Other Gods and Idols

The Relationship Between the Worship of Other Gods and the Worship of Idols Within the Old Testament

Thomas A. Judge

• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780567696120
• eBook ISBN: 9780567689337
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

This study questions why the relationship between the worship of other gods and the worship of idols within the Old Testament is difficult to define, acknowledging how various traditions have seen these two issues as synonymous and others have viewed them as separate commandments. Judge argues that there are four factors at play in this diversity. He introduces the first three through an examination of the relationship between the prohibitions listed in the biblical text, and the fourth through a study of the biblical depiction of the war against idols before and after the fall of the Northern Kingdom. Judge argues that texts depicting the era before the fall provide a context in which there are strong grounds to distinguishing the worship of the "wrong gods" and the worship of the right God in the wrong way. However, texts depicting the era after the fall provide a context in which the issues appear to have been fused.

Part I

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS AS INTRODUCTION

1

THE LINGUISTIC AMBIGUITY

As John Barton has pointed out, ‘Jews and Christians have always known that there are Ten Commandments, but there is disagreement about exactly how the count of ten is derived. The question hinges on how the first two and the last two commandments are to be identified.’1 In order to answer the question of why the relationship between the worship of other gods and the worship of idols within the whole of the Old Testament is difficult to define, I begin with a narrower question: Why is the relationship between the prohibition of other gods and the prohibition of idols difficult to define? In both Exod. 20 and Deut. 5, the prohibition of other gods is followed by the prohibition of idols. Three ambiguities have led interpreters through the ages to arrive at differing conclusions as to whether these prohibitions should be treated as one commandment or two. In this and the following two chapters, I examine these three ambiguities. Then, in Chapter 4, I use these ambiguities to present the first three reasons why the wider relationship between the worship of other gods and the worship of idols in the Old Testament is difficult to define. As I examine the ambiguities, I outline the ways interpreters have approached them and offer my own interpretation. My goal is not to persuade readers of my own interpretation but to explain why the relationship between the prohibitions is difficult to define.

As many have noted, differing religious traditions number the Ten Commandments (or Decalogue) differently. For example, the second commandment for Catholics and Lutherans is ‘You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain’. For Protestants of the Reformed tradition it is ‘You shall not make for yourself an idol’. Finally, for most Jewish traditions it is ‘You shall have no other gods before me’ as well as ‘You shall not make for yourself an idol’.2 In other words, the meaning of the ‘Second Commandment’ differs from tradition to tradition. As Barton has pointed out, ‘At one level it may not seem to matter very much precisely how the commandments are divided up. Either way, the same material is included, and how exactly it is listed is of small consequence… On the other hand, there are distinctive merits in the two different systems.’3

In Exod. 20:2-6 and Deut. 5:6-8 we read the following:

Exod. 20:2-6	Deut. 5:6-8
2 אנכי יהוה אלהיך אשר הוצאתיך מארץ מצרים מבית עבדים 3 לא יהיה־לך אלהים אחרים על־פני 4 לא תעשה־לך פסל וכל־תמונה אשר בשמים ממע ואשר בארץ מתחת ואשר במים מתחת לארץ 5 לא־תשתחוה להם ולא תעבדם כי אנכי יהוה אלהיך אל קנא פקד עון אבת על־בנים על־שלשים ועל־רבעים לשנאי 6 ועשה חסד לאלפים לאהבי ולשמרי מצותי	6 אנכי יהוה אלהיך אשר הוצאתיך מארץ מצרים מבית עבדים 7 לא יהיה־לך אלהים אחרים על־פני 8 לא תעשה־לך פסל כל־תמונה אשר בשמים ממעל ואשר בארץ מתחת ואשר במים מתחת לארץ 9 לא־תשתחוה להם ולא תעבדם כי אנכי יהוה אלהיך אל קנא פקד עון אבות על־בנים ועל־שלשים ועל־רבעים לשנאי 10 ועשה חסד לאלפים לאהבי ולשמרי מצותו

6 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;

7 you shall have no other gods before me.

8 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, 10 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.4

Philo, Josephus, Eastern Orthodoxy and the Protestant Reformed tradition identify two commandments within these five verses. The first is,

7 you shall have no other gods before me

The second is,

8 You shall not make for yourself an idol…

However, Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Augustine and the Catholic and Lutheran traditions treat the prohibition of other gods and the prohibition of idols as a single commandment dealing with false worship.5 The count of ten is reached by seeing the verse against coveting as two commandments so that the ninth commandment prohibits desiring your neighbour’s wife and the tenth prohibits coveting house, land, servants, animals, etc.6 The conventional Jewish enumeration also sees the prohibition of other gods and the prohibition of idols as a single unit.7 However, instead of counting the verse against coveting as two separate units, the number ten is reached by taking v. 6, ‘I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery’, as the first of the ten ‘words’, pointing out that neither Exodus nor Deuteronomy speak of ten ‘Commandments’ but ten ‘words’ (עשרת הדברים), hence, ‘Decalogue’.

Therefore, at least from the second century CE to the present, while many interpreters have preferred an enumeration of the commandments that treat the prohibition of other gods and the prohibition of idols as two separate commandments, many others have preferred an enumeration that treats them as one. This raises the obvious question: What is it about this complex directive that makes it difficult for interpreters to agree on whether it should be counted as one commandment or two?

In this first chapter, I will argue that the difficulty partly arises because interpreters must wrestle with a linguistic ambiguity that has to do with the ‘idol’ terminology. If idols are understood as ‘divine images’, then the prohibition of idols may be distinguished from the broader prohibition of ‘other gods’ that precedes it. However, if idols are understood as ‘false gods’, then the distinction between the prohibitions diminishes.

Concerning this linguistic ambiguity, the debate about iconism and aniconism has produced a wealth of information about the various terms for idols.8 Around sixteen Hebrew terms are commonly dealt with and the studies consider how the terms relate to each other and what they mean. Two broad categories are frequently distinguished. In the first category are terms that describe the mode of manufacture and the materials used (e.g. פסל = graven image, מסכה = molten image). Mettinger calls terms in this category, ‘self-explanatory’.9 They refer directly to material objects. In the second category are derogatory terms that make associat...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part I The Ten Commandments As Instruction
• Part II The War Against Idols Before And After The Fall of The Northern Kingdom
• Appendix 1: ‘Divine Images’, ‘Cultic Images’ And The Ark
• Appendix 2: Meaning And Illegitimate Totality Transfer
• Appendix 3: Historical Conjecture
• Appendix 4: ‘Idols’ in The Old Testament And The Ancient Near East
• Bibliography
• Index of References
• Index of Authors
• Copyright