Idol

Biblical Texts

• Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image" (Exodus 20:4; Deuteronomy 5:6-10). The commandments forbid serving other gods and making images in order to bow down to them. See the Ten Commandments article.
• Historical books: Notable examples include the golden calf incident at the foot of Mount Sinai (Exodus 32), the golden calves that Jeroboam set up at Bethel and Dan (1 Kings 12:28-30), and the worship of Baal and Asherah, along with the contest on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18).
• Prophetic books: Isaiah 44:9-20 satirizes a man who burns half of a piece of wood as fuel and carves the rest into a god to which he bows down.
• New Testament: Idols are addressed in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10:14; 1 John 5:21, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols"; and Colossians 3:5, "covetousness, which is idolatry," among other passages.

Background and Original Languages

In the ancient Near East, images of gods made of wood, stone, or metal were believed to be inhabited by the deity, and people offered sacrifices and bowed down to them. The Hebrew pesel denotes a carved or graven image, while elil means something empty or worthless. The New Testament term eidōlon is a Greek word originally meaning an image or a shadow.

Significance Across Scripture

The Old Testament regards idolatry as abandonment of the covenant with God, and the prophets denounce it by comparing it to harlotry (for example, Hosea). In the New Testament, Paul states that an idol is in reality nothing (1 Corinthians 8:4-6), yet he warns against taking part in sacrifices offered to idols, and the Council of Jerusalem urges Gentile believers to abstain from food sacrificed to idols (Acts 15:28-29). Colossians and Ephesians 5:5 call covetousness idolatry, extending the concept to matters of the heart.

Interpretations and Issues

• Numbering the Ten Commandments: Reformed traditions, including Presbyterians, count the prohibition of images separately as the Second Commandment, whereas the Catholic Church and Lutherans include it within the First Commandment.
• Worship and images: The Reformed tradition, following the Heidelberg Catechism, does not place images of God or of Christ in places of worship. Lutherans permit crucifixes and pictures. The Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, following the decision of the Second Council of Nicaea (787), hold that the "veneration" of holy images differs from the "adoration" (worship) due to God alone, and the Orthodox Church uses icons in worship.
• Extrabiblical tradition: The story that Abraham smashed the idols in his father's idol shop comes not from the Bible but from Jewish tradition (the Midrash). Scripture records only that Terah served other gods (Joshua 24:14-25).

In the Korean Church

From its earliest days, Korean Protestantism regarded ancestral rites as idolatry and established memorial services in their place. The Catholic Church, by contrast, came in the twentieth century to permit the rites as an expression of filial piety (ancestral rites and memorial services). During the Japanese colonial period, Shinto shrine worship deeply divided the church over whether it constituted idolatry. In 1938 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Korea (Chosŏn Yesugyo Changnohoe) resolved to participate in shrine worship, and those who refused were imprisoned. In preaching today, the expression "modern idols" is commonly used for anything placed ahead of God, such as money, success, or one's children.