Reply To: Graven Images

[Aubri Stogsdill]

Personally, I feel that the Jews did a better job of keeping to this command than the Christians did. In the various Jewish Catacombs we see little to no depictions creatures or forms that would be used for worship within other religions. When they made art, they depicted the instruments that were used for worship in the temple, such as the menorah. While there are some depictions of animals and the occasional person, they are not painted in a way that would bring attention to them. The viewers of these works would never think that the people or the animals would have been an object of worship. The Christians, on the other had, depicted a plethora of people, and animals. And while it could be argued that they did not intend to worship these images, I still think that there was a stronger reverence and concern for the second commandment seen in Jewish art than in early Christian art.