There is positive evidence in the
Bible of the worship of theriomorphic images, such as Nehushtan (2 Kgs 18:4)
and the “calf” of Bethel, the latter representing Yahweh. The existence of
images of Yahweh becomes probable, furthermore, by the connection between
Yahweh and Asherah, known from Khirbet el-Qom and Kuntillet ᴄAjrud. (Karl
Van Der Toorn, “The Iconic Book,” in God in Context: Selected Essays on
Society and Religion in the Early Middle East [Forschungen zum Alten Testament
123; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck,
2018], 130)
The interpretation of the
tauromorphic image as a divine seat, Yahweh himself remaining invisible, is
invalidated by the presentation formula in l Kgs 12:28, as well as by the
account of the bull image at the temple of Dan, since the latter is alleged to
be identical with the “metal-covered wooden image” (pesel ûmassēkâ) of
Yahweh which Micah from Ephraim once had in his shrine (Judg 17–18), contra, e.
g., Tryggve Mettinger, “The Veto on Images and the Aniconic God in Ancient
Israel,” in Religious Symbols and Their Functions (ed. Harald Biezais; Stockholm:
Almqvist and Wiksell, 1979), 15–29, esp. 21–22. (Ibid., 130 n. 27)
