The Linguistic Origins of Teraphim -- By: Harry A. Hoffner, Jr.

Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 124:495 (Jul 1967)
Article: The Linguistic Origins of Teraphim
Author: Harry A. Hoffner, Jr.


The Linguistic Origins of Teraphim

Harry A. Hoffner, Jr.

[Harry A. Hoffner, Assistant Professor, Department of Mediterranean Studies, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts.]

A survey of the various terms employed in the Bible to designate idols can be revealing in two ways. First it can demonstrate the attitude of the Biblical writers themselves toward these objects. Both testaments contain terms for idols which reflect the authors’ disdain or disapproval. We call such expressions pejorative. Among Old Testament words or expressions which are pejorative designations for idols we might mention 'elîl, “nothingness”;1 'āwen, “sin, deception”;2 siqqûs, “detestable thing”;3 gillûl, “balls of dung.”4 Two other Old Testament terms describe the image in terms of the effect which it produces upon the aniconic worshiper of God. The Hebrew words, 'êmāh and miphleset, allude to the terror, horror, and revulsion which well up inside the pious man, when he beholds idols.5 These pejorative terms are of particular interest in that they demonstrate quite vividly the intensity of the reaction against the iconic worship of pagan deities by Israel’s ancient neighbors. Such terms would not be expected, of course, in the language of a people among whom the use of icons was widespread and condoned. Consequently, we find no examples in the languages of the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, or Hittites. In these societies the icon was designated either by the name of the

deity which it was intended to represent—Marduk, Ishtar, etc.—or by a common noun which described its physical appearance or construction—pillar, sculpture, statue. We classify such appellations as descriptive, rather than pejorative.

The second way in which a survey of the designations of idols can be profitable is through the understanding of this descriptive content. For alongside the group of pejoratives there exists even in Biblical Hebrew another small class of words which, like those in other ancient languages alluded to above, characterize the images in terms of the mode in which they were constructed. The 'āsābh, for example, was an object which had been fashioned from certain raw materials.

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