It is tempting to solve this difficulty by understanding the second commandment-like the first-to be a prohibition against idolatry. What can possibly be so wrong about symbolizing Yahweh? Am I not making a symbol of Yahweh-a graven image-every time I write the word, G-O-D? If, however, it is not inappropriate to represent God symbolically with a word, G-O-D, then why not with something else? What is so inappropriate about inventing a pictogram, an image, or anything else to symbolize the living God? What was God thinking when He gave Israel this second commandment? To understand how this commandment is not just petty and trivial is a real difficulty. Humans rely on symbolism it is an inherent aspect of our abilities to reason and to use language. This commandment seems to forbid Israel from representing Yahweh with a symbol. The second of the ten commandments presents the thoughtful Christian with a difficulty he cannot help but be bothered by it. You shall not worship them or serve them for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” (Exodus 20:4-6, adapted from the NASV) You shall not make for yourself any graven image, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. Career DevelopmentLiberal Arts: Education for All Walks of Life.Mission & Philosophy of Education Statement.Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor worship them ( Exod. Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any figure that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth. ![]() On account of this transformation and distortion of heavenly things, a new representative Church was raised up among the sons of Israel, in which genuine representations, as was stated above, were instituted and to which it was forbidden to celebrate Divine worship by any others, as is evident from these words in the first Commandment of the Decalogue: Thus were heavenly types turned into infernal types, and the Divine things of heaven and the Church into idols. ![]() But after the knowledge of correspondences was lost, and consequently the discernment of the signification of those images had perished, a later posterity began to look upon and acknowledge them as so many Divine and holy things and then to some they bowed the knee, some they kissed, and some they adorned and decorated with necklaces, boxes of perfumes and anklets, just as children do their dolls, and as papists do their images yea, of some they made household gods, of some guardian demigods, and of some Pythons some, moreover, they carried in miniature forms in their hands, some they hugged in their bosoms, stroked, and whispered petitions in their ears and so on. They placed these typical images in their sanctuaries, in the inner chambers of their houses, and in the market-places and streets, arranging them according to their significations. I will touch, in a few words, upon the manner in which the representative Church with them was turned into an idolatrous one: All the spiritual things which are of heaven and the Church were presented before them in visible and tangible images, as was mentioned just above those images were taken from the subjects of the three kingdoms of nature, animal, vegetable and mineral, by which were represented such things as are of the heavenly kingdom.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |