Iconoclasm
Iconoclasm in Scripture is the physical destruction of idols, pillars, Asherim, and high places by faithful covenant-keepers. The Sinai law commanded it, the conquest generation was charged with it, and several of the most-praised kings of the divided monarchy carried it out. Where reform fell short, the prophets named the survival of the high places as the unfinished work; where reform went furthest, it reached even to the altar at Beth-el.
The Sinai Command
The earliest iconoclastic verbs in the Torah are addressed to Israel itself. At Sinai Yahweh forbids any treaty with the gods of the land: "You will not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works; but you will completely overthrow them, and break in pieces their pillars" (Ex 23:24). The renewal at Ex 34:13 sharpens the same charge to three verbs at once: "you⁺ will break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and you⁺ will cut down their Asherim."
Numbers turns the command toward the imminent crossing of the Jordan: "you⁺ will drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you⁺, and destroy all their figured [stones], and destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places" (Nu 33:52). Deuteronomy reissues the formula in expanded form, naming the idol-objects to be burned and the rationale: the graven images "you⁺ will burn with fire: you will not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it to you, or else you will be snared in it; for it is disgusting to Yahweh your God" (De 7:25). The next verse extends the iconoclasm into the household: anything brought home from a destroyed shrine becomes itself "a devoted thing," to be detested rather than kept (De 7:26).
The most extended single brief is De 12:2-3: "You⁺ will surely destroy all the places where the nations that you⁺ will dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree" (De 12:2); "and you⁺ will break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their Asherim with fire; and you⁺ will cut down the graven images of their gods; and you⁺ will destroy their name out of that place" (De 12:3).
The Failure of the Conquest Generation
Judges opens with a divine indictment that frames the rest of the book: the conquest generation made covenants instead of breaking altars. The angel of Yahweh says, "you⁺ will make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you⁺ will break down their altars. But you⁺ haven't listened to [my Speech]: why have you⁺ done this?" (Jud 2:2). Levitical sanction confirms the cost: "I will destroy your⁺ high places, and cut down your⁺ sun-images, and cast your⁺ dead bodies on the bodies of your⁺ idols" (Le 26:30).
Patriarchal and Mosaic Precedents
Iconoclasm appears earlier than the Sinai command, in narrative form. Returning to Beth-el, Jacob orders his household to surrender its foreign gods: "Put away the foreign gods that are among you⁺, and purify yourselves, and change your⁺ garments" (Ge 35:2); the household responds, "and they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hand, and the rings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem" (Ge 35:4). Jacob's stated motive is the altar he intends to build at Beth-el "to God, who answered me in the day of my distress" (Ge 35:3).
Moses' reaction to the golden calf is the same gesture in concentrated form. "Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and broke them beneath the mount" (Ex 32:19, supplement) — and then the calf itself: "And he took the calf which they had made, and burned it with fire, and ground it to powder, and strewed it on the water, and made the sons of Israel drink of it" (Ex 32:20).
Gideon at Ophrah
An early private act of iconoclasm under the judges is Gideon's. Yahweh commands him to "throw down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah" (Jud 6:25). "Then Gideon took ten men of his slaves, and did as Yahweh had spoken to him: and it came to pass, because he feared his father's household and the men of the city, so that he could not do it by day," he did it by night (Jud 6:27). The morning's discovery, "the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah was cut down that was by it" (Jud 6:28), produces the inquiry of Jud 6:29 — "Who has done this thing?" — and Joash's defence in Jud 6:31: "Will you⁺ contend for Baal? Or will you⁺ save him? ... if he is a god, let him contend for himself, because one has broken down his altar." From this episode Gideon receives his second name, "and on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, Let Baal contend against him, because he has broken down his altar" (Jud 6:32).
David and the Philistine Images
After the breach at Baal-perazim, David finds the abandoned gods of the Philistines on the field. The terse Samuel notice records what he did with them: "And they left their images there; and David and his men took them away" (2Sa 5:21). The Chronicler clarifies the disposal: "And they left their gods there; and David gave commandment, and they were burned with fire" (1Ch 14:12).
Jehu's Purge of Baal in the North
Jehu's iconoclasm is a principal northern action in the historical books. The Baal sanctuary in Samaria is dismantled in stages: "And they brought forth the pillars that were in the house of Baal, and burned them" (2Ki 10:26); "And they broke down the pillar of Baal, and broke down the house of Baal, and made it an outside latrine, to this day" (2Ki 10:27). The summary is curt: "Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel" (2Ki 10:28). Earlier in the same narrative the wider sweep is announced: "Ahab served Baal a little; but Jehu will serve him much" (2Ki 10:18-28). Earlier still, Jehoram's partial reform is noted: "he put away the pillar of Baal that his father had made" (2Ki 3:2).
Jehoiada and the Coup against Athaliah
The Jerusalem counterpart to Jehu's purge is the iconoclasm of the priest Jehoiada following the death of Athaliah: "And all the people of the land went to the house of Baal, and broke it down; his altars and his images they broke in pieces thoroughly, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars" (2Ki 11:18).
Asa's Reform in Judah
Asa's iconoclasm runs in two phases. The first is recorded in 1 Kings: "And he put away the pagan whores out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made" (1Ki 15:12). Even the queen mother is not spared: "And also Maacah his mother he removed from being queen, because she had made a horrible image for an Asherah; and Asa cut down her horrible image, and burned it at the brook Kidron" (1Ki 15:13). The Chronicler adds the reach into the cities: "for he took away the foreign altars, and the high places, and broke down the pillars, and hewed down the Asherim" (2Ch 14:3); "Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the sun-images: and the kingdom was quiet before him" (2Ch 14:5).
The second phase follows Oded's prophecy: "And when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the detestable things out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from the hill country of Ephraim" (2Ch 15:8).
Jehoshaphat
Jehoshaphat's reform is summarised in two compact notices. Of him Jehu the seer says, "Nevertheless there are good things found in you, in that you have put away the Asheroth out of the land, and have set your heart to seek God" (2Ch 19:3).
Hezekiah and the Bronze Serpent
Hezekiah's iconoclasm stands out among the eighth-century reforms in Judah, and uniquely among the king-list reaches a relic of Moses himself: "He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah: and he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for in those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it" (2Ki 18:4). The Chronicler records the popular extension of the same campaign after the Passover: "Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah, and broke in pieces the pillars, and hewed down the Asherim, and broke down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all" (2Ch 31:1). The cleansing began inside Jerusalem itself: "And they arose and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for incense they took away, and cast them into the brook Kidron" (2Ch 30:14).
Josiah's Reform
Josiah's iconoclasm follows the discovery of the book of the law and is among the most detailed reform narratives in the historical books. It begins inside the temple: the king commands Hilkiah and the gatekeepers "to bring forth out of the temple of Yahweh all the vessels that were made for Baal" (2Ki 23:4). It moves outside the city to "the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the Mount of Olives, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the detestable thing of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the detestable thing of Moab, and for Milcom the disgusting thing of the sons of Ammon, the king defiled" (2Ki 23:13). It demolishes the old standing stones: "And he broke in pieces the pillars, and cut down the Asherim, and filled their places with man's bones" (2Ki 23:14).
The reform reaches into the rival sanctuary of the north: "Moreover the altar that was at Beth-el, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he broke down; and he burned the high place and beat it to dust, and burned the Asherah" (2Ki 23:15). The closing notice combines a sweep of necromancy and idolatry: "Moreover the spiritists, and the wizards, and the talismans, and the idols, and all the detestable things that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, Josiah put away" (2Ki 23:24). The Chronicler's coda generalises the result: "And Josiah took away all the disgusting things out of all the countries that pertained to the sons of Israel, and made all who were found in Israel to serve, even to serve Yahweh their God" (2Ch 34:33).
Manasseh's Late Repentance
Manasseh's reign supplies a striking narrative inversion in the king-list of iconoclasm. After his Babylonian captivity and return, the man who had built altars in the temple courts removes them himself: "And he took away the foreign gods, and the idol out of the house of Yahweh, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of Yahweh, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city" (2Ch 33:15).
Iconoclasm against Foreign Gods
A few iconoclastic notices reach beyond Israel's borders. Jeremiah's oracle against Babylon casts Yahweh's victory itself in iconoclastic language: "Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed; her images are put to shame, her idols are dismayed" (Jer 50:2).
Maccabean Iconoclasm
A late layer in the iconoclasm material is the Maccabean campaign against pagan altars set up under Antiochus. The crisis is the imposition of foreign cult on Jerusalem: "On the fifteenth day of the month Kislev, in the hundred and forty-fifth year, they set up the abomination of desolation on the altar, and they built altars in the cities of Judah round about" (1Ma 1:54). Mattathias' first iconoclastic act is at Modin: he kills the apostate sacrificer "and pulled down the altar" (1Ma 2:25). His campaign generalises: "And Mattathias and his friends went round about, and they threw down the altars" (1Ma 2:45).
Judas extends the same iconoclasm to foreign territory: "And Judas turned to Azotus into the land of the strangers, and he threw down their altars, and he burned the statues of their gods with fire: and he took the spoils of the cities, and returned into the land of Judah" (1Ma 5:68). The culminating act is the cleansing and rebuilding of the temple itself, where the iconoclastic verb falls on the profaned altar: word reaches Antiochus "that they had thrown down the detestable thing which he had set up on the altar in Jerusalem" (1Ma 6:7); the sanctuary cleansing involved removing "the stones that had been defiled into an unclean place" (1Ma 4:43). Simon completes the same iconoclasm in Gazara: he "cleansed the houses in which there had been idols, and then he entered into it with hymns and blessing" (1Ma 13:47).