Chastisement by God
as depicted in Religious Art


Chastisement of the Rebel Angels - by GIORDANO, Luca - from Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Saint Michael the Archangel was the Right Arm of God in the chastisement of the Rebel Angels for their sin of Pride.
Pride is the excessive love of one's own excellence, for which Satan was damned.

 

 


Chastisement of Adam and Eve - by Domenichino - from Musée des Beaux-Arts, Grenoble

Original Sin was God's chastisement upon Adam and Eve, and all their descendents.

The State of Innocence or Original Justice

The state of innocence is the state in which man was originally created. Our first parents were created in a state of grace. This grace had two effects. The more important was its elevation of human nature to participate in the inner life of God. Grace, a supernatural gift, made man an adopted son of God, friend of God and heir to heaven. It adorned his soul with supernatural virtues and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit by which man could live a divine life and perform divine acts. The other effect was that it produced in man the preternatural gifts which perfected man's nature to such a degree that he was free from all those sufferings which ordinarily accompany nature: pain, death, concupiscence and so on. Adam and his descendents were to live a life of virtue and holiness in the terrestrial paradise for a time and then be taken to heaven without dying. If Adam had not sinned, grace would have been passed on through natural generation and the life of each of his descendents would have begun as an immaculate conception and ended in a bodily assumption into heaven. Of the greatest significance here is that God ordered man to a supernatural end, that is the attainment of the beatific vision, seeing God face-to-face, the means to which is grace.

 

The State of Fallen Nature

As we know Adam did sin and he was thrown out of paradise. His sin brought a two-fold death, spiritual and corporeal, on the human race. We are conceived and born in original sin, that is without grace, and we are born into a life which will result in bodily death. In this state man is not only deprived of the supernatural and preternatural gifts, but he is also wounded in his nature. In addition to the suffering and death which are punishments for Adam's sin, there are also the wounds of ignorance in the intellect, malice in the will, weakness in the irascible appetite and concupiscence in the concupiscible appetite. In this state man cannot reach happiness.

 

 


The Chastisement of Korah (Core) and his followers - by BOTTICELLI, Sandro - from Cappella Sistina, Vatican
(Click image to enlarge)

This fresco reproduces three episodes, each of which depicts a rebellion by the Hebrews against God's appointed leaders, Moses and Aaron, along with the ensuing divine chastisement of the agitators. On the right-hand side, the revolt of the Jews against Moses is depicted, the latter portrayed as an old man with a long white beard, clothed in a yellow robe and an olive-green cloak. Irritated by the various trials through which their emigration from Egypt was putting them, the Jews demanded that Moses be dismissed. They wanted a new leader, one who would take them back to Egypt, and they threatened to stone Moses; however, Joshua placed himself protectively between them and their would-be victim.

The centre of the fresco shows the rebellion, under the leadership of Korah, of the sons of Aaron and some Levites, who, setting themselves up in defiance of Aaron's authority as high priest, also offered up incense. In the background we see Aaron in a blue robe, swinging his incense censer with an upright posture and filled with solemn dignity, while his rivals stagger and fall to the ground with their censers at God's behest. Their chastisement ensues on the left-hand side of the picture, as the rebels are swallowed up by the earth, which is breaking open under them. The two innocent sons of Korah, the ringleader of the rebels, appear floating on a cloud, exempted from the divine punishment.

The principal message of these scenes is made manifest by the inscription in the central field of the triumphal arch: "Let no man take the honor to himself except he that is called by God, as Aaron was." The fresco thus holds a warning that God's chastisement will fall upon those who oppose God's appointed leaders.

 

 


Chastisement of the Deluge - by MICHELANGELO Buonarroti - from Cappella Sistina, Vatican

Noah had announced the impending chastisement and had exhorted to repentance (2Peter 2:5), but no heed was given to his words (Matthew 24:37 sqq.; Luke 17:26, 27; 1 Peter 3:20), and, when the fatal time arrived, no one except Noah's immediate family found refuge in the ark.

 

 


Chastisement of Sodom and Gomorrah - by DÜRER, Albrecht - from National Gallery of Art, Washington

This panel depicts Lot and his two daughters fleeing from the destruction of Sodom. In the story from Genesis, two angels warn Lot that he should escape before God destroys the city for its sins. Lot is told that his family must not look back, otherwise they will be turned into pillars of salt. Far behind them, near the towering rocks, is Lot's wife, transformed into a brown pillar of salt. In the distance the town of Sodom explodes with brimstone and fire, huge columns of smoke belching up into the sky. Gomorrah, in the far distance, suffers a similar fate.  Lot's son-in-laws did not believe in Lot's warning of God's chastisement and were destroyed by fire.

 

 


Chastisement of Belshazzar - by REMBRANDT Harmenszoon van Rijn - from National Gallery, London

Baltasar is the Greek and Latin name for Belshazzar, who was the last King of Babylon. In the Book of Daniel it is narrated that by order of Baltasar, the Sacred Vessels which Nabuchodonosor (Nebuchadnezzar) had carried with him from Jerusalem were defiled when they were used during a banquet, and his wives and concubines drank out of them. In the midst of the revelry a hand is seen writing on the wall the mysterious words Mane, Thecel, Phares. Daniel reads and explains the words: the days of the kingdom had been numbered; the king had been weighed in the balance and had been found wanting; his kingdom would be given to the Medes and the Persians. The king himself was slain in chastisement of his sacrilege.

 

 


Chastisement of Jerusalem by Titus in 70 AD - Luke 19:41-44 - painted by Wilhelm von Kaulbach . . . . . (Click to enlarge)

This depiction shows four Jewish Patriarchs (including Moses) on their thrones in heaven as witnesses. A band of God's avenging angels (each carrying the same type of 3-pronged flagellation device as used to scourge Jesus) descends on the scene and a group of Satan's angels can be seen to the left.  On the right, a triad of angels carrying the holy Eucharist escort a family of Christians from the devastation. Various individual scenes depict the wanton destruction, cannibalism, suicide and other sinful acts described in writing by the Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus. 

The Roman Legions of Titus were the Right Arm of God in the Chastisement of Jerusalem. The destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, forty (40) years after the death of Jesus Christ is very important in Church history. The tearing in two by God of the Veil of the Temple reaches its climax in the destruction of Jerusalem. The Catholic Church now stands alone as God's only chosen means of Salvation. The forty (40) years God gave the Jewish people to repent of their deicide is symbolic of the number of days (40) Nineveh was given to repent in the Book of Jonah; forty (40) was also the number of days Goliath was allowed to taunt Israel before God empowered David to slay him (1Samuel 17:16). After taunting God for forty (40) years God empowered Titus to destroy Jerusalem. Many, many more symbolic examples the number forty (40) can be seen at Saint Augustine's Arithmology.