the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Rephan
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or (Acts 7:43, so Revised Version ; Authorized Version ‘Remphan,’ WH [Note: H Westcott-Hort’s Greek Testament.] ‘Rompha,’ Tisch. ‘Romphan’)
St. Stephen in his speech is quoting from Septuagint of Amos 5:26. None of the above forms is known at all as the name of a god elsewhere, the suggestion of Lipsius that it is connected with the name repa-n-neteru, ‘youngest of the gods,’ a title of the god Seb (= Saturn), being too far-fetched. The Hebrew has Chiun, which may have been read as Kewan, and changed into Rephan, a similar change of כ to ר in Septuagint occurring in Nahum 1:6. The Hebrew Kewan might represent the Babylonian Kaawanu, ‘Saturn’ (Schrader, KAT [Note: AT Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament2 (Schrader, 1883).] 2 [Note: Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament2 (Schrader, 1883).] , 1883, p. 409 f., Eng. translation , 1885-88, ii, 141 f.), but more probably it is not a proper name at all (W. R. Smith) are a gloss, as is indicated by the fact that the Septuagint read them before Ραιφαν = áéåï. The gloss arose from the idea that Chiun is equivalent to the Syriac Kêwán, a Persian name of the planet Saturn. But the date of Amos forbids this interpretation. Both ñáåú and áéåï must be common nouns in the construct state, probably “the shrine of your (idol) king and the stand of your image,” i.e. portable shrine and platform on which the idols were exhibited and borne in processions’ (OTJC2, London, 1892, p. 294 n.; cf. also Prophets of Israel, do., 1882, p. 401).] The mention of the ‘star’ is all that is requisite for St. Stephen’s purpose, namely, to show that the foreign idolatrous planet-worship had crept in and meant apostasy from the true worship of Jahweh. See, further, Commentaries on Acts and Amos.
F. W. Worsley.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Rephan'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/r/rephan.html. 1906-1918.
