I hadn't intended to go here, but since you opened the door...
Yes, you might argue that, but you would be at best only partially correct. The roots are MUCH deeper.
Oh, surely they do ... I was staying close to the question of emperor v bishop.
The Catechism’s traditional presentation of the Ten Commandments:
Actually, the Catechism presents the Decalogue as listed in Exodus 20, the Decalogue as listed in Deuteronomy 5, and a traditional catechetical formula, so the Decalogue is listed three times in all, with extensive commentary throughout.
The prohibition in question needs first of all to be read in context –
Exodus 20:3-5: "Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them: I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous... "
Deuteronomy 5:7-9: "You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God ..."
In both instances it's clear that the prohibition against any image or likeness refers to the idols of the polytheist peoples who surrounded Israel in the region, but not images created within a specific Hebrew context, viz: the sanctuary and the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25) which the people did bow down to and did serve.
Furthermore:
Numbers 21:8-9: "And the Lord said to him: Make brazen serpent, and set it up for a sign: whosoever being struck shall look on it, shall live."
1 Chronicles 28:18: "And for the altar of incense, he gave the purest gold: and to make the likeness of the chariot of the cherubims spreading their wings, and covering the ark of the covenant of the Lord."
2 Chronicles 3:10-17: "He made also in the house of the holy of holies two cherubims of image work: and he overlaid them with gold. ... So the wings of the two cherubims were spread forth, and were extended twenty cubits: and they stood upright on their feet, and their faces were turned toward the house without. He made also a veil of violet, purple, scarlet, and silk: and wrought in it cherubims. He made also before the doors of the temple two pillars ... These pillars he put at the entrance of the temple, one on the right hand, and the other on the left: that which was on the right hand, he called Jachin: and that on the left hand, Boot."
Josephus goes on to record this, regarding the Veil of the Temple:
"Before these hung a veil of equal length, of Babylonian tapestry, with embroidery of blue and fine linen, of scarlet also and purple, wrought with marvellous skill. Nor was this mixture of materials without its mystic meaning: it typified the universe. For the scarlet seemed emblematical of fire, the fine linen of the earth, the blue of the air, and the purple of the sea; the comparison in two cases being suggested by their colour, and in that of the fine linen and purple by their origin, as the one is produced by the earth and the other by the sea. On this tapestry was portrayed a panorama of the heavens, the signs of the Zodiac excepted... (Jewish Wars 5.5.4 211–5.5 219)
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From wiki on aniconism
A number of verses in the Hebrew Bible refer to prohibitions against the creation of various forms of images, invariably linked directly with
idolatry.
Leviticus 26:1: "(Therefore,) do not make yourselves false gods (ie: idols). Do not raise up a stone idol or a sacred pillar for yourselves. Do not place a kneeling stone in your land so that you can prostrate yourselves on it. I am God your Lord."
Similar injunctions appear in Numbers 33:52 and Deuteronomy 4:16 and 27:15; in all cases, the creation of the image is associated with idolatry, and indeed, the words commonly translated as "image" or some variant thereof (פסל
pesel, שקוץ
shikuts) are generally used interchangeably with words typically translated as "idol" (e.g., אליל
elil). (An important exception is צלם
tselem, used in such verses as Genesis 1:26: "let us make man in our image"; this word was not associated with idols.)
Despite the semantic association with idols, Halakha ("Jewish law") as taught by the Shulkhan Arukh ("Code of Jewish Law") and practiced and applied by Conservative Judaism and Orthodox Judaism today, interprets the verses as prohibiting the creation of certain types of graven images of people, angels, or astronomical bodies,
whether or not they are actually used as idols. (my emphasis) The Shulkhan Arukh states: "It is forbidden to make complete solid or raised images of people or angels, or any images of heavenly bodies except for purposes of study" ("Heavenly bodies" are included here because the stars and planets were worshipped by some religions in human forms. Astronomical models for scientific purposes are permitted under the category of "study.")
This has been extended to surprising degree:
"There was a time not so long ago when it was generally held that the over-strict interpretation of one of the Commandments (the Second of them according to the Jewish traditional division, the Third according to the Christian) as well as of other passages of the Pentateuch,
meant that representational art of any sort whatsoever was rigorously forbidden to strictly observant Jews. (my emphasis) The most telling passage was as a matter of fact not in the Ten Commandments but in the elaboration of this point in Deuteronomy (4:16-18), which forbids in the most uncompromising terms the manufacture of “the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the heaven, the likeness of any thing that creepeth upon the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth.” The implication was of course that such likenesses should not be made for purposes of worship. But the text does not say so; and there can be no doubt that the manufacture of such “images,” whether of man, beast, fish, or fowl (let alone the heavenly bodies), was contrary to the express injunction of Mosaic Law.
That Moses himself seems to have found a loophole in his own code when he ordered the manufacture of the Cherubim, as did Solomon after him (who added brazen oxen to support the great Temple laver) was beside the point: God knew what he was about (my emphasis)
Commentary Magazine
When it comes to Christianity, the wiki article cited above makes an interesting point:
Many art historians have long believed that there was a tradition in antiquity, with no surviving examples, of luxury illuminated manuscript scrolls of books from the Tanakh among Hellenized Jews. The evidence for this is Christian works of the Late Antique and Early Medieval periods whose iconography is thought to derive from works in this tradition...
... the discovery in 1932 of the 3rd century Dura-Europos synagogue in Syria came as a considerable surprise, as it has large areas of wall-paintings with figures of the prophets and others, and narrative scenes. There are several representations of the Hand of God, suggesting that this motif reached Christian art from Judaism. A virtually unique Christian mosaic depiction of the
Ark of the Covenant (806) at Germigny-des-Prés, which includes the hand, is believed also to be derived from Jewish iconography; the Ark also appears at Dura-Europos. Several ancient synagogues in Israel have also been excavated, revealing large floor-mosaics with figurative elements, especially animals and Hellenistic representations of the Zodiac. However, some of these, notably that at Naaran in the West Bank, have had the living figures removed, leaving inanimate symbols such as the menorah intact.
It has been proposed that this was done by the Jewish community in the 6th or early 7th century, as part of a controversy within Judaism over images that paralleled that within Christianity leading to the Byzantine iconoclasm, leading to a stricter attitude towards images, at least in synagogues. There is also evidence that from about 570 new synagogue mosaics were aniconic. An alternative explanation for the removals is that they were done after the Muslim Conquest, and related to the decree of Caliph Yazid II in 721 (although this referred to Christian images). The decoration of the cave walls and sarcophagi at the Jewish cemetery at Beit She'arim also uses images, some drawn from Hellenistic pagan mythology, in the 2nd to 4th centuries CE.
Finally, this from a contemporary source, which I cite only because it strikes me as utterly ridiculous - highlighted in bold, with my comment following:
"Over time, this commandment has been interpreted in a variety of ways. The most common prohibition, and the one that’s most obvious from the text, is against creating sculptures of people, animals, or planets for the purpose of worshipping them. One of the primary messages of the Torah is that worshipping idols is not allowed,
so it’s not surprising that creating pieces of art that could be used as idols was prohibited."
This prohibition then covers anything and everything, as anything can become a fetish object ...
"You asked specifically about drawing the human form, so I’ll give you a bit more history on how that issue is treated in rabbinic literature. The Talmud comments on the second commandment, and
takes a very strict stance against producing images of faces, ruling it forbidden, but sanctioning owning images of faces that were created by non-Jews. (Avodah Zara 43a)"
Why God is OK with images created by non-Jews – surely the ownership of said images by Jews is the point!!!
"Today most traditional rabbinic authorities go by the ruling in the Shulchan Aruch, sanctioning depictions of the human body that are somehow incomplete. For example, a sculpted bust would be acceptable, but not a full human form; a drawing in which part of the body is obstructed by a piece of furniture or another person would also be acceptable."
Which, really, is utter nonsense. By this token it would be fine to own the famous portrait of Christine Keeler!
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