The Christian Church Banned Images Of Jesus For 117 Years

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]For over 100 years, the Christian Church made it illegal to display images of Jesus. This was not a fringe movement.

[00:00:08]This was official church policy. In 726 AD, Byzantine Emperor Leo III ordered the destruction of all religious images across the Christian world. Icons were smashed, paintings were burned, mosaics were torn from church walls. Anyone who disagreed faced imprisonment or execution. This movement was called iconoclasm, the destruction of sacred images. The church's argument was simple. Displaying images of Jesus, Mary, or the saints was the same as worshipping false idols. It violated the Second Commandment directly. For 117 years, this was the official position of the Christian Church. Then in 843 AD, the church reversed everything. Images were not only permitted, they were declared sacred. The same institution that burned icons now declared their veneration holy. The Protestant Reformation in the 1500s brought iconoclasm back. Churches were stripped bare again. Today, the Catholic Church displays images everywhere. The Protestant Church largely does not. Two branches of the same faith, same Bible, opposite conclusions. The debate that caused 117 years of persecution has never been fully resolved. Subscribe to Buried History because the truth always gets buried first.