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Zev Radovan
Author Victor Hurowitz reminds us that Israelite religion and religious customs underwent a long development, and that the order in which events and laws are presented in the Bible does not necessarily correspond to their historical order. Prohibitions on idolatrous practices, although found in the stories concerning the sojourn at Mount Sinai and the desert wanderings, may have originated at later periods. Even the Ten Commandments may have been formulated after the time of the kings. Thus, while early Israelites may have manufactured these images and considered them permissible in the pre-monarchic period, when seen through the eyes of later biblical authors and editors with different religious ideas, these images are a heinous offense.