Well, certainly traditional Jews feel the Old Testament laws are to be followed more literally than Christians do, but that’s hardly news.
One argument sometimes presented is that since God had not yet presented Himself in physical form to the Old Testament Hebrews, that it was improper for them to make physical representations of Him, but that since He has presented Himself in physical form for Christians, that prohibition no longer applies.
The question I’ve always had is: why did the Ark of the Covenant include graven or molten images on the cover? Sure, they are depictions from heaven, but those are supposed to be forbidden, too, right?
It seems to me that the worship interpretation must be the right one, if holy objects can contain said images.
Sounds to me that the KJV is more accurate than the NOAB in this case. I just found this and it seems to lean the same way:http://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/OTpdf/exo20.pdf
If the Ark and the Inner Sanctum were not places/objects of worship in Judaism, it is hard to imaging what in the history of the world could possibly qualify. Moses also made a graven image of a serpent for the Israelites to worship to be cured of disease. So the worship prohibition just doesn’t work.
The explanation appears to be simply that the construction of the Ark and the serpent were literally commanded by the voice of God. Direct word-of-God always superceded any laws. If God tells the Jews not to do something, he can damn well tell them to do it later, or vice versa.
A more interesting theological point is that the later Kings of Israel sat upon a throne with prominent graven images on it. There is no mention that this was commanded by God, which is incongruous to say the least.
The Ark was not worshipped. Nor did Moses tell the Israelites to worship the bronze serpent but only to look upon it for healing- and that only from the bites of the plague of snakes. When later generations started using the bronze serpent as an object of veneration, one of the godlier kings destroyed it.
My link don’t work. Maybe this one will if you click on Exodus 20
BigT:
The general answer here is that there were numerous things that were commanded for Temple use that were not permitted for general use. Another major example is that many of the Priestly garments were made from both wool and linen, which is forbidden for an ordinary person, or a Priest while not performing Temple service, to wear.
Interesting, thank you. Always good to learn new things. You did use “missing an ear” in your earlier example… I was extrapolating (incorrectly) to alternate missing anatomical correctness. 