On the Eight-pointed Star and the Theology of the Number 8
The eight-pointed Armenian Star stands for Christ and His Divinity. It is often called the Bethlehem Star symbolizing the world Jesus came to save. Every year as part of the St. John’s Annual Bazaar it has been a tradition to conduct a church tour for our community and friends. One of the mystifying aspects of our church’s structure, footprint, and decorative adornments is the eight-pointed star that is highly visible. Its carved and painted design is virtually everywhere in view- on the face of the Bema, above the Virgin Mary’s head where the nine doves appear, in a stained-glass window on the doors to our holy sanctuary. This eight-pointed star that we see profusely decorating our sanctuary is an important aspect of Armenian Church architectural adornment.
The number 8 is significant in all of Orthodox Christian teaching because the number 8 connotes time beyond, eternity, resurgence, and resurrection. From the earliest times, Armenian clergy, many of whom were artists and architects in addition to their ordained ministry, used the eight-pointed star particularly in painting and carving on stone in order to give a message of a world in the future time.
The number 8 is symbolic. Even in our Armenian alphabet, the eight letter Ը* signifies Christ’s Resurrection and reflects the Kingdom of God and eternity. In fact, this new age and new time to come is beyond the limits of this worldly time finds its expression most clearly in the liturgical worship of the Holy Badarak/ Divine Liturgy. Father Alexander Schmemann, a Russian Orthodox theologian and priest, and one of my own teachers in seminary writes in his well know book Introduction to Liturgical Theology: “The Church belongs to the new aeon [ age], to the Kingdom of the Messiah, which in relation to this world is the Kingdom of the age to come. In Christ’s Resurrection, the Kingdom has entered this world and exists in the Church. In God it is the present, and eternal-the future; pointing to “the age to come” while also being in this present world. Christ has inaugurated the “age to come” in His Incarnation [becoming human] and through His Resurrection.” For the Church, the Lord’s Day is not a substitute for the Jewish Sabbath but its Christian equivalent.
Sunday is often referred to as the Eighth Day – the time connected to eternity. The Eighth Day is the day beyond the limits of the cycle outlined by the week and punctuated by the Sabbath – the eighth day becomes the first day of the New Aeon [Age].
That is why Sunday in the Armenian Christian tradition is called in Armenian Miashapat [day one] or Giragi -from the Greek Kyriaki emera the Lord’s Day. Thus, as we see the eight-pointed star on the facing of the bema of our altar, it tells us, we are in two places at the same time, here on earth and in the hereafter, heaven. As we come forth to receive Holy Communion, we are entering the time to come.
This mystery occurs as Christ brings heaven to earth. • Note, the eighth letter of the Armenian Alphabet is the letter called ‘uht’ – Ը and follows the seventh letter ‘eh’ Է. • Է means I am, • Ը signifies the Resurrection. • Put them together and we have I AM THE RESURRECTION.
Tag:cross, eight pointed star, theology