| Easton's Bible Dictionary Image-worship or divine honour paid to any created object. Paul describes the origin of idolatry in Romans 1:21-25: men forsook God, and sank into ignorance and moral corruption (1:28). The forms of idolatry are, (1.) Fetishism, or the worship of trees, rivers, hills, stones, etc. (2.) Nature worship, the worship of the sun, moon, and stars, as the supposed powers of nature. (3.) Hero worship, the worship of deceased ancestors, or of heroes. In Scripture, idolatry is regarded as of heathen origin, and as being imported among the Hebrews through contact with heathen nations. The first allusion to idolatry is in the account of Rachel stealing her father's teraphim (Genesis 31:19), which were the relics of the worship of other gods by Laban's progenitors "on the other side of the river in old time" (Joshua 24:2). During their long residence in Egypt the Hebrews fell into idolatry, and it was long before they were delivered from it (Joshua 24:14; Ezek. 20:7). Many a token of God's displeasure fell upon them because of this sin. The idolatry learned in Egypt was probably rooted out from among the people during the forty years' wanderings; but when the Jews entered Palestine, they came into contact with the monuments and associations of the idolatry of the old Canaanitish races, and showed a constant tendency to depart from the living God and follow the idolatrous practices of those heathen nations. It was their great national sin, which was only effectually rebuked by the Babylonian exile. That exile finally purified the Jews of all idolatrous tendencies. The first and second commandments are directed against idolatry of every form. Individuals and communities were equally amenable to the rigorous code. The individual offender was devoted to destruction (Exodus 22:20). His nearest relatives were not only bound to denounce him and deliver him up to punishment (Deuteronomy 13:20-10), but their hands were to strike the first blow when, on the evidence of two witnesses at least, he was stoned (Deuteronomy 17:2-7). To attempt to seduce others to false worship was a crime of equal enormity (13:6-10). An idolatrous nation shared the same fate. No facts are more strongly declared in the Old Testament than that the extermination of the Canaanites was the punishment of their idolatry (Exodus 34:15, 16; Deuteronomy 7; 12:29-31; 20:17), and that the calamities of the Israelites were due to the same cause (Jeremiah 2:17). "A city guilty of idolatry was looked upon as a cancer in the state; it was considered to be in rebellion, and treated according to the laws of war. Its inhabitants and all their cattle were put to death." Jehovah was the theocratic King of Israel, the civil Head of the commonwealth, and therefore to an Israelite idolatry was a state offence (1 Samuel 15:23), high treason. On taking possession of the land, the Jews were commanded to destroy all traces of every kind of the existing idolatry of the Canaanites (Exodus 23:24, 32; 34:13; Deuteronomy 7:5, 25; 12:1-3). In the New Testament the term idolatry is used to designate covetousness (Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13; Colossians 3:5; Ephesians 5:5). Noah Webster's Dictionary 1. (n.) The worship of idols, images, or anything which is not God; the worship of false gods. 2. (n.) Excessive attachment or veneration for anything; respect or love which borders on adoration. Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia IDOLATRY i-dol'-a-tri (teraphim, "household idols," "idolatry"; eidololatreia): There is ever in the human mind a craving for visible forms to express religious conceptions, and this tendency does not disappear with the acceptance, or even with the constant recognition, of pure spiritual truths (see IMAGES). Idolatry originally meant the worship of idols, or the worship of false gods by means of idols, but came to mean among the Old Testament Hebrews any worship of false gods, whether by images or otherwise, and finally the worship of Yahweh through visible symbols (Hosea 8:5, 6; Hosea 10:5); and ultimately in the New Testament idolatry came to mean, not only the giving to any creature or human creation the honor or devotion which belonged to God alone, but the giving to any human desire a precedence over God's will (1 Corinthians 10:14 Galatians 5:20 Colossians 3:5 1 Peter 4:3). The neighboring gods of Phoenicia, Canaan, Moab-Baal, Melkart, Astarte, Chemosh, Moloch, etc.-were particularly attractive to Jerusalem, while the old Semitic calf-worship seriously affected the state religion of the Northern Kingdom (see GOLDEN CALF). As early as the Assyrian and Babylonian periods (8th and 7th centuries B.C.), various deities from the Tigris and Euphrates had intruded themselves-the worship of Tammuz becoming a little later the most popular and seductive of all (Ezekiel 8:14)-while the worship of the sun, moon, stars and signs of the Zodiac became so intensely fascinating that these were introduced even into the temple itself (2 Kings 17:16; 2 Kings 21:3-7; 23:4, 12 Jeremiah 19:13 Ezekiel 8:16 Amos 5:26).
The special enticements to idolatry as offered by these various cults were found in their deification of natural forces and their appeal to primitive human desires, especially the sexual; also through associations produced by intermarriage and through the appeal to patriotism, when the help of some cruel deity was sought in time of war. Baal and Astarte worship, which was especially attractive, was closely associated with fornication and drunkenness (Amos 2:7, 8; compare 1 Kings 14:23 f), and also appealed greatly to magic and soothsaying (e.g. Isaiah 2:6; Isaiah 3:2; Isaiah 8:19).
Sacrifices to the idols were offered by fire (Hosea 4:13); libations were poured out (Isaiah 57:6 Jeremiah 7:18); the first-fruits of the earth and tithes were presented (Hosea 2:8); tables of food were set before them (Isaiah 65:11); the worshippers kissed the idols or threw them kisses (1 Kings 19:18 Hosea 13:2 Job 31:27); stretched out their hands in adoration (Isaiah 44:20); knelt or prostrated themselves before them and sometimes danced about the altar, gashing themselves with knives (1 Kings 18:26, 28; for a fuller summary see EB).
Even earlier than the Babylonian exile the Hebrew prophets taught that Yahweh was not only superior to all other gods, but reigned alone as God, other deities being nonentities (Leviticus 19:4 Isaiah 2:8, 18, 20; Isaiah 19:1, 3; 31:07:00; 44:9-20). The severe satire of this period proves that the former fear of living demons supposed to inhabit the idols had disappeared. These prophets also taught that the temple, ark and sacrifices were not essential to true spiritual worship (e.g. Jeremiah 3:16 Amos 5:21-25). These prophecies produced a strong reaction against the previously popular idol-worship, though later indications of this worship are not infrequent (Ezekiel 14:1-8 Isaiah 42:17). The Maccabean epoch placed national heroism plainly on the side of the one God, Yahweh; and although Greek and Egyptian idols were worshipped in Gaza and Ascalon and other half-heathen communities clear down to the 5th or 6th century of the Christian era, yet in orthodox centers like Jerusalem these were despised and repudiated utterly from the 2nd century B.C. onward.
See also GOLDEN CALF; GODS; IMAGES; TERAPHIM.
LITERATURE.
Wm. Wake, A Discourse concerning the Nature of Idolatry, 1688; W.R. Smith, Lectures on the Religion of the Semites; E.B. Tylor, Primitive Culture; J.G. Frazer, Golden Bough (3 vols); L.R. Farnell, Evolution of Religion, 1905; Baudissin, Studien zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte; Beathgen, Der Gott Israels u. die Gotter der Heiden, 1888.
Camden M. Cobern |  | Multi-Version Concordance Idolatry (14 Occurrences) Acts 15:20 Yet let us send them written instructions to abstain from things polluted by connexion with idolatry, from fornication, from meat killed by strangling, and from blood. (WEY) Acts 17:16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. (KJV DBY WBS YLT) 1 Corinthians 10:14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. (WEB KJV ASV DBY WBS YLT NAS NIV) Galatians 5:20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, (WEB KJV ASV DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) Colossians 3:5 Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry; (WEB KJV WEY ASV DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV NIV) 1 Peter 4:3 for sufficient to us 'is' the past time of life the will of the nations to have wrought, having walked in lasciviousnesses, desires, excesses of wines, revelings, drinking-bouts, and unlawful idolatries, (See RSV NIV) Leviticus 17:7 And they shall no more offer their sacrifices to idols, with which they have committed idolatry: This shall be a statute for ever to them throughout their generations. (WBS) Deuteronomy 31:16 And the LORD said to Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and this people will rise up, and commit idolatry with the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. (WBS) 1 Samuel 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because you have rejected the word of Yahweh, he has also rejected you from being king." (WEB KJV JPS ASV DBY WBS NAS RSV NIV) 2 Kings 9:22 It happened, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, "Is it peace, Jehu?" He answered, "What peace, so long as the prostitution of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft abound?" (See NIV) 2 Chronicles 21:13 But hast walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit idolatry, like the idolatries of the house of Ahab, and also hast slain thy brethren of thy father's house, who were better than thyself: (WBS) Ezekiel 14:4 Therefore, speak with them, and thou hast said unto them: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Every one of the house of Israel who causeth his idols to go up unto his heart, and the stumbling-block of his iniquity setteth over-against his face, and hath gone in unto the prophet -- I Jehovah have given an answer to him for this, for the abundance of his idols, (See NIV) Ezekiel 23:49 And they have put your wickedness on you, And the sins of your idols ye bear, And ye have known that I 'am' the Lord Jehovah! (See RSV NIV) Ezekiel 43:9 Now let them put away their prostitution, and the dead bodies of their kings, far from me; and I will dwell in the midst of them forever. (See RSV) |
