Bible Lexicons

Girdlestone's Synonyms of the Old TestamentGirdlestone's OT Synonyms

The Image

Words referring to the fact that the idol is hewn into a certain shape or image are Semel (סמל ), 2 Chronicles 33:7; 2 Chronicles 33:15 (Manasseh's idol), and Ezekiel 8:3; Ezekiel 8:5 ('the image of jealousy'); and perhaps Tsir (ציר ), Isaiah 45:16, 'makers of idols.' Temunah (תמונה ), 'likeness,' is used in Job 4:16. It does not, however, refer to an idol, but to some form or outline which presented itself in vision. The same word is used in Exodus 20:4, in the prohibition from making the 'likeness' of anything; also in Deuteronomy 4:23; Deuteronomy 4:25; Deuteronomy 5:8, and Psalms 17:15 ('I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness'). The LXX rendering is generally ὁμοίωμα, similitude.

Tselem (צלם , Ass. tsalmu), a representation, answering to the Greek εἰκών, image, is the word used in Genesis 1:26-27; Genesis 5:3; Genesis 9:6, with reference to the fact that man was made in the image of God in Numbers 33:52 it is used of molten images, and it occurs in the following passages: - 1 Samuel 6:5; 1 Samuel 6:11 (the images of mice and emerods); 2 Kings 11:18 (the images of Baal); 2 Chronicles 23:17; Ezekiel 7:20; Ezekiel 16:17; Ezekiel 23:14 (images of men); Amos 5:26 (Moloch and Chiun); Daniel 2:31, &c., and 3:1, &c., the image of which Nebuchadnezzar dreamed, and that which he set up in the plain of Dura. The word is also used in Psalms 73:20, 'When thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image,' that is to say, their form or appearance; and in Psalms 39:6, 'Man walketh in a vain shadow' (lit in an image).

In Leviticus 26:1 the 'graven image' is Mascith (משׁכית ), which is supposed to refer to hieroglyphics, or to little figures of Thoth and other Egyptian gods. this word also occurs in Ezekiel 8:12, where reference is made to the 'chambers of imagery,' that is to say, chambers with figures painted and carved in relief, suc has still exist in Egypt and Assyria in Numbers 33:52, and Proverbs 25:11, MasciThis rendered pictures; and in Psalms 73:7, and Proverbs 18:11, there is reference to the mental process which we call picturing up, or imagination.

NT Teaching on Images

The word ὁμοίωμαmeans a resemblance or figure, whether bodily or moral. It is used with reference to idolatry in Romans 1:23, where St. Paul speaks of those who changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the resemblance of an image of a corruptible man. When our Lord is said to have been made in the likeness of men, the same word is used, but with what a difference! No lifeless stock or stone shaped by man's h and after the pattern of his fellowman, but a living Being partaking of all that is essential to human nature, yet absolutely free from stain of sin, and with a body destined to see no corruption, sent into human life, not from nothingness, but from the bosom of the Heavenly Father, and from that glory which He had before the foundation of the world.

The first passage in the N.T in which the word εἰκών used gives a good idea of its meaning; it is with reference to the denarius of which our Lord asks, 'Whose is this image and superscription?' (Matthew 22:20). It is curious to observe that whilst idolaters are condemned for changing the glory of God into the similitude of the image of a corruptible man (Romans 1:23), we are expressly told that man is 'the image and glory of God' (1 Corinthians 11:7). Christ is said to be the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:4, Colossians 1:15); the Christian is now in a moral and spiritual sense to be changed into the same image from glory to glory (Romans 8:29, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Colossians 3:10); and hereafter, so far as his body is concerned, a similar resemblance shall be accomplished (1 Corinthians 15:49).

The word εἰκώνalso adopted by St. John when he describes the image of the Beast in Revelation 13:14, &c.

A hot controversy was called forth shortly after the Reformation in Engl and by the fact that in the English translations of the Scriptures the word εἴδωλονw as translated image. Martin, in his controversy with Fulke, laid down that an idol signified a false god; Dr. Fulke, on the contrary, held that it meant an image, and that this was the best word, as it included a representation of the true God. Mart in held, and rightly, that Pesel (פסל ), which is usually translated a graven image, only meant a graven thing (Lat. sculptile), and had no reference to an image; and he made a similar criticism on the word Massecah (מסכה ), which is rendered a molten image. Fulke, however, answered that the object of the engraving in the one case, and of the melting in the other, was to make the material into an image which was intended to represent. the invisible God, or to imitate one of his works, and so to be worshipped. this answer, coupled with the fact that εἴδωλονalso answers to the Hebrew temunah, as above noticed, may fairly justify our translators, and also their predecessors whose work was being criticised in translating εἴδωλον by the word image.

Other Objects of Worship

We now pass to the consideration of words which represent certain specific objects which were closely connected with old forms of idolatry. of these the first to be named is the pillar, statue, or standing image, the Hebrew name for which is Matsevah (מצבה ), derived from the verb natzav, to stand, and used of the object which symbolised Baal in the Canaanitish idolatry. The LXX usually adopts στήλη, a pillar, as its representative. It is first referred to in an idolatrous sense in Exodus 23:24, where the command is given to break down the 'images' of the Canaanite gods; so in Exodus 34:13, where it is connected with 'groves;' it is also found in Leviticus 26:1; Deuteronomy 7:5; Deuteronomy 16:22; 1 Kings 14:23; 2 Kings 3:2 (image of Baal), 10:26, 27, (images of Baal), 17:10, 18:4, 23:14; 2 Chronicles 14:3; 2 Chronicles 31:1; Jeremiah 43:13; Hosea 3:4; Hosea 10:1-2; Micah 5:13.

Another word used is Chamonim (חמנים ), sun-images, perhaps discs, or perhaps pyramidal stones in the shape of a flame. this last is the idea which Gesenius inclines to, as in accordance with certain old Phoenician inscriptions which speak of Baal Hanan, the sun-god. The word occurs in Leviticus 26:30, 'I will cut down (cut off or smite) your images;' 2 Chronicles 14:5; 2 Chronicles 34:4; 2 Chronicles 34:7; Isaiah 17:8; Isaiah 27:9; Ezekiel 6:4; Ezekiel 6:6.