münster 2009, pp. 142–163.
- Rotraut Wisskirchen: The clothed Adam is enthroned among the animals. To the floor mosaic of the central nave of the north church of Huarte / Syria. In: Yearbook for Antiquity and Christianity. No. 45, Aschendorff-Verlag, Münster 2002, pp. 137–156.