Pictures and religion?

Question

Portrait painting did not develop in early Judaism because they felt it violated the Commandment not to make images of god. The logic is that since we are created in the image of god, making images of ourselves would still be an image of god, like photocopying a photocopy. Some devout Muslims still hold this perspective. How did this idea disappear in later Judaism and Christianity?

Answer 1

greece and rome--when they converted those two countries, they forced the rennaissance artists to stop depicting pagan gods and instead paint biblical characters

Answer 2

I have to burst your bubble here. Firstly, Man had no trouble making pictures and portraits during Old Testament times.

You are talking about earlier times, when man lived in caves and huts made of animal skins. The Old Religion was of Mother Earth and each entity and object had it's own spirit. It was widely believed that if you made a complete graven image, that the spirit of Mother would come out of that image and into whomever owned the object, causing that person to perish and walk the earth a lonely spirit.

Answer 3

It beats the hell out of me.