Gods and Idols. Representations and Symbolizations of the Divinity in the Religions of Ancient Israel (IIa). Idolatry and Iconoclasm

Abstract This article represents the first section of the second part of the study Gods and Idols. Representations and Symbolizations of the Divinity in the Religions of Ancient Israel. The subjects addressed for analysis are idolatry and iconoclasm in the context of Levantine iconography, seen from the perspective of the biblical authors, a totally tendentious, aggressive and contrary vision, in particular, to the archaeological discoveries. The Hebrew lexical fund of the MT was very rich and, later, almost doubled by the Greek version of the Old Testament text translated into the LXX (Septuagint) translation, regarding the denomination of foreign gods, idols and other representations. However, the “de facto tradition” of the Israelites contained a plastic iconography, idolatry and iconoclasm being phenomena that appeared in the post-exile period and called by scientific research “programmatic tradition”.