This paper is admittedly something of an experiment in method. Knowing that Hermann has written most evocatively about Psalm 19, I intend to discuss two similes from Ps.19:5, namely the description of the sun ‘as a bridegroom’ and ‘as a strong man.’ [Verse enumeration is taken from the English version, here using the NRSV.] I shall start with what might be termed the imagined world behind the text, and I shall examine not only the ancient Near Eastern textual material (which is what Hermann does) but also the iconographical artefacts which indirectly might have influenced the two similes in this verse. I shall then look briefly at what we might call the imagined world within the text: this entails viewing verse 5 in the context of verses 4b-6 in order to determine how the psalmist might have shaped within his Hebrew text iconographical imagery taken from an ancient Near Eastern context. Finally I shall turn to the imagined word beyond the text, seeing how Ps. 19:5 in turn has influenced – partly on account of the Greek and Latin translations – later iconography in illustrated Psalters in the Middle Ages. So I intend to create a dialogue between ‘image and text’ and ‘text and image’, and to raise questions about the very different use of imagery in the Christian tradition compared with the attitudes to iconography in very early Jewish tradition. To achieve this I shall emphasise not only the reception of Ps. 19:5 in later cultural history, but also the influence of cultural history on the text itself – what might be termed ‘proto’ reception history, given that the evolution of the text we read has also gone through a long period of reception history which has been influenced by both the ancient Near East and other biblical texts.
