Idol/Idolatry (HB/OT)

by

Aaron Tugendhaft

• LAST REVIEWED: 08 February 2023
• LAST MODIFIED: 31 March 2016
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195393361-0218

Introduction

The Hebrew Bible has often been characterized as concerned with the problem of idolatry. The term itself is of Greek origin—meaning “worship of images”—and no simple equivalent exists in Biblical Hebrew. Later Hebrew uses the term avodah zarah, often translated into English as “idolatry,” but the root semantics of the two are quite different. Whereas the term “idolatry” implies a specific concern with images, avodah zarah (“strange worship”) refers more generally to religious practices deemed wrong or foreign. (Unlike English, German nicely captures the ambiguity of the Hebrew because Fremd can mean both “strange” and “foreign.”) Part of the challenge of studying idols and idolatry lies in determining precisely what to explore using these terms. This article focuses on the role that images and the opposition to them played in the world of ancient Israel and in the Hebrew Bible. Because the historiography on idolatry has often used the term in the more capacious sense, however, the study of idols and idolatry necessarily bleeds into broader questions about the nature of Israelite (and early Jewish) religion at different stages of its history. This article, therefore, provides some guidance in these matters as well.

General Overviews

Kaufmann 1960 depicts the history of ancient Israelite religion as a struggle against idolatry, as the author understood it. Faur 1978 offers a challenge to Kaufmann’s position. Jacobsen 1987 is a classic essay by a foremost Assyriologist. Curtis 1992 and Uehlinger 2004 are useful overviews of the topic, laying out the chief evidence pertaining to idols and idolatry in the Hebrew Bible and as known from Levantine archaeology. Greenspahn 2004 is a thoughtful consideration of problems involved with using the term “idolatry” in biblical studies. Kugel 2003 provides an introduction to the biblical opposition to images aimed at a general audience. Barbu 2011 provides a helpful account of how the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible was instrumental in forming the notion of idolatry.

• Barbu, Daniel Olivier. “Idole, idôlatre, idôlatrie.” In Les représentations des dieux des autres. Edited by Corinne Bonnet, Amandine Declercq, and Iwo Slobodzianek, 37–55. Supplemento a Mythos 2. Caltanissetta, Italy: Salvatore Sciascia Editore, 2011.

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  Although taking his title from the article on idolatry that Voltaire wrote for the Encyclopédie, Barbu nevertheless focuses less on idolatry in the Enlightenment than in Late Antiquity. He provides a helpful genealogy of the early history of the concept, concentrating on the instrumental role of the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek and the writings of early Christian thinkers.

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• Curtis, Edward. “Idol, Idolatry.” In The Anchor Bible Dictionary. Vol. 3. Edited by David Noel Freedman, 376–381. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

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  A solid overview of the use of images as objects of worship in the ancient Near East and Israel. Provides references to the major biblical passages pertaining to the subject.

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• Faur, José. “The Biblical Idea of Idolatry.” Jewish Quarterly Review 69 (1978): 1–15.

  DOI: 10.2307/1453972Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A synthetic statement on the biblical idea of idolatry, which Faur takes to be best understood in the context of monolatry. The essay includes an extensive critique of Kaufmann’s position (Kaufmann 1960).

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• Greenspahn, Frederick E. “Syncretism and Idolatry in the Bible.” Vetus Testamentum 54 (2004): 480–494.

  DOI: 10.1163/1568533042650868Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Greenspahn does a good job of laying out the methodological challenges involved in using the term “idolatry” in biblical studies. He also considers its relation to the notion of syncretism and the way in which a distinction between these two terms has too often been blurred.

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• Jacobsen, Thorkild. “The Graven Image.” In Ancient Israelite Religion: Essays in Honor of Frank Moore Cross. Edited by P. Miller Jr., P. D. Hanson, and S. D. McBride, 15–32. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987.

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  A concise treatment by a foremost Assyriologist that provides a lucid account of how cult statues would have been understood by their ancient Mesopotamian makers and worshippers.

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• Kaufmann, Yeḥezkel. The Religion of Israel: From Its Beginning to the Babylonian Exile. Translated by Moshe Greenberg. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960.

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  Kaufmann considered idolatry to be the basic problem of Israelite religion. Although highly polemical and now quite dated, his account of the religion of ancient Israel remains provocative. This edition is a translation and abridgement of Kaufmann’s original Hebrew work.

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• Kugel, James. The God of Old: Inside the Lost World of the Bible. New York: Free Press, 2003.

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  Chapter 4 of this book is devoted to the theme “No Graven Images” and explores the meaning of the biblical prohibition of images in the context of how the divine was understood in ancient Israel. Good for undergraduates.

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• Uehlinger, Christoph. “Visual Representations: Israel.” In Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide. Edited by Sarah Iles Johnston, 608–610. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.

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  A short, up-to-date account of the chief issues pertaining to ancient Israelite attitudes about the representation of the divine. Good for undergraduates.

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Theoretical Discussions

Because the terms “idol” and “idolatry” postdate the Hebrew Bible, to avoid anachronism it is particularly useful to be familiar with the range of meanings that have been associated with these terms since their introduction. Theoretical discussion begins in Antiquity, runs through the Middle Ages, and intensifies in the Reformation and Enlightenment discourses of modernity. Thinkers such as Tertullian, John of Damascus, al-Tabari, Maimonides, Francis Bacon, Voltaire, and Friedrich Nietzsche have all contributed to the varying ways in which idols and idolatry have been discussed and conceptualized. More recently, philosophers, theologians, art historians, and historians of religion have produced a rich literature on the subject. Halbertal and Margalit 1992 is a sustained investigation of the topic that draws on a deep familiarity with both medieval Jewish and contemporary analytic philosophy. Marion 2001 establishes the idol as a central concern for phenomenology, and Mitchell 2005 investigates it as a key category in his theory of images. Freedberg 1989 draws on historical and ethnographic data to develop a richer understanding of how images have been perceived as powerful, whereas Besançon 2000 provides an intellectual history of iconoclasm from Antiquity to the 20th century. Assmann 1998 is a provocative essay that identifies the image of Egypt as the idolatrous “other” of Western civilization; Tugendhaft 2012 offers a challenge to Assmann’s claims about idolatry in the Hebrew Bible. Ellenbogen and Tugendhaft 2011 is an interdisciplinary collection of essays with an introduction that develops a “grammar of the idol” as a basis for further investigation.

• Assmann, Jan. Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998.

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  A provocative study that has had a major impact on the discussion of monotheism and notions of truth in Western civilization. The category of idolatry plays a central role in Assmann’s account, because he argues that it is the label that monotheism has employed to mark its “other”—often, he contends, with catastrophic effect.

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• Besançon, Alain. The Forbidden Image: An Intellectual History of Iconoclasm. Translated by Jane Marie Todd. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

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  This volume, originally published in French in 1994 by a specialist in Russian politics and intellectual history, explores how the representation of the divine came to be an issue of philosophical import by tracing a story from ancient Greece and Israel, through the medieval traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, to the modern avant-garde.

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• Ellenbogen, Josh, and Aaron Tugendhaft, eds. Idol Anxiety. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2011.

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  The essays in this volume explore how the idol can serve as a theoretically rich concept in various disciplines—from philosophy and history of religion to art history and musicology. Taking the Mesopotamian mīs pî (mouth-washing) ritual as its central example, the introduction develops a grammar of the idol that provides a useful basis for further inquiry into the dynamic relations that can be established among the divine, humans, and things.

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• Freedberg, David. The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of Response. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.

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  A seminal study that raises fundamental questions about the nature of human interaction with images, drawing on an extraordinary range of historical and ethnographic examples.

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• Halbertal, Moshe, and Avishai Margalit. Idolatry. Translated by Naomi Goldblum. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.

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  This influential study elegantly explores how different concepts of God, when reversed, produce different concepts of idolatry. Containing extensive discussion of the Hebrew Bible, the volume also explores the dynamics of idolatry in later periods—in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—with particular focus on the thought of Maimonides.

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• Marion, Jean-Luc. The Idol and Distance: Five Studies. Translated by Thomas A. Carlson. New York: Fordham University Press, 2001.

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  These early studies by the prominent French phenomenologist were originally written in the 1970s. The studies provide a compelling introduction to the role that the idol plays in Marion’s rethinking of the Western philosophical and theological traditions—with special emphasis on Dionysius Areopagita, Hölderlin, and Nietzsche.

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• Mitchell, W. J. T. What Do Pictures Want? The Lives and Loves of Images. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.

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  This volume continues Mitchell’s investigation into how pictures work. He contends that we need to reckon with images not only as inert objects that convey meaning, but also as animated beings with desires, needs, appetites, demands, and drives of their own. Particularly valuable is chapter 9, entitled “Totemism, Fetishism, Idolatry” (pp. 188–196), which insightfully distinguishes among these three terms that are so often employed interchangeably.

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• Tugendhaft, Aaron. “Images and the Political: On Jan Assmann’s Concept of Idolatry.” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 24 (2012): 301–306.

  DOI: 10.1163/157006812X635718Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A brief essay that challenges Jan Assmann’s contention (see Assmann 1998) that the biblical prohibition of images polarizes the world into a division between the true and the false. By arguing that the metaphysical valuation of imagery that Assmann sees at work in the Bible in fact belongs to a post-biblical tradition, the essay attempts to clear the way for a nonmetaphysical approach to the biblical concern with images.

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Ancient Near East

The study of ancient Israelite attitudes about images and the divine has benefited greatly from comparison with the neighboring cultures of Egypt, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia. Wall 2005 provides valuable discussions of the use of cultic statues and the beliefs associated with them in these various cultures. Particularly valuable in this regard is the edition of the Mesopotamian mīs pî ritual in Walker and Dick 2001. The issue of aniconism is of central importance in Durand 2005 and Michel 2014, as well as in Patrich 1990. Winter 2009–2010 and Bahrani 2003 provide art historical analyses that deepen our understanding of ancient Near Eastern conceptions of representation, whereas May 2012 collects numerous essays that complicate our understanding of ancient iconoclasm.

• Bahrani, Zainab. The Graven Image: Representation in Babylonia and Assyria. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003.

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  An investigation of the concept of representation in ancient Mesopotamia. Bahrani argues that, unlike the Greek notion of mimesis that placed emphasis on imitating the natural world, representation in Mesopotamia was understood as participating in the world and having an effect on it.

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• Durand, Jean-Marie. Le culte des pierres et les monuments commémoratifs en Syrie amorrite. Florilegium marianum 8. Paris: SEPOA, 2005.

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  This study of the cult of standing-stones during the Old Babylonian period in Syria provides valuable new data for understanding the traditions of aniconic worship in the Levant. Included are a number of texts that refer to such standing-stones, discovered in the archives at Mari.

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• May, Natalie N., ed. Iconoclasm and Text Destruction in the Ancient Near East and Beyond. Papers presented at a conference held at the Oriental Institute, 8–9 April 2011. Oriental Institute Seminars 8. Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2012.

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  This volume collects papers delivered at a conference at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute in 2011. It is particularly helpful in two respects: (1) by providing examples of iconoclasm in the ancient Near East, it helps to undermine the notion that attacks on images begin with ancient Israel; and (2) by focusing on text destruction alongside the destruction of images, it complicates any easy distinction between image and text.

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• Michel, Patrick M. Le culte des pierres à Emar à l’époque hittite. Orbis biblicus et orientalis 266. Fribourg, Switzerland: Academic Press, 2014.

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  This recent study of standing-stones in the cult at Emar (Syria) is a valuable addition to the literature on the subject of aniconic worship. Particularly welcome is Michel’s focus on the interplay of religion and politics. He shows how the Hittite imperial domination of Emar influenced the local practice of religion, revealing the importance of historical contextualization and specificity in the study of cultic practices.

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• Patrich, Joseph. The Formation of Nabatean Art: Prohibition of a Graven Image Among the Nabateans. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1990.

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  The Nabateans flourished in the Hellenistic period; therefore, this volume deals with material from a later period than the other studies in this section. Nevertheless, the material gathered here is of central importance for studying aniconic traditions in the ancient Near East and their relationship to anthropomorphic depictions of the divine.

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• Walker, Christopher, and Michael B. Dick. The Induction of the Cult Image in Ancient Mesopotamia: The Mesopotamian “Mīs Pî” Ritual. Transliteration, translation, and commentary by Christopher Walker and Michael Dick. State Archives of Assyria Literary Texts 1. Helsinki: University of Helsinki, 2001.

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  This volume provides an edition and translation of the key Mesopotamian ritual dedicated to inducting a newly made cult statue into a temple. Walker and Dick provide a thorough introduction that explains the fascinating ritual and discusses it in relation to other evidence pertaining to the treatment of divine images in ancient Mesopotamia.

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• Wall, Neal H., ed. Cult Image and Divine Representation in the Ancient Near East. ASOR Books 10. Boston: American Schools of Oriental Research, 2005.

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  A convenient collection of essays by top scholars that provide introductions to the role of cultic images and divine representation in the major cultures of the ancient Near East. Included are essays on Egypt, Mesopotamia, Hittite Anatolia, and Syro-Palestine.

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• Winter, Irene J. On Art in the Ancient Near East. 2 vols. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2009–2010.

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  Winter’s writings on Near Eastern art are fundamental to an understanding of how images were used and understood in ancient Mesopotamia. Of particular importance to the study of idolatry are such essays as “‘Idols of the King’: Royal Images as Recipients of Ritual Action in Ancient Mesopotamia” (Vol. 2, pp. 167–188) and “Opening the Eyes and Opening the Mouth: The Utility of Comparing Images in Worship in India and the Ancient Near East” (Vol. 2, pp. 377–404).

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Ancient Greece

Although material from ancient Greece traditionally has been less studied than that from ancient Near Eastern sources when trying to set ancient Israel in context, it is nevertheless important for understanding ancient attitudes about representation. This is particularly the case as recent classical scholarship—such as Donohue 1988 and especially Gaifman 2012—has begun to undermine traditional assumptions about Greek anthropomorphism. Also important for understanding the complexity of ancient representation is a series of essays in Vernant 1991 that attempt to trace a history from earlier objects intended to make the invisible present to later ones meant to imitate appearance. Faraone 1992 and Platt 2011 provide excellent introductions to the relationship between images and religion in Graeco-Roman culture.

• Donohue, A. A. Xoana and the Origins of Greek Sculpture. American Classical Studies 15. Atlanta: Scholars, 1988.

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  A comprehensive study of the Greek term xoanon, traditionally understood to refer to a simple wooden statue of a deity. Donohue explores both the place of xoana in the development of Greek sculpture and the way in which the term was used in developing polemics against idolatry from the final centuries BCE through the first centuries CE. The volume also includes a valuable appendix of testimonia in both Greek and English translation.

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• Faraone, Christopher A. Talismans and Trojan Horses: Guardian Statues in Ancient Greek Myth and Ritual. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.

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  Provides an introduction to the variety and range of statues and images in ancient Greek legends and historical accounts thought to have powerful properties. The Greek evidence is set in a wider Eastern Mediterranean context by comparison with similar Near Eastern and Egyptian practices.

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• Gaifman, Milette. Aniconism in Greek Antiquity. Oxford Studies in Ancient Culture and Representation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.

  DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199645787.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This groundbreaking work shows that aniconic practices were far more prevalent in ancient Greek religion than previously assumed. Gaifman’s work provides a basis for undermining further the traditional distinction between aniconic Israel and the Greeks with their anthropomorphism and naturalism.

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• Platt, Verity. Facing the Gods: Epiphany and Representation in Graeco-Roman Art, Literature, and Religion. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011.

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  A sophisticated study of how representations functioned in the apprehension of the divine in the Graeco-Roman world. Chapter 2 focuses on how the divine was encountered in cult statues (pp. 77–123).

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• Vernant, Jean-Pierre. Mortals and Immortals. Edited by Froma Zeitlin. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.

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  Although Vernant’s essays “From the ‘Presentification’ of the Invisible to the Imitation of Appearance” (pp. 151–163) and “The Birth of Images” (pp. 164–185) do not make reference to the biblical situation, they nevertheless offer a basis for rich comparison between Greece and Israel. Clarity with respect to that comparison is particularly valuable considering how much post-biblical discussion of idolatry has been influenced by the Greek tradition.

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Idolatry and Israelite Religion

In its broader sense of strange or false worship, the term “idolatry” has often been applied to the wide range of Israelite and Judean religious practices opposed in later strands of the Bible, especially those associated with the Deuteronomic School. When Milgrom 1998 speaks of idolatry in 8th- and 7th-century BCE Judah, he is using the term in this broader sense. Much recent scholarship has opted to refrain from employing the term “idolatry,” with its negative connotations, when discussing these suppressed forms of religiosity. Zevit 2001 and Smith 2002 provide helpful portraits of what these religious practices and beliefs might have looked like. Greenberg 1962 treats the most famous biblical case of household deities. Mazar 1982 reports on a momentous archaeological discovery. Hadley 2000 and Darby 2014 are representative recent studies of the cult of the goddess Asherah and the so-called Judean pillar figurines.

• Darby, Erin. Interpreting Judean Pillar Figurines: Gender and Empire in Judean Apotropaic Ritual. Forchungen zum Alten Testament 2, Reihe 69. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2014.

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  A detailed recent study of one of the most commonly found ritual objects from Iron II Israel. Darby brings together relevant textual, iconographic, and archaeological evidence in an attempt to explain the figurines in their ritual context.

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• Greenberg, Moshe. “Another Look at Rachel’s Theft of the Teraphim.” Journal of Biblical Literature 81 (1962): 239–248.

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  Greenberg’s essay turns to evidence from the ancient site of Nuzi to provide new perspective on the story of Rachel’s theft of Laban’s household gods.

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• Hadley, Judith M. The Cult of Asherah in Ancient Israel and Judah: Evidence for a Hebrew Goddess. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

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  Hadley provides a useful survey of previous scholarship and then carefully lays out the pertinent textual, iconographic, and archaeological data for the goddess Asherah and for the object of the same name. Includes an extensive bibliography.

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• Mazar, Amihai. “The ‘Bull Site’: An Iron Age I Open Cult Place.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 247 (1982): 27–42.

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  Report on the discovery of a bronze figurine of a bull at an open cultic high place. Mazar discusses the significance of the figurine and the site for the study of early Israelite cult practices.

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• Milgrom, Jacob. “The Nature and Extent of Idolatry in Eighth-Seventh Century Judah.” Hebrew Union College Annual 69 (1998): 1–13.

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  A survey of the biblical evidence concerning the practice of idolatry, defined broadly, in both state-sponsored cult and popular religion in 8th- and 7th-century BCE Judah. Milgrom concludes that in the 8th century BCE, idolatry, having been abolished from state religion, was still standard and unopposed among the great populace, whereas by the 7th century BCE, the situation had changed in response to Deuteronomy’s total ban.

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• Smith, Mark S. The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel. 2d ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002.

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  Smith’s account of the development of Israel’s religion from a cult of Yahweh as a primary deity among others to a fully defined monotheism draws on a broad range of epigraphic and archaeological data. In showing that Israel’s religion grew out of Canaanite traditions, Smith debunks the traditional claim that Israelite idolatry was due to foreign influence.

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• Zevit, Ziony. The Religions of Ancient Israel: A Synthesis of Parallactic Approaches. London: Continuum, 2001.

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  This account of religion in ancient Israel draws on a massive amount of textual, archaeological, and historical data. Chapter 4, “Tangible Belief: The Material and Textual Aspects of Cultic Artifacts” (pp. 267–348) is particularly relevant to the issue of idols and idolatry.

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Images and Aniconism in Ancient Israel

Recent years have seen a surge of interest in the actual use of images to refer to the divine in ancient Israel, as well as in aniconic practices. Van der Toorn 1997 provides a useful introduction to recent debates, especially regarding the highly contested question of whether a cult statue of Yahweh was originally placed in the Jerusalem temple. Cornelius 1994 and Keel and Uehlinger 1998 synthesize a mass of material pertaining to divine representation in the Bronze and Iron Age Levant, whereas Mettinger 1995 is a thorough study of aniconic practices. Ornan 2005 broadens the perspective to include aniconism in Mesopotamia. Hendel 1988 is a useful introduction to how scholars have tried to make sense of Israelite aniconic traditions.

• Cornelius, Izak. The Iconography of the Canaanite Gods Reshef and Ba‘al: Late Bronze and Iron Age I Periods (c 1500–1000 BCE). Orbis biblicus et orientalis 140. Fribourg, Switzerland, and Göttingen, Germany: University Press Fribourg, 1994.

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  This volume collects and discusses the representation of two principal male deities worshipped in the Levant in the period immediately preceding the rise of historical Israel. Providing valuable information for understanding continuity and disjunction in iconographic traditions, especially in relation to the Israelite god Yahweh, the volume serves as a helpful companion to Keel and Uehlinger 1998.

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• Hendel, Ronald S. “The Social Origins of the Aniconic Tradition in Early Israel.” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 50 (1988): 365–382.

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  Provides a helpful survey of some modern theories explaining the rise of aniconism in ancient Israel.

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• Keel, Othmar, and Christoph Uehlinger. Gods, Goddesses, and Images of God in Ancient Israel. Translated by T. H. Trapp. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1998.

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  A major study that synthesizes evidence from 8,500 amulets and inscriptions, this book follows the development of iconographic traditions from the 18th century BCE through the Persian period. Marks the culmination of a provocative new approach to the question of images and the divine in ancient Israel and its environment.

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• Mettinger, T. N. D. No Graven Image? Israelite Aniconism in Its Ancient Near Eastern Context. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1995.

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  Studying the Israelite prohibition of images in light of comparative material from surrounding cultures, Mettinger proposes a distinction between “de facto” aniconism and “programmatic” aniconism. He argues that de facto aniconism was a common practice in several West Semitic cultures, whereas programmatic aniconism was an Israelite innovation. Mettinger also explores the difference between material aniconism and empty-space aniconism.

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• Ornan, Tallay. The Triumph of the Symbol: Pictorial Representation of Deities in Mesopotamia and the Biblical Image Ban. Orbis biblicus et orientalis 213. Fribourg, Switzerland: Academic Press, 2005.

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  This study provides extensive analysis of both anthropomorphic and non-anthropomorphic depictions of Babylonian and Assyrian deities in the 2nd and 1st century BCE. Ornan argues that a progressive shift from anthropomorphic to non-anthropomorphic representations of gods on stelae, reliefs, and seals can be identified and suggests that this progressive shift toward aniconism in Mesopotamia influenced the biblical ban on images.

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• van der Toorn, Karl, ed. The Image and the Book: Iconic Cults, Aniconism, and the Rise of Book Religion in Israel and the Ancient Near East. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 1997.

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  This collection of essays is a good entrypoint into recent debates surrounding the use of images in ancient Israelite religion. All the contributions are well informed and represent the diversity of opinions about the significance of divine imagery and aniconism in the religions of Israel and Judah.

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The Biblical Prohibition of Images

The prohibition of images, the second commandment, appears in several versions in the biblical corpus. Scholarship has aimed to elucidate the inner development of the commandment, the relationship among the different versions, and the way in which the commandment was understood at later periods. Propp 2006 provides extensive commentary on the Exodus version and includes updated references; Weinfeld 1991 does the same for the version in Deuteronomy. Dohmen 1987 is an in-depth study of literary-critical issues surrounding the commandment. Holter 2003 and Feder 2013 explore reverberations of the commandment in Deuteronomy 4. Lux 2013 attempts to understand the prohibition of images in relation to priestly theological concerns. Tatum 1986 focuses on the meaning of the commandment in its Septuagint version, whereas Gutmann 1971 extends the investigation into how the commandment was understood in early Judaism.

• Dohmen, Christoph. Das Bilderverbot: Seine Entstehung und seine Entwicklung im Alten Testament. 2d ed. Bonner biblische Beiträge 62. Frankfurt: Athenäum, 1987.

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  This is a detailed analysis of the literary growth and development of the biblical ban on images. Dohmen sets the different biblical passages in a chronological sequence and argues that the ban began as a prohibition of certain kinds of worship, not kinds of images. Old-fashioned in its literary-critical approach.

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• Feder, Yitzhaq. “The Aniconic Tradition, Deuteronomy 4, and the Politics of Israelite Identity.” Journal of Biblical Literature 132 (2013): 251–274.

  DOI: 10.1353/jbl.2013.0030Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  The article traces how Deuteronomy 4 appropriated earlier anti-iconic polemics and tries to establish the historical circumstances that inspired the chapter’s rhetoric. Feder then offers some broader conclusions about how anti-iconic polemic functioned to establish a distinctive cultural discourse in ancient Israel.

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• Gutmann, Joseph. “The ‘Second Commandment’ and the Image in Judaism.” In No Graven Images: Studies in Art and the Hebrew Bible. By Joseph Gutmann, 3–16. New York: KTAV, 1971.

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  A seminal essay that explores the attitude toward the visual arts in the Bible and how it was understood by Josephus and Philo. Challenges the contention that the Bible and early Judaism maintained a rigidly and uniformly anti-iconic attitude.

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• Holter, Knut. Deuteronomy 4 and the Second Commandment. Studies in Biblical Literature 60. New York: Peter Lang, 2003.

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  A detailed study of Deuteronomy 4 with the most comprehensive accumulation of allusions to the second commandment in the Bible. Attuned to the phenomenon of inner-biblical interpretation, Holter argues that the allusions reflect successive interpretations of the final version of the commandment in exilic and post-exilic times.

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• Lux, Rüdiger. “Das Bild Gottes und die Götterbilder im Alten Testament.” Zeitschrift füer Theologie und Kirche 110 (2013): 133–157.

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  Lux explores the connection between the Deuteronomistic ban on images in conjunction with the priestly idea of a person as an image of God. He concludes that the ban on making graven images and the commandment to rule the earth in God’s likeness belong to an intertwined discourse on the theology of images in Israel in the 5th and 6th centuries BCE.

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• Propp, William H. C. Exodus 19–40: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Anchor Bible 2. New York: Doubleday, 2006.

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  Propp’s commentary on Exodus 20:4–6 (pp. 167–173) is thorough and updated. His interpretive notes provide guidance to different traditions of interpretation as well as situate the commandment in relation to evidence from the ancient Near East. He also provides an extensive bibliography to previous scholarship.

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• Tatum, W. Barnes. “The LXX Version of the Second Commandment (Ex.20,3–6 = Deut.5, 7–10): A Polemic Against Idols, Not Images.” Journal for the Study of Judaism 17 (1986): 177–195.

  DOI: 10.1163/157006386X00347Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Argues that the version of the second commandment found in the Septuagint prohibits the making and worshipping of representations of alien gods, but it does not address the question of making and worshipping representations of God.

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• Weinfeld, Moshe. Deuteronomy 1–11: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Anchor Bible 5. New York: Doubleday, 1991.

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  Weinfeld provides extensive textual notes on the Deuteronomic version of the second commandment (pp. 289–300). The volume also includes a valuable discussion of the Decalogue in Deuteronomy more generally and how it relates to the version in Exodus.

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The Golden Calf

Assmann 1998 (cited under Theoretical Discussions) has called the story of the golden calf the “primal scene” of idolatry. Loewenstamm 1967 and Fleming 1999 are examples of scholars who have used discoveries from the Bible’s ancient Near Eastern context to elucidate elements in the story. Building off Loewenstamm’s observations, Grottanelli 1999 explores how the image of the calf belongs to a broader political ideology in ancient Israel. Lasine 1992 investigates the relationship between the golden calf story in Exodus and the account of Jeroboam’s calves in Kings. Brichto 1983 attempts a literary analysis of the final form of the story in Exodus, whereas Zipor 1996 studies the rhetorical uses of the calf in Deuteronomy. Hayes 2004 studies the Exodus and Deuteronomy accounts in relation to each other. Smith 2007 provides a helpful discussion of the available evidence regarding the bull-calf cult at Bethel.

• Brichto, Herbert Chanan. “The Worship of the Golden Calf: A Literary Analysis of a Fable on Idolatry.” Hebrew Union College Annual 54 (1983): 1–44.

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  Brichto studies Exodus 32–34 as one integral unit and argues that it is constructed using a sophisticated, episodic narrative technique that ultimately produces a philosophical fable aimed at addressing the offense of idolatry.

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• Fleming, Daniel E. “If El Is a Bull, Who is a Calf? Reflections on Religion in Second-Millennium Syria-Palestine.” Eretz-Israel 26 (1999): 23–27.

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  This short article is a good example of how scholars have used extra-biblical sources to elucidate the possible meaning of calf-imagery in ancient Israel. Fleming notes that El is always referred to as a bull, never as a calf—suggesting that the image of a calf would have been used to represent a god of a younger generation than El.

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• Grottanelli, Cristiano. “The Enemy King Is a Monster: A Biblical Equation.” In Kings and Prophets: Monarchic Power, Inspired Leadership, and Sacred Text in Biblical Narrative. By Cristiano Grottanelli, 47–72. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

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  A sophisticated study that builds off the argument in Loewenstamm 1967 that Moses’ destruction of the golden calf echoes Anat’s destruction of Mot in Ugaritic literature. Grottanelli proceeds to argue that the golden calf should be recognized as one of several monster-figures in the Hebrew Bible that belong to a political ideology equating the enemy king with a monster that must be destroyed.

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• Hayes, Christine E. “Golden Calf Stories: The Relationship of Exodus 32 and Deuteronomy 9–10.” In The Idea of Biblical Interpretation: Essays in Honor of James L. Kugel. Edited by Hindy Najman and Judith H. Newman, 45–93. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2004.

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  A thorough and lucid study of the textual history of the golden calf story. Hayes explores the relationship between the Exodus account and the one in Deuteronomy, as well as their relationship to the account of Jeroboam’s calves in Kings, and provides insightful literary readings of the texts.

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• Lasine, Stuart. “Reading Jeroboam’s Intentions: Intertextuality, Rhetoric, and History in 1 Kings 12.” In Reading between Texts: Intertextuality and the Hebrew Bible. Edited by D. N. Fewell, 133–152. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1992.

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  A sophisticated reading of the story of Jeroboam’s calves that distinguishes the intentions of the text (in relation to its intended audience) from the intentions of the historical Jeroboam.

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• Loewenstamm, Samuel E. “The Making and Destruction of the Golden Calf.” Biblica 48 (1967): 481–490.

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  A turning point in the study of the biblical story, Loewenstamm’s paper suggests that the destruction of the golden calf should be understood against the background of Anat’s destruction of Mot in Ugaritic literature.

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• Smith, Mark S. “Counting Calves at Bethel.” In “Up to the Gates of Ekron”: Essays on the Archaeology and History of the Eastern Mediterranean in Honor of Seymour Gitin. Edited by Sidnie White Crawford, 382–394. Jerusalem: The W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, Israel Exploration Society, 2007.

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  This article addresses the question of how many calf figurines may have been set up as part of the cult at Bethel. In the process, Smith provides an overview of all the relevant biblical and extra-biblical passages—especially 1 Kings 12:32, Hosea 10:5–6, and Papyrus Amherst 63—as well as thorough references to previous scholarship.

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• Zipor, Moshe. “The Deuteronomic Account of the Golden Calf and Its Reverberation in Other Parts of the Book of Deuteronomy.” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 108 (1996): 20–33.

  DOI: 10.1515/zatw.1996.108.1.20Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A detailed study of how the sin of the golden calf functions in the rhetoric of the speeches in Deuteronomy.

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Idolatry in Prophetic Literature

Prophetic literature contains numerous polemical passages that parody idols, idol making, and idol worship—most notably in Jeremiah and Second Isaiah. Dick 1999 provides an excellent introduction to this literature and its relationship to contemporary cultic practices in Mesopotamia. Overholt 1965 and King 1996 provide additional perspectives on Jeremiah, whereas Clifford 1980 and Holter 1995 focus on Second Isaiah. Kennedy 1991 reveals how Ezekiel plays on contemporary Mesopotamian practices, whereas Levtow 2008 expands this approach to set the prophet attacks within their ancient Near Eastern context. Irvine 2014 discusses the political context of a relatively early prophetic attack on idolatry.

• Clifford, Richard J. “The Function of Idol Passages in Second Isaiah.” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 42 (1980): 450–464.

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  Argues that the four “idol passages” in Second Isaiah are meant to portray vivid contrasts that are central to the prophet’s message: the contrast between Yahweh and idol fabricators, between Israel and the nations, and between Cyrus and the idols.

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• Dick, Michael B. “Prophetic Parodies of Making the Cult Image.” In Born in Heaven, Made on Earth: The Making of the Cult Image in the Ancient Near East. Edited by Michael B. Dick, 1–53. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1999.

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  A thorough treatment of the parodies of idol making in Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Second Isaiah. Dick, who edited the main Mesopotamian ritual for making cult statues, situates these satires in relation to the broader culture of their day.

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• Holter, Knut. Second Isaiah’s Idol-Fabrication Passages. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1995.

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  A detailed study of four passages in Isaiah 40–55 that mock the fabrication of idols. Holter emphasizes synchronic issues and concludes that the passages are intended to contrast ironically the idol-fabricators to Yahweh.

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• Irvine, Stuart A. “Idols כתבונם: A Note on Hosea 13:2a.” Journal of Biblical Literature 133 (2014): 509–517.

  DOI: 10.1353/jbl.2014.0031Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Proposes a textual emendation that helps situate the criticism of Israelite production of idols within the context of the revolt against Assyria in 721–719 BCE.

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• Kennedy, James M. “Hebrew pitḥôn peh in the Book of Ezekiel.” Vetus Testamentum 41 (1991): 233–235.

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  Kennedy’s short article argues that two passages in the book of Ezekiel make allusion to the Mesopotamian ritual of “opening the mouth” of cult statues. The first verse promises that in the purified Jerusalem such mouth-opening of statues will no longer take place, whereas the second occurrence suggests that through prophecy human beings replace divinities of wood or stone.

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• King, Philip J. “Jeremiah and Idolatry.” Eretz-Israel 25 (1996): 31–36.

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  A study of the satire of idolatry in Jeremiah 10 in light of ancient Mesopotamian evidence.

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• Levtow, Nathaniel B. Images of Others: Iconic Politics in Ancient Israel. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2008.

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  This book does an excellent job in situating the prophetic polemics against cult statues in relation to Mesopotamian literary genres and ritual practices. By paying attention to the political and historical background to the biblical parodies, Levtow provides a rich and nuanced account of how these texts came about without reducing “idolatry” to a static Israelite idea.

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• Overholt, T. W. “The Falsehood of Idolatry: An Interpretation of Jer. X 1–16.” Journal of Theological Studies 16 (1965): 1–12.

  DOI: 10.1093/jts/XVI.1.1Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Challenges the scholarly position that Jeremiah 10:1–16 is a secondary interpolation and provides an interpretation of the passage that allows for it to be seen as original to the Jeremian tradition.

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The Afterlife of Biblical Idolatry

The afterlife of biblical idolatry is a massive topic. The following citations are just a sampling to provide some starting points from which to begin exploring how the idea of idolatry has influenced the development of the three major monotheistic religions and beyond. (Many of the entries listed under Theoretical Discussions also provide valuable direction in this regard.) Barasch 1992 is a classic account of how the biblical prohibition of images was received in Antiquity and how early Christian writers struggled with their inheritance of it. Camille 1989 and Koerner 2004 provide engaging accounts of how the problem of idolatry worked itself out during two later periods of Christian history. Cole and Zorach 2009 collects essays that focus on the idol as both concept and material object in the early modern period. Hawting 1999 treats the idea of idolatry in the early years of Islam. Bland 2000 addresses the question of what effect the second commandment had on Jewish visual culture. Nancy 2005 discusses the horrors of national socialism through the lens of the Western tradition on idolatry, whereas Flood 2002 focuses on the Taliban’s destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas.

• Barasch, Moshe. Icon: Studies in the History of an Idea. New York: New York University Press, 1992.

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  A classic work in the history of ideas, Barasch’s book follows the reception of the biblical second commandment in Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. He provides helpful summaries of the dominant positions regarding imagery among pagan philosophers and thinkers of the early church. A lucid and thoughtful work.

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• Bland, Kalman P. The Artless Jew: Medieval and Modern Affirmations and Denials of the Visual. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.

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  Challenging the conventional wisdom that Judaism is either indifferent or hostile to the visual arts thanks to the second commandment, Bland’s book provides eye-opening discussions of Jewish attitudes to art. He treats both modern Jewish thought and Judaism in the Middle Ages.

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• Camille, Michael. The Gothic Idol: Ideology and Image-Making in Medieval Art. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

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  This early work, by one of the most creative medieval art historians of his generation, explores how idolatry was depicted in the European art of the 13th and 14th centuries CE. Camille argues that images of idolatry were used to depict pagans, Muslims, Jews, and heretics, and so functioned as a means to articulate the division between those who were in the church and those who were not.

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• Cole, Michael W., and Rebecca E. Zorach. The Idol in the Age of Art: Objects, Devotions and the Early Modern World. St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2009.

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  This collection brings together essays on how the idol functioned as both a polemical concept and a category of material object in the early modern period. Stretching beyond the bounds of Europe, the volume includes essays that treat East Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

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• Flood, Finbarr Barry. “Between Cult and Culture: Bamiyan, Islamic Iconoclasm, and the Museum.” Art Bulletin 84.4 (2002): 641–659.

  DOI: 10.2307/3177288Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This thoughtful essay situates the Taliban’s 2001 destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas within a broad history of Islamic attitudes to imagery, on the one hand, and the role of modern media and museums, on the other. Flood shows that recent events cannot be explained by reference simply to a static notion of Islamic iconoclasm.

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• Hawting, G. R. The Idea of Idolatry and the Emergence of Islam: From Polemic to History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

  DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511497490Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This book challenges the scholarly position that holds disputes with idolators and polytheists as fundamental to the emergence of Islam. In the process, Hawting provides a thorough account of the figure of idolatry in the Qur’an and early Islamic literature.

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• Koerner, Joseph Leo. The Reformation of the Image. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.

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  This wonderfully illustrated book by a foremost historian of early modern German art tells the story of how a revived iconoclastic zeal during the Reformation transformed the ways in which pictures were made and understood in the European tradition. Koerner’s book is smart and thought provoking.

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• Nancy, Jean-Luc. “Forbidden Representation.” In The Ground of the Image. By Jean-Luc Nancy, 27–50. Translated by Jeff Fort. New York: Fordham University Press, 2005.

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  French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy’s essay considers the claim that the horrors of national socialism, and in particular the death camps, cannot be represented. He situates this claim within the long history of the West’s opposition to idolatry. The result is a brilliant, if sometimes difficult, reflection on the relationship between modern politics and the Western artistic tradition.

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