Israelite Figurines: Toys or Religious Icons?

Posted by Bronwen Manning on October 22, 2008 under Biblical Hebrew | 2 Comments to Read

Animals and Humans

Statistically, animal forms in Israel predominate those of human shape, and the majority of human forms are those of females. These female figurines have been labeled as the “Mother-goddess” or “Astarte” and since they go against the principal of aniconism (aversion to the use of icons) that the book of Deuteronomy describes, scholars have often placed the use of these figurines into the ‘popular’ religion of the common folk of Israel.

Religious Difference amongst the Israelites?

Many assumptions underline this idea. The first is that human figurines are representative of deities. The other, is that the presence of figurines in ancient houses is evidence of popular Israelite worship. This is contrasted by scholars with the official religion of Israel that claims to hate the production and use of such items as religious icons. Did such a religious divide exist in Israel?

The Bull and the Cherubim

One often cited example of unofficial versus official religion in Israel, is the worship at Dan and Bethel of the Bull that was installed by Jeroboam been Nebat, the first king of Israel. These bulls are interpreted as an image of worship, opposed to the Cherubim inside the Jerusalem temple that served as the throne of the invisible God, for the bible says God is “seated upon the cherubim”. So, from the biblical perspective, worship was different in Jerusalem than in Dan and Bethel.

Religious Ways Begin to Change

When we learn of the religious reform of Hezekiah, King of Judah – how he tore down the standing pillars and removed the Asherim from his land, we also hear how he removed an image of worship from the Jerusalem Temple. It was a bronze serpent and was called the Nehushtan which “the people of Israel burned incense to” (2 kings 18:4).

The bible clearly acknowledges that the worship of images and icons (such as the snake) existed at one time in Israel, and that a King who believed it a breach of proper worship took on the task of removing their presence.

The Call to Worship the Invisible God

The Bible tells us that the prohibition of religious images in Israel dates back to the times of Moses. However, the long use of the Nehushtan (the snake) in the Temple shows that either the Jerusalem priests ignored this religious stance against icons, or that the prohibition had not yet taken root in Judahite worship. What does seem to be sure is the growing awareness and introduction of worship of the invisible God alone, soon after the actions of King Hezekiah. Perhaps words like these drove him in his actions, “You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” (Deut 5:8).

In conclusion, we see that the official religion in Judah did, at one time, acknowledge the use of images in their worship, and thus one does not see the necessity of classifying figurines and such like icons into the ‘popular’ religion category. It was only a process of time that brought the use of icons to an end.

[smartads]

The Three Roads to a Jewish Identity

Posted by Bronwen Manning on October 2, 2008 under Biblical Hebrew | Read the First Comment

The Jewish traditional law layouts three criteria for membership into the Jewish fold: birth, marriage to a male Jew, and conversion. However, these three doors into the Jewish community have not been operative simultaneously through history.

Intermarriage

The biblical period shows how marriage to a male Jew was the key for an outsider to enter into the full membership and rights of the Jewish community. Without it, the very offspring of Moses and Boaz would have been called into question.

Intermarriage that is not outlawed in the founding laws in Leviticus came under attack by Ezra and Nehemiah in the Fifth Century B.C.E. Both men had spent the best part of their active lives in the Babylonian courts and became the pioneers that caused and aided a remnant to return to the broken walls of Jerusalem. Living under very different circumstances, where their ancient land was no longer theirs, the tolerance and openness of intermarriage was no longer a luxury this struggling and mixed group of Babylonian Jewry could afford to maintain.

Intermarriage as they knew it, that of a female non-Jew joining and upholding the Israelite laws as the book of Ruth explains, thus ended in very sad circumstances. This abolishment was carried on and enforced in the rabbinic period. In 1983, the Reform movement in the United States reinstated the Jewish status of children in a marriage where any one partner was Jewish and the children were reared in Judaism.

The Ethnic Factor

One side of the argument is that by birth a person may inherit a religious way of life that as an adult they choose not to follow. The country of Israel is a good example of the mix of Jewish people from all walks of life and religious views. However, they are Jews because their forefathers were Jews, and as we read in Genesis 12:7, Abraham was the receiver of a special promise that would be forever passed on to his children. This community known by the name of Abraham’s grandson, Bnei Yisrael, is called by Ezra as the “holy seed” (9:2).

However, when reading the bible closely, we find that birth has not been a guarantee of acceptance into the Israelite community. Look at the varying treatments between the brothers Isaac and Ishmael (who shared the same father) and Jacob and Esau (same father and mother). We see that Ishmael and Esau were dropped from the history and society of the Israelites, and instead they took up position against their brothers.

The silence in the bible about why birth was not sufficient in these cases has caused much debate, and the rabbinic commentaries attempt to fill the silence with a possible faulty idolatrous character of the men. But even this reasoning shows that acting against God, can disinherit you.

The Faith Factor

This idea of removing yourself from the brotherhood, even though you were physically born into it, is a biblical idea and one that stems from the establishment of the covenant of laws as ministered by Moses. When this system was set in place, it established a connection with God that gave to each member the responsibility to respond to God by following His rules. Through disobedience to these laws, each person was putting in danger that membership.

Perhaps the clearest example of this faith factor that runs concurrently with the birth factor in the bible comes from Abraham. When he was living in Ur in Mesopotamia, the term Israelite and Jew had not yet come into conscious thought. He was a solitary man who heard and responded to the voice of God. His faith in and obedience towards God was tested even to the point where his precious son was laid-out to die by his hand. His faith was the door that allowed him into the new community built upon him. One can say he paved the way for those who, not by birth, but through faith can always have a glorious way to enter into the Jewish community.

[smartads]