the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Encyclopedias
Chiun
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or (Hebrews Kiyun´, כַּיּוּן ), a word that occurs only once in the Scriptures, and that in an obscure and variously-interpreted passage (Amos 5:26), "But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun, your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves." The Sept. translates it as a proper name, Rhephanz ( ῾Ραιφάν or ῾Ρηφάν, which became still further corrupted into ῾Ρεμφάν ), and it is quoted in that form by Stephen (Acts 7:43). (See REMPHAN). The Syriac translates it by Saturn, whom the Shemitic nations are known to have worshipped. But it apparently is not a proper name at all, being derived from the root כּוּן, kun, to stand upright, and therefore signifies simply a statue or idol, as the Vulgate renders it (in connection with the following word), "imaginemn idolorum vestrum." The same is probably true of the word rendered "Moloch" in the same passage, so that the whole may be translated (with Gesenius), "Ye bore the tabernacle of your king, and the statue of your idols, the star of your god which ye made to yourselves;" referring not to any specific deity by name, but to the secret idolatrous practices which the Jews kept up along with the worship connected with the divine ark in the wilderness, and which reappeared in different forms from time to time in their later history. (See CALF). Yet, as a "star" is mentioned, it has naturally been inferred that the worship of some planet is alluded to, and this Jerome supposed to be Lucifer or Venus. Layard thinks the name identical with that of the Egyptian goddess Ken, figured on the Egyptian and Assyrian monuments in the character of Astarte or Venus (Nineveh, 2:169); but he admits that her worship was borrowed from Assyria into Egypt at a period later than the Exodus (p. 170). On the whole, the above supposition that the planet Saturn is intended is the most plausible, although this interpretation cannot be successfully defended merely from the name, either in the form Chium or Remphan. (See Mains, in his Select. Exercitt. 1:763 sq.; Jahr, De Chiun [Viteb. 1705]; Harenberg, De idolis Chiun et Remphan [Brunsw. 1723]; Meyer, De sacello et basi idolor. etc. [ad loc.], [Helmst. 1726]; Wolf, De Chiun et Remphan [Lips. 1741]; Braun, Selecta Sacra, p. 477 sq.) (See SATURN).
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Chiun'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/c/chiun.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
