No Graven Image?
Subtitle: Israelite Aniconism in Its Ancient Near Eastern Context (Coniectanea Biblica, Old Testament Ser. , No 42)
Publisher: Coronet Books
Published: September 1995
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 252
ISBN-13: 9789122016649
Subjects: Alternative belief systems; Biblical concordances & commentaries; Old Testament Commentary; Religion - Biblical Studies; Religion; Biblical Studies - Old Testament; Bible - Study - Old Testament
Description: An important book about a remarkable phenomenon. This is the first in-depth study of Israelite aniconism in the light of comparative material from the ancient Near East. In an introductory chapter Dr. Mettinger introduces a distinction between de facto aniconism and programmatic prohibition of images. He then goes on to demonstrate that de facto aniconism was a conventional practice in several West Semitic cultures.

Finally, he sketches the development from West Semitic aniconism (with aniconic stelae as symbols of the divine) to Israelite iconoclasm.