The Image and Its Prohibition in Jewish Antiquity

The Image and Its Prohibition in Jewish Antiquity PDF

Author: Sarah Pearce

Publisher: Journal of Jewish Studies

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780957522800

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Against the commonly held opinion that ancient Judaism was an artless culture, this sumptuously illustrated book offers new ways of looking at art in Jewish antiquity. Leading experts, under the editorship of Sarah Pearce, skilfully explore different functions of images in relation to their prohibition by the Second of the Ten Commandments. The visual world of ancient Judaism often reflects a tense confrontation between Mediterranean, artful classical culture and the image-filled, yet law-inspired biblical literature. Readers will encounter a rich collection of objects and texts analysed in different contexts, from Solomon's Temple to late antiquity. The imageless God of monotheistic Judaism combated the polytheistic cults of Israel's neighbours with the use of symbols. Figurative, floral and geometrical embellishments of synagogues served as decoration and not for worship. Narrative biblical scenes in the Dura-Europos synagogue played an educational and political role in Jewish society on the outskirts of the Roman Empire. Antique Jewish art exercised a profound influence on medieval Islam and even on the modern Western visual world. This book is aimed at both the scholarly world and all readers interested in religion and art.

Jewish Art in Late Antiquity

Jewish Art in Late Antiquity PDF

Author: Dr Shulamit Laderman

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-12-06

Total Pages: 86

ISBN-13: 9004509585

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This survey of ancient Jewish art traces Tabernacle implements and their iconographic development from the Second Temple period until late sixth century CE. It examines appearances of seven-branch menorah, Torah ark, and other motifs found in archeological discoveries of burial art synagogue decorations.

Iconotropy and Cult Images from the Ancient to Modern World

Iconotropy and Cult Images from the Ancient to Modern World PDF

Author: Jorge Tomás García

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-04-06

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 1000574180

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The book examines the process of symbolic and material alteration of religious images in antiquity, the middle ages and the modern period. The process by which the form and meaning of images are modified and adapted for a new context is defined by a large number of spiritual, religious, artistic, geographical or historical circumstances. This book provides a defined theoretical framework for these symbolic and material alterations based on the concept of iconotropy; that is, the way in which images change and/or alter their meaning. Iconotropy is a key concept in religious history, particularly for periods in which religious changes, often turbulent, took place. In addition, the iconotropic process of appropriating cult images brought with it changes in the materiality of those images. Numerous accounts from antiquity, the middle ages and the modern period detail how cult images were involved in such processes of misinterpretation, both symbolically and materially. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, visual culture and religious history.

A History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period, Volume 4

A History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period, Volume 4 PDF

Author: Lester L. Grabbe

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-07-29

Total Pages: 663

ISBN-13: 0567700712

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This is the fourth and fi nal volume of Lester L. Grabbe's four-volume history of the Second Temple period, collecting all that is known about the Jews during the period in which they were ruled by the Roman Empire. Based directly on primary sources such as archaeology, inscriptions, Jewish literary sources and Greek, Roman and Christian sources, this study includes analysis of the Jewish diaspora, mystical and Gnosticism trends, and the developments in the Temple, the law, and contemporary attitudes towards Judaism. Spanning from the reign of Herod Archelaus to the war with Rome and Roman control up to 150 CE, this volume concludes with Grabbe's holistic perspective on the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period.

Visualizing Jews Through the Ages

Visualizing Jews Through the Ages PDF

Author: Hannah Ewence

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-03-24

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 1317630289

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This volume explores literary and material representations of Jews, Jewishness and Judaism from antiquity to the twenty-first century. Gathering leading scholars from within the field of Jewish Studies, it investigates how the debates surrounding literary and material images within Judaism and in Jewish life are part of an on-going strategy of image management - the urge to shape, direct, authorize and contain Jewish literary and material images and encounters with those images - a strategy both consciously and unconsciously undertaken within multifarious arenas of Jewish life from early modern German lands to late twentieth-century North London, late Antique Byzantium to the curation of contemporary Holocaust exhibitions.

The Studia Philonica Annual XXIX, 2017

The Studia Philonica Annual XXIX, 2017 PDF

Author: David T. Runia

Publisher: SBL Press

Published: 2017-11-17

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 0884142558

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The best current research on Philo and Hellenistic Judaism The Studia Philonica Annual is a scholarly journal devoted to the study of Hellenistic Judaism, particularly the writings and thought of the Hellenistic-Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria (circa 15 BCE to circa 50 CE). This volume includes a soecial section on Philo's De plantatione. Features: Articles on aspects of Hellenistic Judaism written by experts in the field Bibliography Book reviews

Jewish Education from Antiquity to the Middle Ages

Jewish Education from Antiquity to the Middle Ages PDF

Author: George J. Brooke

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2017-10-17

Total Pages: 473

ISBN-13: 9004347763

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In Jewish Education from Antiquity to the Middle Ages there are fifteen tightly themed specialist studies that discuss individual texts, wider literary corpora, and various related themes to set a new agenda for the study of Jewish education.

The Divine Image

The Divine Image PDF

Author: Jill Middlemas

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Published: 2015-01-09

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9783161537240

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Although attempts to understand the growth of aniconism focus on the Pentateuchal legal material, scholars increasingly make reference to the prophetic literature to illuminate the debate. Jill Middlemas provides the first comprehensive analysis of the prophets with attention to rhetorical strategies that reflect anti-iconic thought and promote iconoclasm. After illuminating the idol polemics, which is the rhetoric most often associated with aniconism, she draws out how prophecy also exposes a reticence towards cultic symbols and mental images of Yahweh. At the same time the theme of incomparability as well as the use of metaphor and multiple imaging, paradoxically, reveal additional ways to express aniconic belief or the destabilization of a single divine image. Middlemas' analysis of prophetic aniconism sheds new light on interpretations of the most iconic expression in the Old Testament, the imago dei passages in Genesis, where God is said to create humanity in the divine image.

From Idols to Icons

From Idols to Icons PDF

Author: Robin M. Jensen

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2022-09-13

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 0520345428

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"From Idols to Icons tells the fascinating history of the dramatic shift in Christian attitudes toward sacred images from the third through the early seventh century. From attacks on the cult images of polytheism to the emergence of Christian narrative iconography to the appearance of portrait type representations of holy figures, this book examines the primary theological critiques as well as defenses of holy images in light of the surviving material evidence for early Christian visual art. Against the assumption that fourth- and fifth-century Christians simply forgot or ignored their predecessors' censure and reverted to more alluring pagan practices, Robin M. Jensen contends that each stage of this profound change was uniquely Christian. Through a careful consideration of the cult of saints' remains, devotional portraits, and pilgrimage to sacred sites, Jensen shows how the Christian devotion to holy images came to be rooted in their evolving conviction that the divinity was accessible in and through visible objects. Even the briefest glance at a museum's holdings or an introductory textbook demonstrates how profoundly influential this belief would be on the course of Western art for the next fifteen hundred years"--