JILL MIDDLEMAS
The Divine Image
Prophetic Aniconic Rhetoric and Its Contribution to the
Aniconism Debate
[Das göttliche Ebenbild. Prophetische anikonische Rhetorik und ihr Beitrag zur
Anikonismusdebatte.]
Published in English.
Although attempts to understand the growth of aniconism focus on the Pentateuchal legal
material, scholars increasingly make reference to the prophetic literature to illuminate the
debate. Jill Middlemas provides the rst comprehensive analysis of the prophets with attention
to rhetorical strategies that re ect anti-iconic thought and promote iconoclasm. After
illuminating the idol polemics, which is the rhetoric most often associated with aniconism, she
draws out how prophecy also exposes a reticence towards cultic symbols and mental images of
Yahweh. At the same time the theme of incomparability as well as the use of metaphor and
multiple imaging, paradoxically, reveal additional ways to express aniconic belief or the
destabilization of a single divine image. Middlemas' analysis of prophetic aniconism sheds new
light on interpretations of the most iconic expression in the Old Testament, the imago dei
passages in Genesis, where God is said to create humanity in the divine image.
2014. XI, 190 pages.
FAT II 74
ISBN 978-3-16-153749-3
eBook PDF 59,00 €
Jill Middlemas Born 1971; 2004 DPhil Oxon; 2007–10 Associate Professor at the Theology
Faculty, University of Aarhus, Denmark; since 2011 Research Associate in the Old Testament
Department, Faculty of Theology, University of Zurich.
ISBN 978-3-16-153724-0
sewn paper 59,00 €
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