Chapter 3: How False Gods Are Named in Scripture

How false gods are appellatively called in Scripture — in the LXX: manufacta [things made by hand], abominationes [abominations], idola [idols], idola muta [mute idols], daemonia [demons], auguria [omens], vana [vanities], and others — with respect to their efficacy; with respect to their effects on the consciences of the superstitious; with respect to their material; with respect to their external form; material and

I. The Old Testament sometimes expresses false gods collectively or appellatively; there are also places where it distinguishes them individually by their proper names. But collectively they are called by various names for various reasons. It is worthwhile to offer a sample of this variety.

II. First, according to the truth of the matter, they are called gods that are not gods: 2 Chronicles 13:9, "Whoever comes to consecrate himself shall be a priest to no-gods" — that is, to false gods, who are anything but God. And likewise: Jeremiah 2:11, "Has a nation exchanged its gods, and they are no gods?" — that is, gods that are not gods. The same words are repeated, ch. 16:20, "Can a man make for himself gods? Yet they are no gods." These are those who are called gods

— of whom the apostle speaks (1 Corinthians 8:5). They are indeed called gods by many impiously, but they are not; that is, they are not, as he says elsewhere (Galatians 4:8), gods by nature, but only gods by repute and in common estimation.

III. Further, with respect to efficacy and outcome, they are called by various names; for example, elilim: Leviticus 26:1, "You shall not make for yourselves elilim." This word is applied to idols about twenty times. The LXX renders it variously. In the cited passage it is rendered manufacta [things made by hand]: "Gods fashioned by the hands of men," Isaiah 2:8; as bdelygmata [abominations], or things to be abominated. And likewise Ezekiel 30:13; Leviticus 19:4, eidola [idols]; and Habakkuk 2:18, eidola kopa [idols] and eidola muta [mute idols]. Also Psalm 97:7, glypta [graven images], that is, "carved images"; Isaiah 19:3, theoi [gods] and agalmata [statues] — "gods and images"; Psalm 96:5, daimonia [demons]; Jeremiah 14:14, oionismata [omens], that is, "auguries"; Zechariah 11:17, mataia [vanities], "vain things" — the only place where they render the sense of the word directly. The word elil can be taken as meaning "not God"; whatever it may be, it is not God. But it is more correctly derived from aven [vanity], "a thing of nothing" — which an idol truly is. Hence the apostle (1 Corinthians 8:4): "We know that an idol is nothing in the world" — that is, it can do absolutely nothing by virtue or efficacy. Hence the false gods are called elilim; that is, vanities, nothings. And the apostle calls all the gods of the Gentiles mataia; that is, elilim (Acts 14:15). Our translators render this word almost everywhere as "idols."

IV. With the same respect, idols are called aven: Isaiah 66:3, "As one who blesses aven." Our translators render it, "As he that blesses an idol." The LXX, hōs eulogōn. For he who blesses an idol is cursing God. The same word occurs (Hosea 6:8; Amos 1:5). Jerome translates it as "idol." The word itself properly signifies falsehood, and toil with weariness; also iniquity and vanity — all of which things converge as if by design in the worship of idols. For they are themselves lies, that is, they speak falsely, since they delude their worshipers — or rather delude themselves — with vain hope; and those who weary themselves in any superstitious worship will obtain nothing at all beyond vanity and misery.

V. For the same reasons, namely with respect to efficacy and outcome, idols are called sheqer, "liars" or "lies": Isaiah 44:20, "Is not sheqer" (LXX, pseudos) "in my right hand?" That is, an idol, which will be for me as a lie, providing nothing at all of those things it seems to promise. Hosea 7:1, "They have worked sheqer" — a lie; Jerome translates it as "idol."

VI. And from this same consideration idols are also called metim, "the dead": Psalm 106:28, "They joined themselves to Baal-peor, and ate sacrifices of metim." "Sacrifices of the dead" is an objective genitive: sacrifices that were offered to the dead — that is, to gods who can provide help to no one, but are plainly like a dead thing, vain and useless, from which to expect any help or comfort is nothing less than extreme madness. And so, in contrast to all the gods of the Gentiles, Paul says pointedly that he has set his hope on the living God (1 Timothy 4:10).

VII. Third, with respect to the effects that worship not instituted by the true God has upon the consciences and minds of the superstitious, and with respect to the final outcome of all idolatry, idols are also called by various names.

VIII. In this respect they are called by the Hebrew term meaning "sorrows" and "troubles"; for those who are occupied with arbitrary worship with the utmost solicitude obtain nothing beyond the greatest sorrows and anxieties: 2 Samuel 5:21, "And the Philistines left there their sorrows." The LXX renders it "their gods." Our translators render it "their images." 1 Samuel 31:9, "They announced it in the house of their idols." The LXX renders it "their idols." And in very many other places they render the term by one Greek word for idols, sometimes by another, as Isaiah 46:1, Psalm 106:36. For the Hebrew root also signifies "to form" or "to fashion"; as Job 10:8, "Your hands formed me." And so idols seem to be able to be called by this term from the fashioning and forming of them, and accordingly to be rendered by the corresponding Greek term. For in this sense the rabbis call the carved images of the saints among Christians. But the origin of the word — indeed the very word itself that is employed — means "pain" and "grief": for idols bring their worshipers nothing besides toil and pain, that is, the greatest anxiety of conscience together with a sense of divine wrath. IX. For the same reason they are also called by a term meaning "birth-pangs": Isaiah 45:16, "The craftsmen of idols departed in shame." Junius renders it "makers of images." Our translators, "The makers of idols." The Vulgate, "Fabricators of errors." The LXX renders it "Be renewed toward me, O islands" — entirely wide of the mark. The Arabic follows them. But they omit what is in the text and add things that are nowhere indicated. The word properly signifies "the pangs of those in labor." The prophet testifies that superstition afflicts and torments the consciences of men with like pangs (Micah 6:7).

X. In this same respect they are also called by a term meaning "something shapeless and confused" — also desolation, devastation, emptiness. For every religious worship established outside the divine ordinance devastates and confounds the consciences of men, which it ought to cultivate and strengthen. 1 Samuel 12:21, "And do not turn aside after worthless things that will not profit or deliver, for they are nothing." The LXX renders it "they are nothing." Some also think the related term is used in Numbers 22:21.

XI. For the same cause of their effect, and with respect also to their outcome, they are called by a term meaning "vanities": Jeremiah 14:22, 8:19, 10:8, "Are there

any among the vanities of the nations who give rain?' LXX., 'Is there among the idols of the nations one that causes rain?' See Deuteronomy 32:21.

XII. With respect to the material of the immediate objects of worship, they are also variously named. Hence they are also called contemptuously by a term meaning "wood" or "a piece of wood": Hosea 4:12, "My people asks counsel of its wood"; and Jeremiah 10:8. Whatever idolaters falsely imagine, their gods are wood and nothing more. Also by a term meaning "gods of stone," that is, stone gods: Deuteronomy 4:28, "You will serve gods of stone." Also by a term meaning "gods of silver," that is, silver gods; and by a term meaning "gods of gold," that is, golden gods: meaning those composed and cast from silver or gold, Exodus 20:23. And the one calf of Aaro-

nic's calf is called "gods of gold," Exodus 32:31.

XIII. They are also variously called with respect to their outward form. Most frequently by a term meaning "images, likenesses": Numbers 33:52, "You shall destroy all their molten images." LXX., "molten images." And similarly, 2 Chronicles 23:17. Our translators everywhere, "images." With respect to form there is also another term; it frequently occurs together with the term that properly signifies a carved image: Deuteronomy 4:16, "Lest you corrupt yourselves and make for yourselves a carved image, the likeness of any figure" — that is, an idol. LXX., "a carved image, any likeness." XIV. With respect to material and form they are called by a term meaning "carved images"; for this is an image or likeness hewn from stone, wood, or any other material, Exodus 20:4; Leviticus 26:1; Judges 18:17; Isaiah 42:17. The LXX renders this word variously: by a term meaning "carved things," Leviticus 26:1; Deuteronomy 4:16. Also in the same sense, by a term meaning "carved works," Isaiah 45:20; by a term for "images," Exodus 20:4; 2 Chronicles 33:22. Also by a term meaning "likenesses" or "idols," Isaiah 21:9; and by a term meaning "images," Isaiah 40:19, 20; and by a term meaning "enclosures of altars," 2 Chronicles 34:3. Our translators consistently render it "graven images." Under this name the rabbis for the most part call the images that certain Christians make in order to worship them.

Hence in Chaldean the related term means "to profane" or "to make profane"; for nothing is more profane than idolatry.

XV. Hence they are also called by a term meaning "gods of casting" or "molten gods": Exodus 34:17, "You shall not make for yourself molten gods." And there is a description that contains all these things, Deuteronomy 4:28, "gods, the work of human hands."

XVI. With respect to the true God and His covenanted people, they are called gods

— that is, "other gods," Exodus 20:3. These, because they are not that true God, are in reality not gods at all; such are the ones that this covenanted people ought not to have admitted. And in the same sense the term means "alien gods," or foreign gods, and similarly at Deuteronomy 32:16, and in many other places.

XVII. Taking their designation from their worshippers, they are called "gods of the peoples," Deuteronomy 13:8 — that is, of those who have been rejected from the true God, His covenant, and His worship. For this reason also, at Joshua 24:14, they are called "gods beyond the river" — namely, those whom the Chaldeans worshipped.

XVIII. From peculiar characteristics, or from their peculiar imaginary use, idols have received certain names.

XIX. Of this kind is the term rendered "They shall not stand — the groves and the sun-images," Isaiah 27:9. LXX.: idols. Our translators: "images." Also at Leviticus 26:30, "I will destroy your high places, and cut down your sun-images," LXX.: your idols made by hand. And at Isaiah 17:8, "He shall not look to the sun-images," LXX.: abominations. These seem to be so called from the sun, which is named from heat. Hence our translators, wherever this word occurs, add in the margin "sun images," although another derivation of the word may also be given; and sometimes it simply means "idols."

XX. Of the same kind is teraphim. The etymology of the word is unknown; those who derive it from a certain root are mistaken. It appears to be a Gentile or foreign word. We will say more about it under the proper names of idols. The LXX. more often retains the word itself, as at Judges 17:5, 18:14, 17; 1 Samuel 15:23. Sometimes they render it as idols, as at Genesis 31:19, 34, 35; and as vain images, as at 1 Samuel 19:13. Also as carved images, Ezekiel 21:21; and as those that speak, Zechariah 10:2, for reasons to be explained shortly. Our translators either retain "teraphim," as at Hosea 3:4, or render it by "images," with the word "teraphim" noted everywhere in the margin.

XXI. Also the term meaning "new gods:": Judges 5:8, "The people chose new gods" — mushrooms of the earth, which but the day before yesterday did not at all ex-

XXII. Furthermore, from the nature and desert of idolatry, idols are frequently called "abominations:": 2 Kings 23:24, "Josiah purged all the idols and all the abominations." LXX.: detestable things, things that are detestable and execrable. 1 Kings 11:5, 7, Milcom is called the abomination of the Ammonites; and Chemosh, the abomination of the Moabites; and Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. LXX. everywhere renders it as idol. See Ezekiel 20; Zechariah 9:7; Jeremiah 4:1, 32:34; Isaiah 66:3.

XXIII. Finally, by way of supreme contempt they are called by the Hebrew term signifying "filth, dung, wallowing-places:": Ezekiel 23:3, "He committed fornication with them to defile himself," with dunghill-gods. Leviticus 26:30; Deuteronomy 16; the term signifies "dung;": Job 20:7; Ezekiel 4:12, 15. Hence this name was given to the gods of the nations, since they deserve nothing more honorable.

XXIV. With these preliminary matters set forth, let us now proceed to review all those idols in the order in which they are mentioned in Holy Scripture — those which, before the Babylonian captivity, either the whole people worshiped, or at least that part of the people whose defection could most justly be imputed to the whole.