Tryggve N. D. Mettinger

An excellent study on whether Israelite iconoclasm is an aberration in the Near East, or part of a wider cultural phenomenon. He concludes the latter, pointing out that Israelite religion developed in the context of what he calls "material aniconism" -- that is, worship focused on standing stones. He has an excellent grasp of the archaeology, surveying the appearance of standing stones in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Phonecia, Syria, and Arabia, and concluding that nonanthropomorphic embodiments of the divine were par for the course both during and before the Iron Age. He then makes the argument that Israelite iconoclasm developed out of this tendency to represent the divine with a simple stone, transcending what was an integral part of the religion to actually do away even with this aniconic symbol. My only wishes are that he dealt more with the Bible (archaeological rather than Biblical analysis was his main goal) and that he discussed mortuary cults more thoroughly (since that would have aided my dissertation more). Anyway, an interesting book, and one that I can rely on.… (meer)