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Dome

  • Then God spoke all these words:
  • I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:1–2)

The word translated ‘Lord’ here is the Hebrew word יהוה, YHWH, the ‘tetragrammaton’, pronounced Yahweh or Yahveh, although no orthodox Jew would ever pronounce such a sacred word. This is the word in gold at the apex of the dome. In continental Roman Catholic churches of the time the apex might have held an image of God the Creator, or of Jesus Christ, but many in the English Church of Wren’s time were averse to images, so the Hebrew name of God was written instead. 

Around the tetragrammaton angels worship God, and around the edge of the dome a variety of Christian virtues are depicted. 

The dome was painted in 1708 by William Snow, a parishioner.

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