In what sense and to what extent did antisemitism (or anti-Judaism) exist in the pre-Christian world? The attitudes of numerous pagan writers and various episodes of oppression are explored in order to ascertain whether Jews encountered hostility on ethnic, religious, ideological, or political grounds, and whether any of these experiences amounted to antisemitism.

In contrast to the cognitively optimal religion in the previous chapter, this chapter examines the theological system in the book of Deuteronomy as an example of cognitively costly religion. Deuteronomic theology is characterized as a highly literate, reflective, and abstract tradition with complex doctrines such as the so-called Name Theology of divine presence, cult centralization, and aniconism or iconoclasm, all of which radically depart from prevailing cultural expectations. Each of these key tenets of the Deuteronomic theology is analyzed within the framework of intuitive and reflective cognition and cognitively costly religion. Moreover, understanding Deuteronomy as a type of costly religion helps to account for the book’s unique emphasis on teaching, repetition, and instruction. Deuteronomic theology is best understood as a form of what Harvey Whitehouse calls the doctrinal mode of religiosity.

This chapter likewise draws on ancient visual and material culture in order to examine the worship of divine cult statues in Mesopotamia, the anti-idol polemics in the Bible, and the power of images and ritual activities in the construction of religious beliefs. In particular, the ancient Mesopotamian “washing of the mouth” ritual is studied within a cognitive framework. The discussion highlights both the intuitive and non-intuitive (i.e., costly) aspects of the belief in divine cult statues, and proceeds to examine both the cognitive process and cultural mechanisms that contribute to the belief that an inanimate statue is or becomes the deity. In doing so, the chapter adds a nuanced layer to the nature of belief and also problematizes certain scholarly views about belief in cult statues in ancient Mesopotamia and Israel.

Roman historians often claimed that their ancestors did not have images of the gods, but a closer look at both the archaeological and textual evidence suggests that images of the gods were venerated at Rome at a very early date. Similarly, both ancient and modern writers have claimed that Iron Age European religion was entirely aniconic. This chapter surveys Iron Age statues in stone, metal, and wood to provide evidence that the gods were worshipped in the form of images prior to the Roman conquest. The stone images include important and recent finds from the Glauberg and Vix, a large series of buste-socles from Paule, Nîmes, and elsewhere, while metal representations include statues from Bouray and St. Maur. Surviving wooden images, including those known as Holzidole from northern Europe, finds from Pforzheim, Villeneuve, and Yverdon-les-Bains, all suggest that wood was a common medium for depicting the gods in the Iron Age. These early images possessed a degree of iconographic variety that allowed the divinity represented to be identified. More importantly, the context of these artworks confirms that they were the focus of ritual, the recipients of offerings and sacrifices, and not just funerary markers or representations of local aristocrats.