Idols and symbols: Divine representation in first millennium mesopotamian art and its bearing on the second commandment

First-millennium Mesopotamian art reveals a strong tendency to avoid the representation of human-shaped deities. Considering the historical framework, such a tendency may suggest Mesopotamian inspiration in the ancient Israelite negation of divine representation as articulated in the biblical image ban. This inspiration may indicate that biblical repudiation of the image of the divine was not necessarily shaped as a response to opposed alien religious imagery but was rather inspired by related prevalent seventh–fifth century Assyro-Babylonian concepts.