2CV or not 2CV? - That is the Question.

Bible

There are no restrictions of images in the Bible. The Bible never says you can’t draw this, paint this, or carve this. Indeed the Bible is canvased with instructions to draw, paint, carve, weave, all sorts of things. We are made in the image of a Creator - not just the Creator as some cosmic title for God, but a Creator. A triune being who slings the stars into the night sky with His words. Who dapples the dry land with every color of the rainbow…who made rainbows..and rainbow trout! Imaging that God into this world involves at some level creating artistic beauty, whether with the brush, chisel, typewriter, or tambourine. Art is in our bones. Creating and enjoying creation is essential to our identity as image bearers of God.

But the image has been is marred. Created order is regularly perverted by God’s image bearers. Gifts for the right worship of God are misused for the glory of lesser things. This is currently happening all around us in a myriad of ways in our own Western culture. In the ancient Near East, rebellious humans corrupted artistic abilities for the worship of false gods. Carved images of made up deities littered the landscape of the Mesopotamian and the Mediterranean worlds. The descendants of the scattered families of Babel misused their creative gifts in the service of false Gods.

The widespread use of carved images of false gods was of course a huge part of the cultural context in the world of the Hebrew Bible (OT). This reality is in the background of almost every book of the Hebrew Bible, and it is certainly in cultural backdrop to the Ten Words of Exodus 20. The newly rescued Israelites (and Egyptians) were coming out of 400 years in a place where carved or painted idols where everywhere you looked. Indeed the Israelites themselves worshipped these false gods in Egypt (Josh 24:14)!

It may be tempting to think to yourself, man I wonder if God is just going to do away with creativity and art altogether? Humans are constantly perverting and corrupting these wonderful gifts God has given us. But we already no that the answer is a resounding “No.” God will redeem our creative endeavors, he will restore and order our gifts for His glory and our good.

Here is my point in one sentence: God doesn’t restrict images of anything, but He restricts the worship and service of an image of everything…including himself!

In this conversation we are discussing the “Second Commandment” and if depictions of Jesus violate this divine imperative. Let us read the commandment:

English Standard Version (Chapter 20)

You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I YHWH your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Get to the golden calf.

History

Majority view.