How did the Second Commandment influence Byzantine Iconoclasm?

The Second Commandment, which prohibits the creation of "graven images" or any likeness of things in heaven or on earth, served as a foundational theological justification for the Iconoclastic Controversy in the Byzantine Empire.12

During the 8th and 9th centuries, those who rejected the use of religious images—known as Iconoclasts—cited the Old Testament prohibition found in Exodus 20:4 to argue that the veneration of icons was a form of idolatry. This belief system held that representing divine or saintly figures in art violated the divine law against creating objects for worship.12

When Leo III became emperor, he was deeply religious and became convinced of the sacrilegious nature of these images. Consequently, he used the Second Commandment’s principles to support his official policy of Iconoclasm, which he proclaimed in 730, mandating the removal and destruction of sacred pictures throughout the empire. This policy sought to align Byzantine religious practice with a strict interpretation of the biblical ban on images, setting off a century of internal conflict.314