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Idolatry

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Religious disputes

   Idolatry is a major sin in the Abrahamic religions regarding image. In
   Judaism and Christianity it is defined as worship of an image, idea or
   object, as opposed to the worship of a supreme being. In Islam, the
   creation of imagery itself as well as its worship would amount to
   idolatry. In religions where such activity is not considered as sin,
   the term "idolatry" itself is absent. Which images, ideas, and objects,
   constitute idolatry, and which constitute reasonable worship, is a
   matter of contention with some religious authorities and groups using
   the term to describe certain other religions apart from their own.

Etymology

   "The Adoration of the Golden Calf" by Nicolas Poussin
   Enlarge
   "The Adoration of the Golden Calf" by Nicolas Poussin

   The word idolatry comes (by haplology) from the Greek word
   eidololatria, a compound of eidolon, "image" or "figure", and latreia,
   "worship". Although the Greek appears to be a loan translation of the
   Hebrew phrase avodat elilim, which is attested in rabbinic literature
   (e.g., bChul., 13b, Bar.), the Greek term itself is not found in the
   Septuagint, Philo, Josephus, or in other Hellenistic Jewish writings.
   It is also not found in Greek pagan literature. In the New Testament,
   the Greek word is found only in the letters of Paul, 1 Peter, 1 John,
   and Revelation, where it has a derogatory meaning. Hebrew terms for
   idolatory include avodah zarah (foreign worship) and avodat kochavim
   umazalot (worship of planets and constellations).

Idolatry in many forms

   If the purpose of worship is to bring one into connection with
   divinity, then any set of beliefs or practices which significantly
   interferes with this may, at some point, be termed idolatry. Examples
   might include:
     * Postrating before or Worshipping any creature (sun, moon, water,
       cow, sheep, king, teacher, celebrity) instead of the One Being who
       transcends them.
     * Directing the aim of one's devotion to a holy book itself, or to a
       religious practice or item, instead of directing one's devotion to
       the Being for whose sake that religious practice is to be done and
       those things exist.
     * A very strong attachment to one's country that a religion considers
       inappropriate. In this case nationalism could be considered a form
       of idolatry.
     * A very strong desire to gain sex and wealth that a religion
       considers inappropriate. In this case greed could be considered a
       form of idolatry.
     * A very strong desire to gain fame or recognition that a religion
       considers inappropriate. In this case egocentrism could be
       considered a form of idolatry.
     * An obsessive desire to earn money could be classified as idolatry.
     * Pilgrimage to shrines of ancestors or saints e.g. dargahs

Idolatry in the Hebrew Bible

   According to the Hebrew Bible, idolatry originated in the age of Eber,
   though some interpret the text to mean in the time of Serug;
   traditionnal Jewish lore traces it back to Enos, the second generation
   after Adam. Image worship existed in the time of Jacob, from the
   account of Rachel taking images along with her on leaving her father's
   house, which is given in the book of Genesis. Abraham's father, Terah,
   was both an idol manufacturer and worshipper. It is recounted in both
   traditional Jewish texts and in the Quran that when Abraham discovered
   the true God, he destroyed his father's idols (See Terah for story).

   The commandments in the Hebrew Bible against idolatry forbade the
   beliefs and practices of pagans who lived amongst the Israelites at the
   time, especially the religions of ancient Akkad, Mesopotamia, and
   Egypt.

   Some of these religions, it is claimed in the Bible, had a set of
   practices which were prohibited under Jewish law, such as sex rites,
   cultic male and female prostitution, passing a child through a fire to
   Molech, and child sacrifice.

   There is no one section that clearly defines idolatry; rather there are
   a number of commandments on this subject spread through the books of
   the Hebrew Bible, some of which were written in different historical
   eras, in response to different issues. Taking these verses together,
   idolatry in the Hebrew Bible is defined as either:
     * the worship of idols (or images)
     * the worship of polytheistic gods by use of idols (or images)
     * the worship of animals or people
     * the use of idols in the worship of God.

   In a number of places the Hebrew Bible makes clear that God has no
   shape or form, and is utterly incomparable; thus no idol, image, idea,
   or anything comparable to creation could ever capture God's essence.
   For example, when the Israelites are visited by God in Deut. 4:15, they
   see no shape or form. Many verses in the Bible use anthropomorphisms to
   describe God, (e.g. God's mighty hand, God's finger, etc.) but these
   verses have always been understood as poetic images rather than literal
   descriptions. This is reflected in Hosea 12:10 which says, “And I have
   spoken unto the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and by the
   hand of the prophets I use similes.”

   The Bible records a struggle between the prophet's attempt to spread
   pure monotheism, and the tendency of some people, especially rulers
   such as Ahab to accept or to encourage others into polytheistic or
   idolatrous beliefs. The patriarch Abraham was called to spread the true
   knowledge of God, but the prophetic books still reflect a continuing
   struggle against idolatry. For example, the Biblical prophet Jeremiah
   complains: "According to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O
   Judah" (2:28).

   The Bible has many terms for idolatry, and their usage represents the
   horror with which they filled the writers of the Bible [Adherents of
   Jewish faith maintain that the Torah is the literal and eternally
   binding word of G-d]. Thus idols are stigmatized "non-God" (Deut.
   32:17, 21 ; Jer. 2:11 ), "things of naught" (Lev. 19:4 et passim ),
   "vanity" (Deut. 32), "iniquity" (1 Sam. 15:23 ), "wind and confusion"
   (Isa. 41:29 ), "the dead" (Ps. 106:28 ), "carcasses" (Lev. 26:30; Jer.
   16:18), "a lie" (Isa. 44:20 et passim ), and similar epithets.

   Pagan idols are described as being made of gold, silver, wood, and
   stone. They are described as being only the work of men's hands, unable
   to speak, see, hear, smell, eat, grasp, or feel, and powerless either
   to injure or to benefit. (Ps. 135:15-18)

   Idols were either designated in Hebrew by a term of general
   significance, or were named according to their material or the manner
   in which they were made. They said to have been were placed upon
   pedestals, and fastened with chains of silver or nails of iron lest
   they should fall over or be carried off (Isa. 40:19, 41:7; Jer. 10:14;
   Wisdom 13:15), and they were also clothed and colored (Jer. 10:9; Ezek.
   16:18; Wisdom 15:4).

   At first the gods and their images were conceived of as identical; but
   in later times a distinction was drawn between the god and the image.
   Nevertheless it was customary to take away the gods of the vanquished
   (Isa. 10:10-11, 36:19, 46:1; Jer. 48:7, 49:3; Hosea 10:5; Dan. 11:8),
   and a similar custom is frequently mentioned in the cuneiform texts.

Did idolaters really worship idols?

   Did the idolaters of Biblical times believe that the idols they
   worshipped were actually gods or spirits, or did they believe that
   their idols only were representations of said gods or spirits? The
   Bible does not make this clear, and thus apparently outlaws such
   practices and beliefs in either form (according to some
   interpretations).

   Yehezkel Kaufman has suggested that the Biblical authors interpreted
   idolatry in its most literal form: according to the Bible, most
   idolaters really believed that their idols were gods, and holds that
   the Biblical authors made an error in assuming that all idolatry was of
   this type, when in fact in some cases, idols may have only been
   representations of gods. Kaufman writes that "We may perhaps say that
   the Bible sees in paganism only its lowest level, the level of
   mana-beliefs...the prophets ignore what we know to be authentic
   paganism (i.e., its elaborate mythology about the origin and exploits
   of the gods and their ultimate subjection to a meta-divine reservoir of
   impersonal power representing Fate or Necessity.) Their [the Biblical
   author's] whole condemnation revolves around the taunt of fetishism."

   However, Kaufman holds that in some places, some Biblical authors did
   understand that idolaters worshipped gods and spirits that existed
   independently of idols, and not the forms of the idols themselves. For
   instance, in a passage in 1 Kings 18:27 , the Hebrew prophet Elijah
   challenges the priests of Baal atop of Mount Carmel to persuade their
   god to perform a miracle, after they had begun to try to persuade the
   Jews to take up idolatry. The pagan priests beseeched their god without
   the use of an idol, which in Kaufman's view, indicates that Baal was
   not an idol, but rather one of the polytheistic gods that merely could
   be worshipped through the use of an idol.

   Orestes Brownson affirms that the pagans in the Hebrew Bible did not
   literally worship the objects themselves, so that the issue of idolatry
   is really whether one is pursuing a false god or the true God.

Idolatry in Jewish thought

   Judaism strongly prohibits any form of idolatry, and holds that
   idolatry is not limited to the worship of a statue or picture itself,
   but also includes worship of the Almighty Himself with the use of
   mediators and/or any artistic representations of God. According to this
   understanding, even if one directs his worship to the Almighty Himself
   and not to a statue, picture, or some other created thing, but yet he
   uses a created thing as a representation of the Almighty in order to
   assist in his worship of the Almighty, this is also considered a form
   of idolatry. In fact, Maimonides explains in chapter 1 of Hilkhot
   Avodat Kokhavim (Avoda Zarah) in the Mishneh Torah that this is one of
   the ways that idolatry began.

   While such greats of Jewish history as Rabbi Saadia Gaon, Rabbi Bahya
   ibn Paquda, and Rabbi Yehuda Halevi all elaborated on proper monotheism
   and the issues of idolatry, without a doubt Rabbi Mosha ben Maimon (
   Maimonides) was the most thorough of them all in his elucidation of
   monotheism and the problems of idolatry. This is seen in his work known
   as the Mishneh Torah, in the Guide for the Perplexed, as well as in the
   various shorter writings he composed. In the Mishneh Torah, intended to
   be a complete compilation of Talmudic law, the theme of proclaiming the
   Unity of the Creator and eradication of idolatry is not limited to the
   sections specified for these topics. Rather, it permeates every section
   of the this work as the purpose and foundation of the entire Torah. In
   the Guide for the Perplexed, Maimonides so clarifies his understanding
   of monotheism and idolatry that in its light even certain Jewish
   communities of his time, and today, become suspect of idolatry. This
   was the core reason for his controversy, even more so than the issue of
   philosophy.

   In short, the proper Jewish definition of idolatry is to do an act of
   worship toward any created thing, to believe that a particular created
   thing is an independent power, or to make something a mediator between
   ourselves and the Almighty. These laws are codified in the Mishneh
   Torah, mainly in the section called Hilkhot Avodat Kokhavim (Avodah
   Zarah) - The Laws of Strange Worship (Idolatry). It is considered a
   great insult to God to worship one of His creations instead of Him or
   together with Him. According to the Noahide Laws, the 7 laws which Jews
   believe to be binding on the non-Jewish world, the non-Israelite
   nations are also forbiddon to worship anything other than the Absolute
   Creator. One can find this in Hilkhot Melakhim u'Milhhamotehem (Laws of
   Kings and their Wars) chapter 9 in the Mishneh Torah. Judaism holds
   that any beliefs or practices which significantly interferes with a
   Jew's relationship with God may, at some point, be deemed idolatry.

Christian views of idolatry

   The Christian view of idolatry may be divided into two general
   categories. The Catholic and Orthodox view (not necessary limited to
   the Eastern Orthodox or Oriental Orthodox communion, and sometimes
   further complicated when you add Anglicans and Methodists into the
   equation) and the Fundamentalist view. The Puritan Protestant groups
   adopted a similar view to Islam, denouncing all forms of religious
   objects whether in three dimensional or two dimensional form. The
   problem springs from differences in interpretation of the Decalogue
   commonly known as the Ten Commandments. "You shall have no other gods
   before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any
   likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth
   beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow
   down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God,
   visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and
   the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love
   to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments." (RSV
   Exodus 20:3-6).

   It would appear that both Orthodox and Protestant views of idolatry
   condemn idolatry as it is practiced in non-Christian religions. The
   Catholic missionary Saint Francis Xavier referred to Hinduism as
   idolatry, and Protestant Christian apologetics makes similar claims
   about various non-Christian religions.

   The Roman Catholic and particularly the Orthodox Churches cite St. John
   of Damascus' work "On the Divine Image" to defend the use of icons. He
   wrote in direct response to the iconoclastic controversy that begun in
   the eighth century by the Byzantine emperor Leo III and continued by
   his successor Constantine V. St. John maintains that depicting the
   invisible God is indeed wrong, but he argues that the incarnation,
   where "the Word became flesh" (John 1:14), indicates that the invisible
   God became visible, and as a result it is permissible to depict Jesus
   Christ. He argues, "When He who is bodiless and without form...
   existing in the form of God, empties Himself and takes the form of a
   servant in substance and in stature and is found in a body of flesh,
   then you draw His image..." He also observes that in the Old Testament,
   images and statues were not absolutely condemned in themselves:
   examples include the graven images of cherubim over the Ark of the
   Covenant or the bronze serpent mentioned in the book of Numbers. He
   also defends external acts of honour towards icons, arguing that there
   are "different kinds of worship" and that the honour shown to icons
   differs entirely from the adoration of God. He continues by citing Old
   Testament examples of forms of "honour": "Jacob bowed to the ground
   before Esau, his brother, and also before the tip of his son Joseph's
   staff (Genesis 33:3). He bowed down, but did not adore. Joshua, the Son
   of Nun, and Daniel bowed in veneration before an angel of God (Joshua
   5:14) but they did not adore him. For adoration is one thing, and that
   which is offered in order to honour something of great excellence is
   another". He cites St. Basil who asserts, "the honour given to the
   image is transferred to its prototype". St. John argues therefore that
   venerating an image of Christ does not terminate at the image itself -
   the material of the image is not the object of worship - rather it goes
   beyond the image, to the prototype.

   Christian theology requires proselytizing, the spreading of the faith
   by gaining converts by use of trained missionaries. This often caused
   hostile relationships with pagan religions and other Christian groups
   who used images in some manner as part of religious practice.

   Fundamentalist Protestants often accuse Catholic and Orthodox
   Christians of Traditionalism, Idolatry, Paganism and Iconolatry since
   they do not "cleanse their faith" of the use of images.

   Catholic and Orthodox Christians use religious objects such as Icons,
   incense, the Gospel, Bible, candles and religious vestments. Icons are
   mainly in two and rarely in three dimensional form. These are in
   dogmatic theory venerated as objects filled with God's grace and power
   -- (therefore Eastern Orthodoxy declares they are not "hollow forms"
   {see idol} and hence, not idols). Evidence for the use of these, they
   claim, is found in the Old Testament and in Early Christian worship
   (see Wikipedia article under heading "Icons").

   The offering of veneration in the form of latreía (the veneration due
   God) is doctrinally forbidden by the Orthodox Church; however
   veneration of religious pictures or Icons in the form of douleía is not
   only allowed but obligatory. The distinction in levels of veneration,
   which is doctrinally technical and not distinguishable in the form of
   actual practice, was and is often lost on the ordinary observer. The
   distinction is maintained and taught by believers in many of the hymns
   and prayers that are sung and prayed throughout the liturgical year.

   In Orthodox apologetics for icons, a similarity is asserted between
   icons and the manufacture by Moses (under God's commandment) of The
   Bronze Snake, which was, Orthodoxy says, given the grace and power of
   God to heal those bitten by real snakes. "And Moses made a serpent of
   brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent
   had bitten any person, when he beheld the serpent of brass, they
   lived"(Numbers 21:9). Another similarity is declared with the Ark of
   the Covenant described as the ritual object above which Yahweh was
   present (Numbers 10:33-36); or the burning bush which, according to
   Exodus, allowed God to speak to Moses; or the Ten Commandments which
   were the Word of God " Dabar Elohim" in tablet form. These inanimate
   objects became a medium by which God worked to teach, speak to,
   encourage and heal the Hebrew faithful.

   Veneration of icons through latreía was codified in the Seventh
   Ecumenical Council during the Byzantine Iconoclast controversy, in
   which St. John of Damascus was pivotal. Icon veneration is also
   practiced in the Catholic Church, which accepts the declarations of the
   Seventh Ecumenical Council, but it is practiced to a lesser extent,
   since Catholics today do not usually prostrate and kiss icons, and the
   Second Vatican Council enjoined moderation in the use of images.
   Eastern Rite Catholic Churches still use icons in their Divine Liturgy
   however.

   Most Protestant groups avoid the use of images in any context
   suggestive of veneration. Protestantism from its beginnings treated
   images as objects of inspiration and education rather than of
   veneration and worship. Occasionally icons may be seen among some
   "high" church communities such as Anglicans, but they are not viewed or
   used in the same manner described in Orthodox doctrine, and their
   presence sometimes causes controversy.

   Very conservative Protestant groups avoid any use of religious images,
   even for inspiration or instruction, as incitement to what they view as
   idolatry.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idolatry"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
