Idolatry in the Ancient Near East

Paper Summary:

This paper does not refute the more commonly accepted notions of Near Eastern religious faith as generated by the Hebrew Bible, but, rather, attempts to provide a greater understanding of the ancient Hebrews rejection of the concept of investing "idols" or statues with theological significance. The author points out that this rejection came not from the profound differences between the Israeli religion of the ancient Near East and its neighbors, but from the great similarities between the different cultic practices of Israel, Egypt, and Canaan. The paper reveals that the Israeli religion replaced the sacred space of the idolized body with the body of the temple, and replaced the ritual rhythms of investing the material substance of idols with the sacred space and temporal, seasonal rituals of sacrifice, and the sacrifice of animal, rather than human, offerings.

Table of Contents
Idolatry in the Ancient Near East a Non-Exodus Perspective
Near Eastern Religion "Idolatry" a Historically Rehabilitative Retrospective
Introduction
A Critical Perspective
Israeli Religion
Some Answers
A Rejection of the Familiar and the Past A New Judaism
A Final Caution

From the Paper:

"It is also noteworthy that in ancient Israel, the temple itself was constructed in a highly schematized fashion, reflecting the importance of practice. "Just as the world was created in seven days, so also the Temple was created over seven years. These cycles of seven obviously serve to correlate Temple building with the construction of the world," and the observing of the rhythms of the Sabbath through a temporal, seven-day weekly structure of accessing the divine through time, rather than through material practices. Rituals and sacrifices pertaining to the material substances of the temple, moreover, were to "help concretize the manner in which the deity is truly present in the human community.""

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