Iconographic Exegesis in Visual Religious Culture of Ancient Israel: Methodological and Terminological Approaches. Gods and Idols (III.2)

Iconographic exegesis constitutes the hermeneutical method through which the content of biblical iconography, particularly that of Hebrew provenance, can be deciphered and subsequently understood on the basis of the conceptual relationship between image and text. Biblical iconography forms an integral part of the cultural and spiritual milieu of the Ancient Near East and, as such, has continually been shaped by aesthetic influences and interconnections resulting from processes of acculturation and cross-culture interaction.

In this respect, an objective understanding of any artistic creation defined as an image, whether expressed through visual-plastic language or figurative representation requires an interdisciplinary approach that promotes a holistic perspective framed within a specific Zeitgeist.

The founder of both disciplines, biblical iconography and iconographic exegesis, is the Swiss scholar Othmar Keel (b. 1937), who also established the renowned Fribourg School and the influential publication series Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis.