Tag: idols

The Teraphim

Posted on by jovial_cynic
The word “teraphim” occurs 16 times in the Bible. The very first time it’s mentioned, it’s in Genesis 31, where Rachel steals them from her father’s house.

Some translations say “household idols” or “images.” In the Genesis account, they’re small enough to hide in a saddle bag and sit on them. But in 1 Samuel 19:13, King David’s wife Michal put one in her bed and pretended it was David when guards came to kill him. So… person-sized.

So the size isn’t a critical part of the definition of a teraphim. But there is some agreement in the Jewish studies and extra-biblical sources that suggest they are human-shaped. Or part of a human. And this is where it gets very, very strange.

Several rabbinical sources suggest that it’s really just the head. But like… an actual embalmed human head, and in some cases, the head of a child. Always the first-born. The head would be severed, and then salted to prevent spoiling, and then a small golden tablet with a “divine name” carved into it would be placed under the tongue, and then the head would be mounted somewhere in the house.

It was believed that the disembodied head was imbued with magic or perhaps tied to some spirit (the name of which was on the golden tablet), and the head… would speak. It could tell you things otherwise impossible to know. Zecharaiah 10:2 mentions the teraphim that “spoke deceitfully.” They were useful for diviners, and Laban claims divination back in Gen 30:27. He would have used the teraphim for this.

All quite strange. Why would Rachel steal something like this from her father? Is this a righteous act or an idolatrous act?
The rabbis seem to agree that this is not about Rachel’s desire to posses the teraphim for herself. There are several reasons for this belief.

1. The first suggestion is that Rachel, being righteous, is attempting to remove idolatry from her father. Like, take away his gods, and he can’t worship them, and maybe he’ll realize how silly it is that his gods could possibly be stolen. That would make the gods rather powerless and worthless.

2. The second suggestion is that Rachel believes the teraphim work, and she takes them from her father to prevent him from discovering where they’re going. Rachel is Laban’s daughter, after all, and likely grew up with such beliefs.

3. And perhaps most compelling: according to extra-biblical sources, the teraphim were considered “household” gods, and therefore were associated with the rights of *inheritance.* Rachel & Leah already complained about their father giving them nothing in Gen 31:14, so this is Rachel’s way of wrestling for an inheritance of some kind.

But given the teraphim status of “idols” and the incompatabilty of idol worship/ownership with the God of Israel, the pattern of how to deal with idols is officially established in Genesis 35:2-4:

So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.” So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem.
Genesis 35:2-4 (NIV)

It’s assumed (but not stated) that this is the resting place of Laban’s teraphim.

Note where the idols are buried: under the oak at Shechem. If you’ve followed along my Genesis posts, this should sound familiar. The oak at Shechem is where Abram first builds an altar to God.

Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
Genesis 12:6-7 (NIV)

So the text appears to teach us: your idols, the idols of your father, or your grasping at an earthly inheritance… those must all be buried at the place where you worship the God of the Promises.

It is the only way.

Teraphim

Posted on by jovial_cynic

וַיֹּ֤אמֶר אֵלָיו֙ לָבָ֔ן אִם־נָ֛א מָצָ֥אתִי חֵ֖ן בְּעֵינֶ֑יךָ נִחַ֕שְׁתִּי וַיְבָרְכֵ֥נִי יְהֹוָ֖ה בִּגְלָלֶֽךָ׃

But Laban said to him, “If you will indulge me, I have learned by divination that יהוה has blessed me on your account.”
Genesis 30:27 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS 2006)

There are many supernatural things in Genesis. There’s the flaming cherubim, angels and nephilim, among other things.

In Genesis 30, we’re introduced to “divination.” In Hebrew, the root word is נָחַשׁ (nachash). It’s the same root as the word “serpent” in Genesis 3: נָחָשׁ.

The concept involves hidden knowledge, or to know something supernaturally. The Hebrew scholars link Laban’s divination with his household idols.

In Hebrew, the household idols are “teraphim,” and they are specifically used for divining.

Also, Laben’s statement seems to harken back to Genesis 12:3, where God tells Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you…”

A Mother’s Instincts

Posted on by jovial_cynic

Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking Isaac. Therefore she said to Abraham, “Drive out this slave woman and her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be an heir with my son Isaac!”
Genesis 19:9-10 (NASB)

It’s difficult to understand why Sarah is so upset in this story when you read the English. Most translations render the word צִחֵּק (tsichek) to show Ishmael “mocking,” or “making fun of” Isaac.

But Sarah’s reaction is based on something much more concerning.

Up until this moment in scripture, nearly every instance of this word was in the Qal, or basic form: “laughter.” Abraham laughs, Sarah laughs, Isaac’s name is יִצְחָק (Yitzḥaq), and it’s the causitive form of this same word, so it means “to make laugh.”

But in Genesis 19:14, the word changes form.

So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, “Up, get out of this place, for the Lord is destroying the city.” But he appeared to his sons-in-law to be joking.
Genesis 19:14 (NASB)

Here, tzachak becomes *tzichek.*

Lot’s sons-in-law think he is “joking” about the cities being destroyed. The context shows they didn’t take him seriously, so they didn’t go with him. That’s a proper use of this form of the word.

Is this what Sarah sees Ishmael doing to Isaac? Does she Ishmael just goofing around and gets annoyed by it?

If instead of looking backwards to Genesis 19, we instead look forward for the use of this word, it gets dark, quickly.

The next two times the pi’el form of this word shows up in Genesis, it carries a sexual connotation.

Now it came about, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down through a window, and saw them, and behold, Isaac was caressing his wife Rebekah.
Genesis 26:8 (NASB)

She called to the men of her household and said to them, “See, he has brought in a Hebrew to us to make fun of us; he came in to me to sleep with me, and I screamed.
Genesis 39:14 (NASB)

After that, it shows up in Exodus, and it’s connected to both sexual activity and idolatry. This passage describes the people in front of the golden calf.

So the next day they got up early and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and got up to engage in lewd behavior.
Exodus 32:6 (NASB)

The final time it shows up in scripture is with the story of Samson, when he’s led out to “entertain the Philistines.”

It so happened when they were in high spirits, that they said, “Call for Samson, that he may amuse us.” So they called for Samson from the prison, and he entertained them. And they made him stand between the pillars.
Judges 16:25 (NASB)

And this makes me wonder how Samson is actually being treated here. It’s very likely that he is naked for their amusement. For their pleasure.

If we read Sarah’s reaction to be tied to this forward view of tzichek, the picture is much more concerning. Perhaps we are meant to see that Sarah believes Ishmael is going to do something terrible to her son.

So she does what any mother would do.

The Road to Shur

Posted on by jovial_cynic

The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.
Genesis 16:7 (NIV)

After being afflicted by Sarai, Hagar the Egyptian woman flees and is met by the angel at a spring near the road to Shur.

The road to Shur is the path back to Egypt. Sarai’s actions led Hagar to want to return to her old life. Back to destruction. Back to the idols of Egypt.

Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water.
Exodus 15:22 (NIV)

The road to Shur leads to the Desert of Shur. It should be considered miraculous to flee Egypt by way of it. It should be considered certain death to travel back to Egypt through it.

That the people of God would make Hagar flee into certain death is a great shame.

Monotheism

Posted on by jovial_cynic

Now Terah took his son Abram, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they departed together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they went as far as Haran and settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years; and Terah died in Haran.
Genesis 11:31-32 (NASB)

Abram’s father Terah was going to Canaan, but settled in Haran and died there instead.

Haran means “path,” and is linked to an idea of “many roads,” as it was a major trade city. Many roads… many options. Perhaps it hinted at many gods. The Midrash teaches that Terah was an idol maker, so this link seems to fit.

But the Promise of God follows one singular path.