Ancient Jews Didn’t Shun Art, but Put It to a Different Use Than Their Pagan Contemporaries

A persistent canard, not held exclusively by anti-Semites, claims that Jews are a uniquely unaesthetic people. Prohibited by the second commandment from making likenesses—so the myth goes—Jews cultivate literature, law, and theology, but shun the visual arts. While everything from ancient synagogue mosaics to the work of such modern masters as Marc Chagall give the lie to these claims, Raphael Zarum looks at the actual differences that distinguished ancient Israelite aesthetics from those of their contemporaries. He finds evidence in the British Museum’s exhibit Luxury and Power: Persia to Greece.