Sigmund Mowinckel and the Question of Aniconism in Yahwist Religion

This paper evaluates the importance of Sigmund Mowinckel’s study, published in 1929 in the Revue d’Histoire et de Philosophie Religieuses, in which he hypothesizes about the origins of biblical aniconism. His studies on the bovine form of the representations of YHWH, one of which was found in the Ark, are important but need to be modified in light of recent research which has shown that aniconism only arose after the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BCE.