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In the first chapter of the first sacred book of Genesis there is already a teaching about the greatest of the mysteries of the Christian faith - the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity: “Let us make man in our image and in our likeness” (Gen. 1:26). To whom could the Lord God speak like that? The great mystery of the Holy Trinity was reflected in the appearance of God to Abraham in the form of three wanderers, which is why it is customary to depict this phenomenon on Her holy icons.
The more the teaching of the Faith was revealed to Old Testament people, the more this great mystery was revealed. The prophet David says: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the spirit of his mouth all the host (stars)” (Ps. 32:6). The prophet Isaiah hears the song of the Seraphim around the throne of the Lord: “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 6:3).
The Prophet Daniel depicts one of the revelations that happened to him: “I saw that thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days (i.e., the eternal God) sat down. His robe was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool, His throne was like a flame of fire, His wheels were blazing fire” (Dan. 7:9). “Thousands of thousands (of angels) served Him, and darkness stood before Him” (Dan. 7:10). And so, he further sees: “one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, came to the Ancient of Days and was brought to Him” (Dan. 7:13), “and to Him was given power, glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, tribes and languages would serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away, and His kingdom will not be destroyed” (Dan. 7:14).
With these such clear and definite indications of the mystery of the Holy Trinity in the Old Testament, the Jews were nevertheless strongly impressed: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord” (Deut. 6:4). “For You are great and do wonders, You, O God, are the only One,” sings the Psalmist (Ps. 85:10).
In the clarity and completeness possible for us, the mystery of the Holy Trinity was announced by the Lord our Savior Jesus Christ: “Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19), He said to the apostles, sending them to preach.
Of the New Testament events in relation to the appearance of the Most Holy Trinity, the following are especially significant: the Baptism of the Lord, therefore called the Epiphany, and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, the church celebration of which is called the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity.
The mystery of the Holy Trinity was also presented to the brilliant minds of ancient philosophers, who added to the idea of God, the Supreme Principle of everything, the thought of the Supreme Reason, as a mediator between God and the world, and called it “Logos”. The word is Greek and means: mind, word. The Evangelist John, as if in response to these fortune-telling philosophers, proclaims: “In the beginning (that is, before all things existing) was the Word, and the Word was to God, and God was the Word” (John 1:1).
Human art, for its part, strives, as far as possible, to embrace and capture in an image the great revelation of the Holy Trinity, and the greatest success in this regard belongs to the Russian school. The examples of artists Markov and Kramskoy, outstanding in their composition, combine divinely revealed images of this highest Mystery. God the Father in the form of an old man - the Old One of days - with his hands outstretched over the entire universe for blessing, God the Son, the son in the bosom of the Father, brings down from the Father a blessing on people reconciled by Him with God's truth, with the book of Life (life) for the enlightenment of everyone and the sacred and mysterious word “Logos” in it, and God the Holy Spirit, who comes from the Father and bestows grace on everyone rebirth and salvation.
Holy Trinity. The painting of the ceiling of the main dome of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow was carried out in the fall of 1865 according to the compositions of the Academy of Arts teacher Alexei Tarasovich Markov (1802–1878) by Academy students Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy (1837–1887), Nikolai Andreevich Koshelev (1840–1918) and Karl Bogdanovich Wenig (1830–1908).
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