Aniconic propaganda in the Hebrew Bible, or: the possible birth of religious seriousness
The Hebrew Bible promotes aniconistic worship: images of the god Yahweh were prohibited. In the Ten Commandments, aniconism follows immediately after the monolatrous rule not to ‘have’ other gods than Yahweh. The reason for the prohibition against ‘idols’ is Yahweh’s singularity, but not his inheren...
| Published in: | Religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic/Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
[2017]
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| In: |
Religion
Year: 2017, Volume: 47, Issue: 3, Pages: 399-407 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Old Testament
/ Image prohibition
/ Axial Age
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| RelBib Classification: | AG Religious life; material religion HB Old Testament TB Antiquity |
| Further subjects: | B
Hebrew Bible
B Aniconism B ascetic religion B Axial Age |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | The Hebrew Bible promotes aniconistic worship: images of the god Yahweh were prohibited. In the Ten Commandments, aniconism follows immediately after the monolatrous rule not to ‘have’ other gods than Yahweh. The reason for the prohibition against ‘idols’ is Yahweh’s singularity, but not his inherent indescribability; in the Bible, there is no lack of literary images of Yahweh who is described as or compared with humans and animals as well as with meteorological phenomena. Among biblical scholars, aniconism as a religions program has often been regarded as a local, ‘Israelite’, phenomenon. My proposal is to see it in the context of the religious revolutions of the so-called axial age in the middle of the first millennium BCE and regard it as an example of a transformation from a ‘pre-axial’ type of religion, based on cult, ritual and material culture, to an ascetic, and cognitively more sophisticated, form of religion. |
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| ISSN: | 0048-721X |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/0048721X.2017.1295827 |