Idol
Idol
properly an outward object adored as divine, or as the symbol of deity. SEE IDOLATRY.
I. Classification of Scriptural terms having physical reference to such objects. As a large number of different Hebrew words have been rendered in the A.V. either by idol or image, and that by no means uniformly (besides one or more in Greek more uniformly translated), it will be of some advantage to attempt to discriminate between them, and assign, as nearly as the two languages will allow, the English equivalents for each. SEE IMAGE.
(I.) Abstract terms, which, with a deep moral significance, express the degradation associated with idolatry, and stand out as a protest of the language against its enormities.
(1.) General terms of doubtful signification.
1. , elil’, is thought by some to have a sense akin to that of , she’ker, falsehood, with which it stands in parallelism in Job 13:4, and would therefore much resemble aven, as applied to an idol. It is generally derived from the unused root , to be empty or vain. Delitzsch (on Hab 2:18) derives it from the negative particle , al, die Nichtigen; but according to Furst (Handw. s.v.) it is a diminutive of , god, the additional syllable indicating the greatest contempt. In this case the signification above mentioned is a subsidiary one. The same authority asserts that the word denotes a small image of the god, which was consulted as an oracle among the Egyptians and Phoenicians (Isa 19:3; Jer 14:14). It is certainly used of the idols of Noph or Memphis (Eze 30:13). In strong contrast with Jehovah, it appears in Psa 90:5; Psa 97:7, the contrast probably being heightened by the resemblance between elilim and elohim. A somewhat similar play upon words is observable in Hab 2:18, , elilim illemim, A.V. dumb idols. See EL. 2. , gill’ulim’, also a term of contempt, of uncertain origin (Eze 30:13), but probably derived from , to roll, as dung, hence refuse. The Rabbinical authorities, referring to such passages as Eze 4:2; Zep 1:17, have favored the interpretation given in the margin of the A.V. to Deu 29:17, dungy gods (Vulg. sordes, sordes idolorum, 1Ki 15:12). Jahn, connecting it with , galal, to roll, applies it to the stocks of trees of which idols were made, and in mockery called gilluim, rolling things (a volvendo, he says, though it is difficult to see the point of his remark).
Gesenius, repudiating the derivation from the Arabic jalla, to be great, illustrious, gives his preference to the rendering stones, stone gods, thus deriving it from , gal, a heap of stones; and in this he is followed by First, who translates gillil by the German Steinhaufe. The expression is applied, principally in Ezekiel, to false gods and their symbols (Deu 29:17; Eze 8:10, etc.). It stands side by side with other contemptuous terms in Eze 16:36; Eze 20:8, as, for example, , shekets, filth, abomination (Eze 8:10), and cognate terms. SEE DUNG.
May not , mean scarabaei, the commonest of Egyptian idols? The sense of dung is appropriate to the dung-beetle; that of rolling is doubtful, for, if the meaning of the verb be retained, we should, in this form, rather expect a passive sense, a thing rolled; but it may be observed that these grammatical rules of the sense of derivatives are not always to be strictly insisted on, for Sidon, , though held to signify the place of fishing, is, in the list of the Noachians, the name of a man, the fisherman, , of Philo of Byblus. That a specially-applicable word is used may perhaps be conjectured from the occurrence of , which, if meaning little gods, would aptly describe the pigmy PTEH-SEKER-HESAR, Ptah- Sokari-Osiris, of Memphis. Ezekiel uses the term of the idols of Egypt which the Israelites were commanded to put away at or about the time of the Exodus, but did not, and seem to have carried into the Desert, for the same word is used, unqualified by the mention of any country, of those worshipped by them in the Desert (Exo 20:7-8; Exo 20:16; Exo 20:18; Exo 20:24); it is, however, apparently employed also for all the idols worshipped in Canaan by the Israelites (Eze 20:31; Eze 23:37). Scarabaei were so abundant among the Egyptians and Phoenicians that there is no reason why they may not have been employed also in the worship of the Canaanitish false gods; but it cannot be safely supposed, without further evidence, that the idols of Canaan were virtually termed scarabtei. SEE BEETLE.
(2.) General terms of known signification.
3. , a’ven, rendered elsewhere nought, vanity, iniquity, wickedness, sorrow, etc., and only once idol (Isa 66:3). The primary idea of the root seems to be emptiness, nothingness, as of breath or vapor; and, by a natural transition, in a moral sense, wickedness in its active form of mischief; and then, as the result, sorrow and trouble. Hence aven denotes a vain, false, wicked thing, and expresses at once the essential nature 3f idols, and the consequences of their worship. The character of the word may be learnt from its associates. It stands in parallelism with . e’phes (Isa 41:29), which, after undergoing various modifications, comes at length to signify nothing; with , he’bel, breath or vapor, itself applied as a term of contempt to the objects of idolatrous reverence (Deu 32:21; 1Ki 16:13; Psa 31:6; Jer 8:19; Jer 10:8); with , shav, nothingness, vanity; and with , she’ker, falsehood (Zec 10:2): all indicating the utter worthlessness of the idols to whom homage was paid, and the false and delusive nature of their worship. It is employed in an abstract sense, to denote idolatry in general, in 1Sa 15:23. There is much significance in the change of name from Bethel to Beth-aven, the great centre of idolatry in Israel (Hos 4:15). SEE BETHAVEN.
4. , shik-k-ts’, filth, impurity, especially applied, like the cognate , she’kets, to that which produced ceremonial uncleanness (Eze 37:23; Nah 3:6), such as food offered in sacrifice to idols (Zec 9:7; comp. Act 15:20; Act 15:29). As referring to the idols themselves, it primarily denotes the obscene rites with which their worship was associated, and hence, by metonymy, is applied both to the objects of worship and also to their worshippers, who partook of the impurity, and thus became loathsome like their love, the foul Baal-Peor (Hos 9:10). SEE ABOMINATION.
5. In the same connection must be noticed, though not actually rendered image or idol, , bo’sheth, shame, or shameful thing (A.V. Jer 11:13; Hos 9:10), applied to Baal or Baal-Peor, as characterizing the obscenity of his worship. SEE BAAL-PEOR.
6. , eynnzah’, horror or terror, and hence an object of horror or terror (Jeremiah 1, 38), in reference either to the hideousness of the idols or to the gross character of their worship. In this respect it is closely connected with
7. .miphle’tseth, a fright, horror, applied to the idol of Maachah, probably of wood, which Asa cut down and burned (1Ki 15:13′; 2Ch 15:16), and which was unquestionably the- Phallus, the symbol of the productive power of nature (Movers, Phon. 1, 571 Selden, de Dis Syr. 2, 5), and the nature-goddess Ashera. Allusion is supposed to be made to this in Jer 10:5, and Epist. of Jeremiah 70. In 2Ch 15:16 the Vulg. render simulacrum Priapi (comp. Horace, furum aviumque maxima formido). The Sept. had a different reading, which it is not easy to determine. They translate, in 1Ki 15:13, the same word both by (with which corresponds the Syriac ido, a festival, reading, perhaps, , atsereth, as in 2Ki 10:20; Jer 9:2) and , while in Chronicles it is . Possibly in 1Ki 15:13 they may have read , metsullathah, for , miphlatstah, as the Vulg. specum, of which sinulacrum turpissimum is a correction. SEE GROVE.
(II.) We now come to the consideration of those words which more directly apply to the images or idols as the outward symbols of the deity who was worshipped through them.
(1.) Terms indicating the form of idols.
8. or , s’mel, with which Gesenius compares as cognate mashal, and , tselen; the Lat. sinilis and Gr. , signifies a likeness, semblance. The Targum in Deu 4:16 gives , tsirda, figure, as the equivalent, while in Eze 8:3; Eze 8:5 it is rendered by , tselan, image. In the latter passages the Syriac has koimto, a statue (the of the Septuagint) which more properly corresponds to matstsebah (see No. 13, below); and in Deuteronomy genes, kind (=). The passage in 2Ch 33:7 is rendered images of four faces, the latter words representing the one under consideration. In 2Ch 33:15 it appears as carved images, following the Sept. . On the whole, the Gr. of Deu 4:16; 2Ch 33:7, and the simulacrum of the Vulg. (2Ch 33:15) most nearly resemble the Heb. semel. SEE CARVED.
9. , fse’lem (Chald. id. and , tselam’), is by all lexicographers, ancient and modern, connected with , tsel, a shadow. It is the image of God in which man was created (Gen 1:27; comp. Wisd. 2, 23), distinguished from , demuth, or likeness, as the image from the idea which it represents (Schmidt, De Imag. Dei in Hom. p. 84), though it would be rash to insist upon this distinction. In the N.T. appears to represent the letter (Col 3:10; compare the Sept. at Gen 5:1), as the former of the two words (Rom 1:23; Rom 8:29; Php 2:7), but in Heb 10:1, is opposed to as the substance to the substantial form, of which it is the perfect representative. The Sept. render demzth by , , , , and tselem most frequently by , though , , and also occur. But, whatever abstract term may best define the meaning of tselem, it is unquestionably used to denote the visible forms of external objects, and is applied to figures of gold and silver (1Sa 6:5; Num 33:52; Dan 3:1), such as the golden image of Nebuchadnezzar, as well as to those painted upon walls (Eze 33:14). Image perhaps most nearly represents it in all passages. Applied to the human countenance (Dan 3:19), it signifies the expression, and corresponds to the of Mat 28:3, though demuth agrees rather with the Platonic usage of the latter word. SEE GRAVEN.
10. , temundh’, rendered image in Job 4:16; elsewhere similitude (Deu 4:12), likeness (Deu 5:8): form, or shape would be better. In Deu 4:16 it is in parallelism with , tabnith’, literally build; hence plan or model (2Ki 16:10; compare Exo 20:4; Num 12:8).
11. , atsab’, , e’tseb (Jer 22:28), or , o’tseb (Isa 48:5), a figure, all derived from a root , atsab, to work or fashion (akin to , chatsab, and the like), are terms applied to idols as expressing that their origin was due to the labor of man. The verb in its derived senses indicates the sorrow and trouble consequent upon severe labor, but the latter seems to be the radical idea. If the notion of sorrow were most prominent, the words as applied to idols might be compared with aven above. Isa 58:3 is rendered in the Peshito Syriac idols (A.V. labors), but the reading was evidently different. In Psalm 129:24, is idolatry.
12. , tsir, once only applied to an idol (Isa 45:16; Sept. , as if De, ). The word usually denotes a pang, but in this instance is probably connected with the roots , tsar, and , yatsar, and signifies a shape or mould, and hence an idol.
13. , matstsebah’, anything set up, a statue (=,! netsib, Jer 43:13), applied to a memorial stone like those erected by Jacob on four several occasions (Gen 28:18; Gen 31:45; Gen 35:14; Gen 35:20) to commemorate a crisis in his life, or to mark the grave of Rachel. Such were the stones set up by Joshua (Jos 4:9) after the passage of the Jordan, and at Shechem (Jos 24:26), and by Samuel when victorious over the Philistines (1Sa 7:12). When solemnly dedicated they were anointed with oil, and libations were poured upon them. The word is applied to denote the obelisks which stood at the entrance to the temple of the sun at Heliopolis (Jer 43:13), two of which were a hundred cubits high and eight broad, each of a single stone (Herod. 2, 11). It is also used of the statues of Baal (2Ki 3:2), whether of stone (2Ki 10:27) or wood (id. 26), which stood in the innermost recess of the temple at Samaria. Movers (Phon. 1, 674) conjectures that the latter were statues or columns distinct from that of Baal, which was of stone and conical (p. 673), like the meta of Paphos (Tacit. H. 2, 3), and probably, therefore, belonging to other deities, who were his or . The Phoenicians consecrated and anointed stones like that at Bethel, which were called, as some think, from this circumstance, Baetylia. Many such are said to have been seen on Mt. Lebanon, near Heliopolis, dedicated to various gods, and many prodigies are related of them (Damascius in Photius, quoted by Bochart, Canaan, 2, 2). The same authority describes them as aerolites, of a whitish and sometimes purple color, spherical in shape, and about a span in diameter. The Palladium of Troy, the black stone in the Kaaba at Mecca, said to have been brought from heaven by the angel Gabriel, and the stone at Ephesus which fell down from Jupiter (Act 19:35), are examples of the belief, anciently so common, that the gods sent down their images upon earth. In the older worship of Greece, stones, according to Pausanias (7, 22, 4), occupied the place of images. Those at Pharae, about thirty in number, and quadrangular in shape, near the statue of Hermes, received divine honors from the Pharians, and each had the name of some god conferred upon it. The stone in the temple of Jupiter Ammon (umbilico maxime similis), enriched with emeralds and gems (Curtius, 4:7, 31); that at Delphi, which Saturn was said to have swallowed (Pausan. Phoc. 24, 6); the black stone of pyramidal shape in the temple of Juggernaut, and the holy stone at Pessinus, in Galatia, sacred to Cybele, show how widely spread and almost universal were these ancient objects of worship. SEE PILLAR.
Closely connected with these statues of Baal, whether in the form of obelisks or otherwise, were
14. , chammanim’. rendered in the margin of most passages sun- images. The word has given rise to much discussion. In the Vulg. it is translated thrice simulacra, thrice delubra, and oncefana. The Sept. gives twice, twice, , , and With one exception (2Ch 34:4, which is evidently corrupt), the Syriac has vaguely either fears, i.e. objects of fear, or idols. The Targum in all passages translates it by , chanisnesaya’, houses for star-worship (Furst compares the Arab. Chunnas, the planet Mercury or Venus), a rendering which Rosenmuller supports. Gesenius preferred to consider these chanisnesaya as veils or shrines surrounded or shrouded with hangings (Eze 16:16; Targ. on Isa 3:19), and scouted the interpretation of Buxtorf status solares as a mere guess, though he somewhat paradoxically assented to Rosenmller’s opinion that they were shrines dedicated to the worship of the stars. Kimchi, under the root , mentions a conjecture that they were trees like the Asherim, but (s.v. ) elsewhere expresses his own belief that the Nun is epenthetic, and that they were so called because the sun-worshippers made them. Aben-Ezra (on Lev 26:30) says they were houses made for worshipping the sun, which Bochart approves (Canaan, ii, 17), and Jarchi that they were a kind of idol placed on the roofs of houses. Vossius (De Idol. 2, 353), as Scaliger before him, connects the word with Amanus or Omanus, the sacred fire, the symbol of the Persian sun-god, and renders it pyraea (comp. Selden, ii, 8). Adelung (Mithrid. 1, 159, quoted by Gesenius on Isa 17:8) suggested the same, and compared it with the Sanscrit homa. But to such interpretations the passage in 2Ch 34:4 is inimical (Vitringa on Isa 17:8). Gesenius’s own opinion appears to have fluctuated considerably. In his notes on Isaiah (I. c.) he prefers the general rendering columns to the more definite one of sun-columns, and is inclined to look to a Persian origin for the derivation of the word. But in his Thesaurus he mentions the occurrence of Chainman as a synonym of Baal in the Phoenician and Palmyrene inscriptions in the sense of Dominus Solaris, and it’s after application to the statues or columns erected for his worship. Spencer (De Legg. Hebr. 2, 25), and after him Michaelis (Suppl. ad Lex. Hebr. s.v.), maintained that it signified statues or lofty columns, like the pyramids or obelisks of Egypt. Movers (Phon. 1, 441) concludes with good reason that the sun-god Baal and the idol Chamman are not essentially different. In his discussion of Chammanim he says, These images of the fire-god were placed on foreign or non-Israelitish altars, in conjunction with the symbols of the nature-goddess Asherah, or (2Ch 14:3; 2Ch 14:5; 2Ch 34:4; 2Ch 34:7; Isa 17:9; Isa 27:9), as was otherwise usual with Baal and Asherah. They are mentioned with the Asherim, and the latter are coupled with the statues of Baal (1Ki 14:23; 2Ki 23:14). The chammanim and statues are used promiscuously (compare 2Ki 23:14, and 2Ch 34:4; 2Ch 14:3; 2Ch 14:5), but are never spoken of together. Such are the steps by which he arrives at his conclusion. He is supported by the Palmyrene inscription at Oxford, alluded to above, which has been thus rendered: This column (, Chammaind), and this altar, the sons of Malchu, etc., have erected and dedicated to the sun. The Veneto-Greek Version leaves the word untranslated in the strange form . From the expressions in Eze 6:4; Eze 6:6, and Lev 26:30, it may be inferred that these columns, which perhaps represented a rising flame of fire and stood upon the altar of Baal (2Ch 34:4), were of wood or stone. SEE ASHERAH.
15. , maskith’, occurs in Lev 26:1; Numbers 23:52; Eze 8:12 : device, most nearly suits all passages (compare Psa 73:7; Pro 18:11; Pro 25:11). This word has been the fruitful cause of as much dispute as the preceding. The general opinion appears to be that signifies a stone with figures graven upon it. Ben-Zeb explains it as a stone with figures or hieroglyphics carved upon it,’ and so Michaelis; and it is maintained by Movers (Phon. 1, 105) that the baetylia, or columns with painted figures, the lapides effigiati of Minucius Felix (c. 3), are these stones of device, and that the characters engraven on them are the , or characters sacred to the several deities. The invention of these characters, which is ascribed to Taaut, he conjectures originated with the Seres. Gesenius explains it as a stone with the image of an idol, Baal or Astarte, and refers to his Mon. Poaen. p. 21-24, for others of a similar character. Rashi (on Lev 21:1) derives it from the root , to cover, because they cover the floor with a pavement of stones. The Targum and Syriac, Lev 26:1, give stone of devotion, and the former, in Num 33:52, has house of their devotion where the Syriac only renders their objects of devotion. For the former the Sept. has , and for the latter , connecting the word with the root . to look, a circumstance which has induced Saalschuitz (Mos. Recht, p. 382-385) to conjecture that eben maskith was originally a smooth elevated stone employed for the purpose of obtaining from it a freer prospect, and of offering prayer in prostration upon it to the deities of heaven. Hence, generally, he concludes it signifies a stone of prayer or devotion, and the chambers of imagery of Eze 8:7 are chambers of devotion. The renderings of the last mentioned passage in the Sept. and Targum are curious as pointing to a various reading, , or, more probably, . SEE IMAGERY.
16. , teradphim’. SEE TERAPHIR
(2.) The terms which follow have regard to the material and workmanship of the idol rather than to its character as an object of worship.
17. , pe’sel, usually translated in the Authorized Version graven or carved image. In two passages it is ambiguously rendered quarries (Jdg 3:19; Jdg 3:26), after the Targum, but there seems to be no reason for departing from the ordinary signification. In the majority of instances the Sept. has , once . The verb is employed to denote the finishing which the stone received at the hands of the masons after it had been rough-hewn from the quarries (Exo 34:4; 1 Kings 5:32). It is probably a later usage which has applied pesel to a figure cast in metal, as in Isa 40:19; Isa 44:10. (More probably still, pesel denotes by anticipation the molten image in a later stage, after it had been trimmed into shape by the caster.) These sculptured images were apparently of wood, iron, or stone, covered with gold or silver (Deu 7:25; Isa 30:22; Hab 2:19), the more costly being of solid metal (Isa 40:19). They could be burned (Deu 7:5; Isa 45:20; 2Ch 34:4), or cut down (Deu 12:3) and pounded (2Ch 34:7), or broken in pieces (Isa 21:9), In making them, the skill of the wise iron-smith (Deu 27:15; Isa 40:20) or carpenter, and of the goldsmith, was employed (Jdg 17:3-4; Isa 41:7), the former supplying the rough mass of iron beaten into shape on his anvil (Isa 44:12), while the latter overlaid it with plates of gold and silver, probably from Tarshish (Jer 10:9), and decorated it with silver chains. The image thus formed received the further adornment of embroidered robes (Eze 16:18), to which possibly allusion may be made in Isa 3:19. Brass and clay were among the materials employed for the same purpose (Dan 2:33; Dan 5:23). (Images of glazed pottery have been found in Egypt [Wilkinson, Anc. Eg. 3, 90: comp. Wis 15:8].) A description of the three great images of Babylon on the top of the temple of Belus will be found in Diod. Sic. 2, 9 (compare Layard, Nin. 2. 433). The several stages of the process by which the metal or wood became the graven image are so vividly described in Isa 44:10-20, that it is only necessary to refer to that passage, and we are at once introduced to the mysteries of idol manufacture, which, as at Ephesus, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen. SEE SHRINE.
18. or , n’sek, and , massekah’, are evidently synonymous (Isa 41:29; Isa 48:5; Jer 10:14) in later Hebrew, and denote a molten image. Massekah is frequently used in distinction from pesel or pesilim (Deu 27:15; Jdg 17:3, etc.). The golden calf, which Aaron made, was fashioned with the graver (, cheret), but it is not quite clear for what purpose the graver was used (Exo 32:4). The cheret (comp. ) appears to have been a sharp-pointed instrument, used like the stylus for a writing implement (Isa 8:1). Whether then Aaron, by the help of the cheret, gave to the molten mass the shape of a calf, or whether he made use of the graver for the purpose of carving hieroglyphics upon it, has been thought doubtful. The Syr. has tuipso (), the mould, for cheret. But the expression , vay- yatsar, decides that it was by the cheret, in whatever manner employed, that the shape of a calf was given to the metal. SEE MOLTEN.
(3.) In the New Test. the Greek of idol is , which exactly corresponds with it. In one passage is the image or head of the emperor on the coinage (Mat 22:20). SEE ALISGEMA. II. Actual Forms of Idols. Among the earliest objects of worship, regarded as symbols of deity, were the meteoric stones which the ancients believed to have been the images of the gods sent down from heaven. SEE DIANA. From these they transferred their regard to rough unhewn blocks, to stone columns or pillars of wood, in which the divinity worshipped was supposed to dwell, and which were consecrated, like the sacred stone at Delphi, by being anointed with oil, and crowned with wool on solemn days (Pausan. Phoc. 24, 6). Tavernier (quoted by Rosenmller, At. and Al Morgenland, 1, 89) mentions a black stone in the pagoda of Benares which was daily anointed with perfumed oil, and such are the Lingams in daily use in the Siva worship of India (compare Armobius, 1, 30; Min. Felix, c. 3). Such customs are remarkable illustrations of the solemn consecration by Jacob of the stone at Bethel, as showing the religious reverence with which these memorials were regarded. Not only were single stones thus honored, but heaps of stone were, in later times at least, considered as sacred to Hermes (Homer,. Od. 16, 471; comp. the Vulg. at Pro 26:8, Sicut qui mittit lapidem in acervum Mercurii), and to these each passing traveler contributed his offering (Crezer, Symb. 1, 24). The heap of stones which Laban erected to commemorate the solemn compact between himself and Jacob, and on which he invoked the gods of his fathers, is an instance of the intermediate stage in which such heaps were associated with religious observances before they became objects of worship. Jacob, for his part, dedicated a single stone as his memorial, and called Jehovah to witness, thus holding himself aloof from the rites employed by Laban, which may have partaken of his ancestral idolatry. SEE JEGAR-SAIADUTHA.
Of the forms assumed by the idolatrous images we have not many traces in the Bible. Dagon, the fish-god of the Philistines, was a human figure terminating in a fish SEE DAGON; and that the Syrian deities were represented in later times in a symbolical human shape we know for certainty. SEE NISROCH.
The Hebrews imitated their neighbors in this respect as in others (Isa 44:13; Wis 13:13), and from various allusions we may infer that idols in human forms were not uncommon among them, though they were more anciently symbolized by animals (Wis 13:14), as by the calves of Aaron and Jeroboam, and the brazen serpent which was afterwards applied to idolatrous uses (2Ki 18:4; Rom 1:23). When the image came from the hands of the maker it was decorated richly with silver and gold, and sometimes crowned (Epist. Jeremiah 9), clad in robes of blue and purple (Jer 10:9), like the draped images of Pallas and Hera (Muller, Hand. dl. Arch. d. Kunst, 69), and fastened in the niche appropriated to it by means of chains and nails (Wis 13:15), in order that the influence of the deity which it represented might be secured to the spot. So the Ephesians, when besieged by Croesus, connected the wall of their city by means of a rope to the temple of Aphrodite, with a view to insuring the aid of the goddess (Herod. 1, 26); and for a similar object the Tyrians chained the stone image of Apollo to the altar of Hercules (Curt. 4:3, 15). Some images were painted red (Wis 13:14), like those of Dionysus and the Bacchantes, of Hermes, and the god Pan (Pausan. 2, 2, 5; Muller, u. and. d. Arch. d. Kunst, 69). This color was formerly considered sacred. Pliny relates, on the authority of Verrius, that it was customary on festival days to color with red lead the face of the image of Jupiter, and the bodies of those who celebrated a triumph (33:36). The figures of Priapus, the god of gardens, were decorated in the same manner (ruber custos, Tibull. 1, 1, 18). Among the objects of worship enumerated by Arnobius (1, 39) are bones of elephants, pictures, and garlands suspended on trees, the rami coronati of Apuleius (de Mag. c. 56).
When the process of adorning the image was completed, it was placed in a temple or shrine appointed for it (, Epist. Jeremiah 12, 19; , Wis 13:15; , 1Co 8:10; see Stanley’s note on the latter passage). In Wis 13:15, is thought to be used contemptuously, as in Tibull. 1, 10, 19, 20, Cum paupere cultu Stabat in exigua ligneus cede deus (Fritsche and Grimm, Handb.), but the passage quoted is by no means a good illustration. From these temples the idols were sometimes carried in procession (Epist. Jeremiah 4, 26) on festival days. Their priests were maintained from the idol treasury, and feasted upon the meats which were appointed for the idols use (Bel and the Dragon, 3, 13). These sacrificial feasts formed an important part of the idolatrous ritual, and were a great stumbling block to the early Christian converts. They were to the heathen, as Prof. Stanley has well observed, what the observance of circumcision and the Mosaic ritual were to the Jewish converts, and it was for this reason that Paul especially directed his attention to the subject, and laid down the rules of conduct contained in his first letter to the Corinthians (8-10). SEE IDOLATRY.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Idol
(1.) Heb. aven, “nothingness;” “vanity” (Isa. 66:3; 41:29; Deut. 32:21; 1 Kings 16:13; Ps. 31:6; Jer. 8:19, etc.).
(2.) ‘Elil, “a thing of naught” (Ps. 97:7; Isa. 19:3); a word of contempt, used of the gods of Noph (Ezek. 30:13).
(3.) ‘Emah, “terror,” in allusion to the hideous form of idols (Jer. 50:38).
(4.) Miphletzeth, “a fright;” “horror” (1 Kings 15:13; 2 Chr. 15:16).
(5.) Bosheth, “shame;” “shameful thing” (Jer. 11:13; Hos. 9:10); as characterizing the obscenity of the worship of Baal.
(6.) Gillulim, also a word of contempt, “dung;” “refuse” (Ezek. 16:36; 20:8; Deut. 29:17, marg.).
(7.) Shikkuts, “filth;” “impurity” (Ezek. 37:23; Nah. 3:6).
(8.) Semel, “likeness;” “a carved image” (Deut. 4:16).
(9.) Tselem, “a shadow” (Dan. 3:1; 1 Sam. 6:5), as distinguished from the “likeness,” or the exact counterpart.
(10.) Temunah, “similitude” (Deut. 4:12-19). Here Moses forbids the several forms of Gentile idolatry.
(11.) ‘Atsab, “a figure;” from the root “to fashion,” “to labour;” denoting that idols are the result of man’s labour (Isa. 48:5; Ps. 139:24, “wicked way;” literally, as some translate, “way of an idol”).
(12.) Tsir, “a form;” “shape” (Isa. 45:16).
(13.) Matztzebah, a “statue” set up (Jer. 43:13); a memorial stone like that erected by Jacob (Gen. 28:18; 31:45; 35:14, 20), by Joshua (4:9), and by Samuel (1 Sam. 7:12). It is the name given to the statues of Baal (2 Kings 3:2; 10:27).
(14.) Hammanim, “sun-images.” Hamman is a synonym of Baal, the sun-god of the Phoenicians (2 Chr. 34:4, 7; 14:3, 5; Isa. 17:8).
(15.) Maskith, “device” (Lev. 26:1; Num. 33:52). In Lev. 26:1, the words “image of stone” (A.V.) denote “a stone or cippus with the image of an idol, as Baal, Astarte, etc.” In Ezek. 8:12, “chambers of imagery” (maskith), are “chambers of which the walls are painted with the figures of idols;” comp. ver. 10, 11.
(16.) Pesel, “a graven” or “carved image” (Isa. 44:10-20). It denotes also a figure cast in metal (Deut. 7:25; 27:15; Isa. 40:19; 44:10).
(17.) Massekah, “a molten image” (Deut. 9:12; Judg. 17:3, 4).
(18.) Teraphim, pl., “images,” family gods (penates) worshipped by Abram’s kindred (Josh. 24:14). Put by Michal in David’s bed (Judg. 17:5; 18:14, 17, 18, 20; 1 Sam. 19:13).
“Nothing can be more instructive and significant than this multiplicity and variety of words designating the instruments and inventions of idolatry.”
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Idol
Of the 19 Hebrew words for it and IMAGE many express the abhorrence which idolatry deserves and the shame and sorrow of the idolater.
(1) Awen, “vanity,” “nothingness,” “wickedness,” “sorrow” (Isa 66:3; Isa 41:29; Deu 32:21; 1Ki 16:13; Psa 31:6; Jer 8:19; Jer 10:8; Zec 10:2; 1Sa 15:23). “Beth-el,” the house of God, is named “Beth-aven,” house of vanity, because of the calf worship.
(2) Eliyl, either a contemptuous diminutive of Eel, God, godling; or from al “not,” a “thing of naught.” There is a designed contrast between the contemptible liliym and the Divine Elohim (Psa 97:7; Isa 19:3, “non-entities” margin Eze 30:13).
(3) emah, “terror,” (Jer 1:38) “they are mad after their idols,” hideous forms more fitted to frighten than to attract, bugbears to frighten children with.
(4) miphletseth, “a fright”: Maachah’s idol which Asa cut down (1Ki 15:13; 2Ch 15:16); the phallus, symbol of the generative organ, the nature goddess Asherah’s productive power. Jer 10:2-5 graphically describes the making of an idol and its impotence.
(5) bosheth, “shame”: not merely shameful, but the essence of shame, bringing shame on its votaries and especially expressing the obscenity of Baal’s and Baal Peor’s worship (Jer 11:13; Hos 9:10).
(6) gillulim, from gal “a heap of stones” (Gesenius): Eze 30:13; Eze 16:36; Deu 29:17, “dungy gods” margin
(7) shiquts, ceremonial “uncleanness” (Eze 37:23). The worshippers “became loathsome like their love,” for men never rise above their object of worship; “they that make them are like unto them, so is everyone that trusteth in them” (Psa 115:4-8).
(8) ceemel, a “likeness” (Deu 4:16).
(9) tselem, from tseel “a shadow” (Dan 3:1; 1Sa 6:5), “the image” as distinguished from the demuth, “likeness,” the exact counterpart (Greek eikoon; Col 1:15; Gen 1:27). The “image” presupposes a prototype. “Likeness” (Greek homoiosis) implies mere resemblance, not the exact counterpart and derivation, hence the Son is never called the “likeness” of the Father but the “Image” (1Co 11:7; Joh 1:18; Joh 14:9; 2Co 4:4; 1Ti 3:16; 1Ti 6:16; Heb 1:3). The idol is supposed to be an “image” exactly representing some person or object.
(10) timahuh “similitude,” “form “(Deu 4:12-19, where Moses forbids successively the several forms of Gentile idolatry: ancestor worship, as that of Terah (Jos 24:2), Laban (Gen 31:19; Gen 31:30; Gen 31:32), and Jacob’s household (Gen 35:2-4), to guard against which Moses’ sepulchre was hidden; hero worship and relic worship (Jdg 8:27; Jdg 17:4; 2Ki 18:4); nature worship, whether of the lower animals as in Egypt, or of the heavenly bodies, the sun, moon, and stars, as among the Persians).
(11) atzab, etzeb, otzeb, “a figure,” from aatzab “to fashion”; with the additional idea of sorrowful labour (Isa 48:5; Psa 139:24), “see if there be any wicked way (way of pain, way of an idol, Isa 48:5) in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” The way of idolatry, however refined, proves to be a way of pain, and shuts out from the way everlasting (1Jo 5:21; Rev 21:8; 1Co 10:20-21). Tacitus, the Roman historian (Hist. 5:4), notices the contrast between Judaism and the whole pagan world, which disproves the notion that it borrowed from the latter and consecrated several of their rites.
“The Jews conceive the Divinity as One, and to be understood only by the mind; they deem those profane who form any image of the gods, of perishable materials and after the likeness of men; the Divinity they describe as supreme, eternal, unchangeable, imperishable; hence there are no images in their cities or their temples, with these they would not flatter kings nor honour Caesars.”
(12) tsiyr, “a pang,” also “a mould” or “shape” (Isa 45:16).
(13) matseebah, a “statue” set up (Jer 43:13, margin). Obelisks to the sun god at the city (house) of the sun, as Beth-shemesh or Heliopolis mean; “On” in Gen 41:45; 2Ki 3:2; 2Ki 10:26-27 margin. The “images” or standing columns of wood (subordinate gods worshipped at the same altar with Baal) are distinct from the standing column of stone or “image” of Baal himself, i.e. a conical stone sacred to him.
The Phoenicians anointed stones (often aerolites, as that “which fell down from Jupiter,” sacred to Diana of Ephesus, Act 19:35) to various gods, like the stone anointed by Jacob (Gen 28:18; Gen 28:22) at Bethel, called therefore Baetylia (compare also Gen 31:45). The black pyramidal stone in Juggernaut’s temple, that of Cybele at Pessinus in Galatia, the black stone in the Kaaba at Mecca reported to have been brought from heaven by the angel Gabriel, all illustrate the wide diffusion of this form of idolatry. So the Lingams in daily use in the worship of Siva in Bengal, and the black stone daily anointed with perfumed oil in Benares.
(14) chammanim, “sun images.” The Arabic Chunnas is the planet Mercury or Venus. The symbol of the Persian sun god was the sacred fire, Amanus or Omanus, Sanskrit homa (2Ch 34:4; 2Ch 34:7; 2Ch 14:3; 2Ch 14:5). Chamman, is a synonym of Baal the sun god in the Phoenician and Palmyrene inscriptions, and so is applied to his statues or lofty, obelisk like, columns (Isa 17:8; Isa 27:9 margin). These “statues” are associated with the Asherim (“groves” KJV), just as Baal is associated with Asherah or Astarte (1Ki 14:23, margin 2Ki 23:14). The Palmyrene inscription at Oxford is, “this chammana the sons of Malchu have dedicated to the sun.” Eze 6:4; Eze 6:6; sun worship and Sabeanism or worship of the heavenly hosts (tsebaowt) was the oldest idolatry.
Job, one of the oldest books in the Bible, alludes to it (Job 31:26), “if I beheld the sun when it shined or the moon … and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand, this were an iniquity,” etc. In opposition to this error God is called “Lord God of Sabaoth.” The tower of Babel was probably built so that its top should be sacred to the heavens (not that its top should reach heaven, Gen 11:4), the common temple and idolatrous center of union. The dispersion defeated the purpose of the builders, but still they carried with them the idolatrous tendency, attributing their harvests, etc., to the visible material causes, the sun, moon, air, etc. (Jer 44:17). Soon a further step was deifying men, or else attributing every human vice, lust, and passion to the gods. Cicero ridicules this groveling anthropomorphic worship, yet was himself a priest and worshipper!
These sun columns towering high above Baal’s altars (2Ch 34:4; 2Ch 34:7) were sometimes of wood, which could be “cut down” (Lev 26:30). The Phoenician Adon or Adonis, the Ammonite Moloch or Milcom, the Moabite Chemosh, the Assyrian and Babylonian Bel, and the Syrian Hadad, the Egyptian Ra, are essentially the same sun god. Adrammelech was the male, and Anammelech the female, power of the sun. Gad was the sun, or Jupiter, representing fortune, Meni the moon or Venus, representing fate (Isa 65:11). As the sun represents the active, so the moon the passive powers of nature. The two combined are represented as at once male and female, from whence in the Septuagint Baal occurs with masculine and feminine articles, and men worshipped in women’s clothes, and women in men’s clothes, which explains the prohibition Deu 22:5.
Magic influences were attributed to sowing mingled seed in a field and to wearing garments of mixed material; hence the prohibition Lev 19:19. In Eze 8:17, “they put the branch to their nose” alludes to the idolatrous usage of holding up a branch of tamarisk (called barsom) to the nose at daybreak while they sang hymns to the rising sun (Strabo, 15, section 733). Baal or sun worship appears indicated in the names Bethshemesh, Baal Hermon, Mount Heres (“sun”), Belshazzar, Hadadezer, Hadad Rimmon (the Syrian god).
(15) maskiyt (Lev 26:1; Num 33:52): “devices”; with eben “stones of device,” namely, with figures or hieroglyphics sacred to the several deities on them; “effigied stones” (Minucius Felix, 3). Like “the chambers of imagery” or priests’ chambers with idolatrous, pictures on the walls as seen in vision (Eze 8:12), answering to their own perverse imaginations. Gesenius, “a stone with an idol’s image, Baal or Astarte.”
(16) teraphim. (See TERAPHIM.)
(17) pecel. The process by which stone, metal, or wood was made into a graven or carved image (literally, one trimmed into shape and having had the finishing stroke) is described Isa 44:10-20. It was overlaid with gold or silver, and adorned with chains of silver (worn lavishly by rich orientals) and embroidered robes (Jer 10:8-9). “Fastened with nails that it should not be moved” (Isa 41:7), to keep the god steady! and that his influence might be secured to the spot (Isa 40:19-20; Isa 45:20; Eze 16:16-18; margin Jdg 3:19; Jdg 3:26 (See EGLON, (See EHUD); Deu 7:25).
(18) pecilim.
(19) nesek, masecah (Isa 41:29). “Molten images” (Deu 27:15). In Exo 32:4 “Aaron fashioned it with a graying tool (cheret) after he had made it a golden calf.” The sense is, he formed it first of a wooden center, then covered it with a coating of gold, the image so formed being called masecah. The mode of its destruction shows this; the wooden center was first-burnt, then the golden covering was beaten or rubbed to pieces (Deu 9:20; Deu 9:21). So Septuagint, Keil, etc. The rendering “he bound it (the gold) up in a bag” is less probable. In Gen 35:2, Jacob’s charge to “his household and to all that were with him Put away the strange gods (‘the gods of the foreigner,’ the Canaanites) among you, and be clean and change your raiment,” it seems surprising that idols should have had place in his household.
The explanation is gathered from what went before, but the connection is so little obvious that it can only be the result of truth not contrivance. Rachel had stolen Laban’s images (teraphim) without Jacob’s knowledge (Gen 31:32); perhaps not for worship but for their gold and silver, to balance what was withheld by him from her. Laban had divined by them, as Gen 30:27, “I have learned by experience,” ought to be translated “I have learned by divination” literally, I have hissed, “I have divined by omens from serpents.” Moreover the sons of Jacob had just before (Gen 30:34) carried away all the spoils of Shechem’s city, and among them doubtless their gold and silver idols. The words “all that were with him” point to the captured wives and women, etc. “Change your raiment” was a charge needed for all who had taken part in the slaughter, and so were ceremonially defiled.
There are two degrees in idolatry. Against the worst, that of having other gods besides Jehovah the one only God, the first commandment is directed. Against the less flagrant degree, worshipping the true God under the form of an image or symbolic likeness, representing any of His attributes, the second is directed. The Baal and Asheerah (“groves”) worship violated the first command. meat; Aaron’s calf worship and Jeroboam’s violated the second. Compare 1Ki 16:30; 2Ki 10:26-28; 2Ki 10:31; 2Ki 17:7-23. So the Roman and Greek universals violate the second commandment in the adoration of the eucharistic mass, the bowing before images, etc., and go perilously near violating the first in the divine titles wherewith they invoke the Virgin Mary. Jeroboam’s calves paved the way for Baal worship. See Exo 20:3, “thou shalt have no other gods before My face.”
Polytheism ancient and modern is willing to grant Jehovah the first place among deities; but He will have none “in His presence” which is everywhere (Psa 139:7). Again no outward form can image God, it only debases instead of helping the worshipper. The principle involved is stated by Paul on Mars’ hill, surrounded by the choicest works of genius representing deity (Act 17:29), “forasmuch as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.” Once that the first visible representation of God is made, or adopted, it entails another and another endlessly, no one or more idols or symbols ever adequately representing all the countless attributes of God. Hence a female deity was added to the male; an Apollo, Venus, Mercury, Diana, etc., etc., must be added to Jupiter; and, instead of one omnipresent God, deities whose power was restricted to localities were worshipped (1Ki 20:23; 1Ki 20:28; 2Ki 17:26).
Like all deviations from truth, the first lie necessitates countless others. “The express image of the Father’s person” is the incarnate God Jesus. He alone (not visible images and pictures of Him), as represented in the written word, is the appointed revealer of the unseen God (Joh 1:18). Israel was God’s representative and “peculiar treasure above all people, a kingdom of priests and an holy nation”; the same relation Christ’s church now holds (1Pe 2:5; 1Pe 2:9). Israel’s kings (when Israel had chosen a visible head instead of the invisible King alone) were under God as their feudal superior (1Ki 3:14; 1Ki 11:11). The penalty of overt, idolatry, as being treason against the divine King, was death. The offender’s nearest relatives must denounce him, and even be first to stone him (Exo 22:20; Deu 13:2-10; Deu 17:2-5).
Especially Moloch’s worship with human sacrifices and passing through the fire entailed death as the penalty. The Canaanites were exterminated for it (Exo 34:15-16; Deuteronomy 7; Deu 12:29-31; Deu 20:17). Israel’s disasters were the punishment of their idolatry (Jer 2:17). Saul lost his throne, Achan his life, and Hiel his family, for retaining or restoring anything of a people doomed for idolatry (1 Samuel 15; Joshua 7; 1Ki 16:34). God works out His ends, even His judgments, in the way of natural consequence. The calves of Jeroboam and Baal’s groves were the sin. The disgust of all godly Israelites, intestine divisions, a perpetual conflict between the Mosaic law, still in force, and the established national idolatry, and the immorality which results from idolatry, were the natural and penal consequence, bringing ruin finally on the state.
Israel, foremost in the offense under Jeroboam and then Ahab, is first to have prophets sent as censors and seers to counteract the evil, but proving refractory is the first to be carried into captivity. Judah, following the bad example in her turn, has prophets sent whom she rejects and even kills, and at nearly the same interval between the sin and the punishment follows Israel into captivity. Idolatry on the part of the Old Testament Israel, and the spiritual Israel, is high treason against the heavenly King (1Sa 8:7) whose direct subjects we avowedly are. The punishments were then temporal (Deu 17:2-13). Israel’s original contract of government is in Exo 19:3-8; Exo 20:2-5; Deuteronomy 28, 29, 30.
Often Israel fell from the covenant, and at intervals renewed it. The remarkable confirmation of the divine authority of the law is, it was only in prosperity Israel neglected it, in distress they always cried to God and returned to the law, and invariably received deliverance (Jdg 10:10; 2Ch 15:12-13); especially at the return from Babylon (Neh 9:38). Israel’s idolatry was not merely an abomination in God’s sight, as that of the Gentiles, but spiritual “adultery” against Jehovah her Husband (Isa 54:5; Jer 3:14; Ezekiel 16). Hos 2:16-17; “thou shalt call Me Ishi (my Husband, the term of affection), no more Baali” (my Lord, the term of rule, defiled by its application to Baal, whose name ought never to be on their lips: Exo 23:13; Zec 13:2), etc.
Fornication formed part of the abominable worship of the idols, especially Baal Peor and Ashtoreth or Astarte, who represented nature’s generative powers and (Num 25:1-2) to whom qideeshim and qedeeshot public male and female prostitutes, were “consecrated” (as the Hebrew means: Deu 23:17, etc.; 2Ki 23:7; Hos 4:14), “separated with whores (withdrawn from the assembly of worshippers for carnal connection with them) … sacrifice with the harlots” (so Hebrew) (Herodotus i. 199). This horrid consecrated pollution prevailed in Phoenicia, Syria, Phrygia, Assyria, and Babylonia, and still in Hindu idolatry. Man making lust a sacred duty! This is the force of the phrase, “Israel joined himself unto Baal Peor,” as appears in 1Co 6:16-17, “He which … is joined to an harlot is one body; for two, saith He, shall be one flesh.
But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” God chose Egypt as Israel’s place of training, though an idolatrous country, but took every precaution, if they would only have heeded Him, to save them from the contagion. He placed them in a separate province; as shepherds they were an abomination to Egyptians, and sacrificed to God the very animals Egypt worshipped (Exo 8:26). Finally, the Egyptians bitterly oppressed them. Yet the fascinations of idolatry spellbound Israel during their long stay in Egypt (Jos 24:14; Eze 20:7), and led them to relapse into the sin from which Abram had been rescued by his call from Ur. God by Moses smote the symbols of Egyptian idolatry with the ten plagues, “executing judgment against all the gods of Egypt” (Exo 12:12), the river, the wind bringing locusts, the dust of the earth, the cattle, the symbol of Apis (Num 33:4). (See EGYPT.)
Yet Israel in all their history showed a continual tendency to adopt the idols of the neighbouring nations; in the desert they “sacrificed unto devils” (saeer, a shaggy goat, worshipped with the foulest rites at Mendes in Lower Egypt. Speaker’s Commentary translated “to the evil spirits of the desert”: Lev 17:7, compare Isa 13:21; Isa 34:14; 2Ch 11:15). Behind the idols, though nonentities in themselves, lurk real demons, to whom consciously or unconsciously the worship is paid, as inspiration declares (Deu 32:17), “devils” lasheedim, “destroyers”; as Satan’s name Apollyon means; slavish fear being the prompting motive, not love, the idol feaster has his fellowship with demons (1Co 10:20), even as the communicant in the Lord’s supper has by faith real fellowship with the Lord’s body once for all sacrificed, and now exalted as the Head of redeemed mankind.
In the northern kingdom of Israel, from Jeroboam down to Hoshea whom Shalmaneser dethroned, no one royal reformer appeared. In Judah several arose, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Josiah. The Babylonian captivity almost thoroughly purged the Jews from their proneness to idols (Jer 44:17-18, contrast Hos 3:4). But traces appeared still in their partially adopting Greek idolatry and usages for worldly compromise, just before Antiochus Epiphanes’ attempt to overthrow Jehovah’s worship (1Ma 1:43-54). The heroic resistance of the Maccabees, besides their contact with the Persians who rejected images, and especially the erection of synagogues and the reading the law every sabbath in them, gave them the abhorrence of idols which now characterizes them.
In the Christian church “the deadly wound” that was given to “the beast” (the God-opposed world) by Christianity (Minucius Felix, A.D. 180, and Arnobius adv. Gent. 4:1, mention that the Romans were shocked to find among Christians “no altars, no temples, no images”) was speedily “healed” by image worship being revived in the Roman and Greek churches (Dan 7:8; Dan 7:11-24; Dan 7:25; 1Ti 4:1-3), so that “the beast that was, and is not (during the brief continuance of the deadly wound), yet is” (Rev 17:8); and in spite of God’s judicial plagues men repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood, which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk” (Rev 9:20). The deadly wound is healed also by the prevalenee of “covetousness which is idolatry” (Eph 5:5; Col 3:5) in all Christendom, reformed and unreformed, and the “form of godliness without the power”; culminating in the willful king of the third kingdom (Dan 8:11-12; Dan 11:36; 2Ti 3:1-9 describes the hotbed from which the last anti-Christianity shall spring).
Probably the second beast is the same, the false prophet who causes an image to be made to the first beast (Dan 7:8-26), and all who will not worship it to be killed, after the harlot has been unseated and judged (Rev 13:14-18; Rev 16:13-16; Rev 16:17). The Lord will come “utterly to abolish the idols,” and all “idolaters shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone” (Rev 21:8; Isa 2:18-19; Zec 13:2-3). Self idolatry, self will, and self sufficiency must be subdued, if God is to be our God. 1Sa 15:23 implies that “conscious disobedience is idolatry, because it makes self will, the human I, into a god” (Keil).
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Idol
See Idolatry
Fuente: The Poor Mans Concordance and Dictionary to the Sacred Scriptures
Idol
Manufacture of
Exo 20:4; Exo 32:4; Exo 32:20; Deu 4:23; Isa 40:19-20; Isa 44:9-12; Isa 44:17; Hab 2:18; Act 19:24-25
Manufacture of, forbidden
Exo 20:4; Exo 34:17
Made of:
– Gold
Exo 32:3-4; Psa 115:4-7; Psa 135:15-17; Isa 2:20; Isa 30:22; Isa 31:7; Hos 8:4
– Silver
Isa 2:20; Isa 30:22; Isa 31:7; Hos 8:4
– Wood and stone
Lev 26:1; Deu 4:28; 2Ki 19:18; Isa 37:19; Isa 41:6; Isa 44:13-19; Eze 20:32
Coverings of
Isa 30:22
Prayer to, unanswered
1Ki 18:25-29; Isa 16:12
Things offered to, not to be eaten
Exo 34:15 Iconoclasm
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Idol
(Gr. eidolon, and Lat. idolum, image or likeness) Democritus (5th c. B.C.) tried to explain sense perception by means of the emission of little particles (eidola) from the sense object. This theory and the term, idolum, are known throughout the later middle ages, but in a pejorative sense, as indicating a sort of “second-hand” knowledge. G. Bruno is usually credited with the earliest Latin use of the term to name that which leads philosophers into error, but this is an unmerited honor. The most famous usage occurs in F. Bacon’s Novum Oiganum, I, 39-68, where the four chief causes of human error in philosophy and science are called the Idols of the Tribe (weakness of understanding in the whole human race), of the Cave (individual prejudices and mental defects), of the Forum (faults of language in the communication of ideas), and of the Theatre (faults arising from received systems of philosophy). A very similar teaching, without the term, idol, had been developed by Grosseteste and Roger Bacon in the 13th century. — V.J.R.
Fuente: The Dictionary of Philosophy
Idol
Idol. An image or anything used as an object of worship in place of the true God. Among the earliest objects of worship, regarded as symbols of deity, were the meteoric stones, which the ancients believed to have been images of the Gods sent down from heaven. From these, they transferred their regard to rough unhewn blocks, to stone columns or pillars of wood, in which the divinity worshipped was supposed to dwell, and which were connected, like the sacred stone at Delphi, by being anointed with oil and crowned with wool on solemn days.
Of the forms assumed by the idolatrous images, we have not many traces in the Bible. Dagon, the fish-god of the Philistines, was a human figure terminating in a fish; and that the Syrian deities were represented, in later times, in a symbolical human shape, we know for certainty. When the process of adorning the image was completed, it was placed in a temple or shrine appointed for it. Jer 12:1; Jer 19:1. Wis 13:15; 1Co 8:10.
From these temples, the idols were sometimes carried in procession, Jer 4:26, on festival days. Their priests were maintained from the idol treasury, and feasted upon the meats which were appointed for the idols’ use. See Bel and the Dragon 3, 13. Dan 14:3; Dan 14:13. (Apocrypha)
Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary
Idol
primarily “a phantom or likeness” (from eidos, “an appearance,” lit., “that which is seen”), or “an idea, fancy,” denotes in the NT (a) “an idol,” an image to represent a false god, Act 7:41; 1Co 12:2; Rev 9:20; (b) “the false god” worshipped in an image, Act 15:20; Rom 2:22; 1Co 8:4, 1Co 8:7; 1Co 10:19; 2Co 6:16; 1Th 1:9; 1Jo 5:21.
“The corresponding Heb. word denotes ‘vanity,’ Jer 14:22; Jer 18:15; ‘thing of nought,’ Lev 19:4, marg., cp. Eph 4:17. Hence what represented a deity to the Gentiles, was to Paul a ‘vain thing,’ Act 14:15; ‘nothing in the world,’ 1Co 8:4; 1Co 10:19. Jeremiah calls the idol a ‘scarecrow’ (‘pillar in a garden,’ Jer 10:5, marg.), and Isaiah, Isa 44:9-20, etc., and Habakkuk, Hab 2:18-19 and the Psalmist, Psa 115:4-8, etc., are all equally scathing. It is important to notice, however, that in each case the people of God are addressed. When he speaks to idolaters, Paul, knowing that no man is won by ridicule, adopts a different line, Act 14:15-18; Act 17:16, Act 17:21-31.”* [* From Notes on Thessalonians, pp. 44, 45 by Hogg and Vine.]
Fuente: Vine’s Dictionary of New Testament Words
Idol
Jer 22:28 (a) This type refers to a man who had been extolled by the people and then had been cast down. The hopes of the people were wrecked with his downfall.
Zec 11:17 (a) This is a reference to a religious leader who, after winning the hearts of his people, deserts them and leaves them empty, hungry and helpless.
1Jo 5:21 (b) An idol in the Christian’s life is anything or any person that takes the heart and love away from the Lord or that comes between the child of GOD and GOD. It may be money, fame, pleasure, companionship, or even a religious activity.