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Bible Encyclopedias
Sculpture, Hebrew.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or By the well-known law (in Exodus 20:4 sq.; Deuteronomy 4:16 sq.; Deuteronomy 27:15; comp. Diod. Sic. Eclog. xl, 1; Strabo, 16:761; Josephus, Cont. Apion. ii, 6; Ewald, Isr. Gesch. ii, 110 sq.; Tacit. Hist, v, 5, 4.
But see Bertheau, Isr. Gesch. p. 248) the Israelites were not forbidden to make any image in stone, wood, or metal (Michaelis, Mos. Recht, p. 150 sq.), for even in the sanctuary of Jehovah, on the ark of the covenant, there were two cherubs of gold; and flower-work as ornament was placed on the golden candlestick; and the large brazen bathing-vessel in the court (the so- called brazen sea [q.v.]) was supported on twelve brazen oxen (1 Kings 7:25), though Josephus blames this arrangement as illegal (Ant. 1 Kings 8:7; 1 Kings 8:5). In the wilderness, too, even Moses set up a brazen serpent (Numbers 21:8), and the Philistines offered golden figures as an offering to Jehovah (1 Samuel 6:17 sq.). But the design was to forbid all worship of images, and also all images of Jehovah (comp. Exodus 20:5; Josephus, Ant. iii, 5, 5; Philo; Opp. ii, 591), for a sensual people would easily be led into idolatry by them, or at least would lose much of the spirituality of their ideas of Jehovah (temp. Philo, Opp. i, 496); and thus the golden calf of Aaron (Exodus 32:4), the graven image of the children of Dan (Judges 18:31; comp. Judges 17:4), and the two golden calves of Jeroboam (1 Kings 12:28 sq.) were antitheocratic. Yet this Mosaic law prevented the great progress of sculpture, which in all nations has received its greatest impulse from religious faith and worship. (Schnaase, Gesch. d. bild. Kiinste, i, 257, thinks that the imagination of the Hebrews, as shown in their poetry, was too quick and mercurial for the patient work of sculpture.) Most of their works of brass of this kind were by Phoenician artists (1 Kings 7:14).
An example of sculpture not of a religious character occurs in the audience throne of Solomon, which was supported and surrounded by fourteen finely wrought lions, the symbol of strength (1 Kings 10:19 sq.; 2 Chronicles 9:19 sq.). After the exile, stricter views prevailed; and the orthodox Jews, or followers of the Pharisees, interpreted the Mosaic prohibition of sculpture in general (Josephus, Ant. 15:8, 1; 17:5, 2; 18:8, 1; War, ii, 9, 2; comp, also Mai- monides in Hottinger, Jus. Hebr. 39), even of architectural ornament (Josephus, War, ii, 10, 4; comp. Ant. 17:6, 2; Tacit. Hist. v, 5, 5. Yet according to Josephus, Ant. iii, 6, 2, only the image of living creatures were prohibited). Accordingly; a palace of the tetrarch Herod in Tiberias, which was adorned with the figures of beasts, was burned by order of the Sanhedrim, simply because it was thought to violate their law (Josephus, Life, 12). Still less were images tolerated in the Temple (id. Wari i, 33, 2; Ant. 17:6, 2). Even the image of the emperor, carried on the eagles of the soldiers, could not be admitted into Jerusalem (ibid. 18:3, 1, and 5, 3; comp. War, ii, 9, 2, Ant. 15:8, I sq.). Yet such rigid views were not universal; at least, at an earlier period, John Hyrcanus adorned his castle beyond the Jordan with colossal animal figures (ibid. 12:4,11 ); queen Alexandra had portraits of her children made (ibid. 15:2, 6); and Herod Agrippa possessed statues of his daughters (ibid. xix: 9, 1).
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