Supplement series 2
The Image and Its Prohibition in Jewish Antiquity
Edited by Sarah Pearce
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, skillfuly explore different functions of images in relation to their prohibition by the second of the Ten Commandments. This book is aimed at the both the scholarly world and all readers interested in religion and art.
Chapters include
PHILIP ALEXANDER
Word versus image, mediating divine presence
HUGH G.M. WILLIAMSON
Imaging the Deity in the First Temple
JANE HEATH
Greek and Jewish visual piety
SARAH PEARCE
Philo on the second commandment
MARGARET H. WILLIAMS
The menorah as protective symbol
TESSA RAJAK
Synagogue paintings of Dura-Europos
SACHA STERN
Graeco-Roman images in late antique Palestine
ZEEV WEISS
Figural art in urban Galilee
LALIV CLENMAN
The faceless idol in rabbinic tradition
ARON C. STERK
Jewish dialogue with Roman paganism
Reviews
This very fully illustrated book makes a notable contribution to the understanding of Jewish religious culture in Ancient World, in exploring the tension between the Biblical prohibition on images on the one hand, and the extensive evidence for representational Jewish art on the other.
Sir Fergus Millar