2 Chronicles 31:1 Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. As our rabbis taught us, all is in the hands of heaven except for fear of heaven (b. Berachot 33b); even the historical Abraham would have to fit into this rubric. 50 And Terah, seeing all that Abram had done, hastened to go from his house, and he went to the king and he came before Nimrod and stood before him, and he bowed down to the king; and the king said, What dost thou want? The believer, who adapts the divine message to his or her own life, chooses to look upon the events of the past described in the Torah from the divine perspective. Why did God choose to limit the divine creative impulse to the (apparently) inadequate framework of narrative? Bible verses about False Idols. Enter code SPRINGSTUDY15 and have answers to your Bible questions at your fingertips. "Turn from Thy burning anger and change Thy mind about doing harm to Thy people. What is a believer to do, when he or she is convinced that a new religious outlook, as innovative and brazen as it may be, not only doesnt diminish the value of faith but even colors it in stronger and more vibrant colors? Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. Instead, the text of the Torah should be understood on its own terms; the Torah itself is the matter being studied. Abraham chose to follow God alone, and he demonstrated his commitment by circumcising every male in his household. For another angle on the problem of ahistorical interpretation, made in modern times, see words of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe (Iggerot Kodesh7:996): [9]We will leave, for now, the difficult questions engendered by the issue of the slippery slope and return to them indirectly when we deal with the other basis for challenging the ahistorical interpretation, namely the problem of truth. Additionally, the slippery slope problem is discussed more fully in chapter 4 of my book, which deals with the historicity of a different biblical story, namely the revelation at Mount Sinai. If you have any questions, please review our Privacy Policy or email us at privacy@biblegateway.com. [13]Even if its conclusions will, in the end, be rejectednot always and not necessarilyby practical halacha. It is thou that didst place the hatchet in his hands, and then sayest he smote them all. 21Every work which he began in the service of the house of God in the Law and in the commandment, seeking his God, he did with all his heart and (X)prospered. Can those idols in which thou trustest deliver thee? For it is hardly surprising that events that occurred in history would be recorded in the writings of various cultures that witnessed these events. 48-49 [Hebrew]. 40 And the large one saw their works that they did before him, and his anger was violently kindled against them, and he went and took the hatchet that was in the house and came to them and broke them all, and behold the hatchet is yet in his hand as thou seest. And yet, even as a boy, I knew I was missing something. See:The Guide of the Perplexed, 1:1. In order to answer this question let us investigate the basis for this phenomenon: what is the point of writing? You may unsubscribe from Bible Gateways emails at any time. Thus, we can say that there is no reason not to ascribe great literary prowess to God. Abraham grabs a stick and smashes all the idols, except the biggest one, in whose hand he places the stick. Abraham's father, Terah, joined the adamant opposition to his son in Harran, which indicates that he had continued to cling to his profession of making and selling idols. For an English version explaining Breuers approach, see: Mordechai Breuer, The Study of Bible and the Primacy of the Fear of Heaven: Compatibility or Contradiction, inModern Scholarship in the Study of Torah(ed. Considering this, insofar as observance is concerned, is it important to defend the belief that all of the stories narrated in the book of Genesis actually happened? Ezekiel 6:6 Verse Concepts Oops! In verse 7 God said the covenant He established with Abraham was to be everlasting and that He alone was to be God to Abraham and his offspring. A young Abraham destroys his father Terah's idols, by Jacob Ernst Marcus, 1819. To attempt an answer, I suggest that dry mechanical lists of rules, such as do not murder and do not steal, couldnt accomplish the transmission of lofty values to humankind. [27]See Rambam,Mishneh Torah, Laws of Repentence, 3:7. Completely erase the names of their gods! 47 And how can you continue to do this and serve gods of wood and stone, who cannot hear, or speak, or deliver you from oppression, thereby bringing down the anger of the God of the universe upon you? Abraham responds that people withstand wind. 20 Bible Verses about Abandoning Idols Deuteronomy 7:25 Verse Concepts The graven images of their gods you are to burn with fire; you shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, or you will be snared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. Nevertheless, such an opportunity would be limited. [28] Although they believed that the great and majestic body of God was not comparable to their small and weak bodies, nevertheless, they could not let go of a God with some sort of a physical body. Start for FREE. As I came to understand the Word of Wisdom, I wanted my parents to live that law. not in the hands of heaven,) in order to say something about the God he discovered and followed. At this point, Terah took Abraham to Nimrod. ! [Terah] took him and brought him before Nimrod (. He is the father of three children including the Patriarch Abraham. [8]In fact, seeResponsa Rashba1:116, where Rashba makes this point. 71C11132 Haran, Abraham's brother, having witnessed the miracle, decides to undergo the test of fire as well, but is immediately consumed. 3 And all these joined forces in the Valley of . New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. 34 And when he had done breaking the images, he placed the hatchet in the hand of the great god which was there before them, and he went out; and Terah his father came home, for he had heard at the door the sound of the striking of the hatchet; so Terah came into the house to know what this was about. Abrahams father had instructed him in the doctrines of these idols, and had sought to induce him to have faith in them and in their power, authority, and dominion, telling him what great personages they were. [7]Doubtless, this claim reveals an important educational principle whose significance is beyond reproach. What does the Bible say about idolatry? Commentating on this verse, Mufti Muhammad Shafi, the late Grand Mufti of Pakistan, writes, "According to Imam Qurtubi, this verse shows that to destroy the idols and other icons of paganism is Waajib (mandatory). 1, pp. 19Also for the sons of Aaron, the priests, who were in (U)the pasture lands of their cities, or in each and every city, (V)there were men who were designated by name to distribute portions to every male among the priests and to everyone genealogically enrolled among the Levites. 14 In the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim, 2 these kings made war with Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). According to Genesis Rabbah 38.13, iyya b. Abba, a third-generation Amora, told following story: Terah was an idol manufacturer who once went away and left Abraham in charge of the store. Our analysis of the truth problem leads us to this summary statement: Whenever we as readers encounter a description of an event in the Torah, the main concern for us as students of Torah is not the reality of the event as it happened but the event as described in the biblical narrative. One approach (the older and more nave one) claims that the job of a historian is to make a copy of the past and place it, as-is, before present day students of history. 48 Now therefore my father refrain from this, and bring not evil upon thy soul and the souls of thy household. Scripture strongly advises against the following of idols other than God. Narrower concepts. [6]In my book, I deal with this in chapter 4. However, see Rambams comments inThe Guide of the Perplexed(3:50) as well as chapter 5 of my book. 16 And Abram came to his fathers house and saw twelve gods standing there in their temples, and the anger of Abram was kindled when he saw these images in his fathers house. The simple reader of Maimonidesand even the not so simple readerwas likely to feel that the loss of Gods body was almost equal to the loss of God. And wilt thou and thy people rise up now and do like unto this work, in order to bring down the anger of the Lord God of the universe, and to bring evil upon thee and the whole earth? By submitting your email address, you understand that you will receive email communications from Bible Gateway, a division of The Zondervan Corporation, 3900 Sparks Drive SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 USA, including commercial communications and messages from partners of Bible Gateway. 4Also he told the people who lived in Jerusalem to give (F)the portion due to the priests and the Levites, so that they might devote themselves to (G)the Law of the Lord. NASB 1995 Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them in the camel's saddle, and she sat on them. These could now be understood as virtually physical expressions of the divine message. 2 And Sarai said to Abram, "Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. A woman enters to offer food to the idols. 18 And Abram went from them, and his anger burned within him. It is a post-biblical story imagining the early life of Abraham. 2 Chronicles 31:1 Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. (R) 25Far be it from you to do such a thing(S)to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous(T) and the wicked alike. Numbers 33:52 Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places: Judges 2:2 And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? (X), 27Then Abraham spoke up again: Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes,(Y) 28what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Would you worship a being like that? But nevertheless our history informs us that the priests were angry and stirred up his father against him. Please support us. And why wilt thou not sense the God of the whole universe, who created thee and in whose power it is to kill and keep alive? NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. The missing years of Abraham's early childhood are explained through a series of Midrashim. 15[i]Under his authority were (P)Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah, in (Q)the cities of the priests, to distribute their portions faithfully to their brothers by divisions, whether great or small, 16without regard to their genealogical enrollment, to the males from [j](R)thirty years old and upwardeveryone who entered the house of the Lord (S)for his daily obligationsfor their work in their duties according to their divisions; 17as well as the priests who were enrolled genealogically according to their fathers households, and the Levites (T)from twenty years old and upward, by their duties and their divisions. And Abram answered the king, saying, And if there be no power in them why dost thou serve them and cause the sons of men to err through thy follies? Ep 200 | Luke 12-17; John 11, Come Follow Me 2023 (May 1-7), Ep 199 | John 7-10, Come Follow Me 2023 (April 24-30), Ep 198 | Matthew 18; Luke 10, Come Follow Me 2023 (April 17-23), Ep 197 | Matthew 15-17; Mark 7-9, Come Follow Me 2023 (April 10-16), Ep 196 | Matthew 14; Mark 6; John 5-6, Come Follow Me 2023 (March 27-April 2). [Abraham] understood that there was a God in heaven, a living and true God, and that no man should worship any other God but Him. It is about humanitys religion and its faith, its moral struggles, its successes and failures, its hopes and aspirations for greatness, its dream of breaking into the world of the infinite and clinging to God. [21] Did the elephant really need the ant in order to make dust-clouds in the desert? Burn their Asherah poles and cut down their carved idols. father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. An ahistorical Torah is not subject to being disproven by archaeology or academic historical reconstructions. (Joshua 24:2), there is no Biblical record of him actually making The Bible says we should put living in a righteous manner above all other pursuits of the flesh and mind. This one, enraged against them on account of their behavior, took the hatchet and broke them all, and, behold, the hatchet is yet in his hands, as thou mayest see., Then Terah turned in wrath upon Abraham, and he said: Thou speakest lies unto me! TheTorah.com is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.We rely on the support of readers like you. Rav Kook believed that this model should be copied when wrestling with notions that were current in his day, like the theory of evolution. By submitting your email address, you understand that you will receive email communications from Bible Gateway, a division of The Zondervan Corporation, 3900 Sparks Drive SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 USA, including commercial communications and messages from partners of Bible Gateway. Nations Descended from Noah. Save 15% for life! either making or worshiping idols or "other gods.". Rabbi Yehudah said: It applies even to unclean animals. Rabbi Yehudah said to them: But wasnt the sciatic nerve forbidden to the sons of Jacob, and they were permitted to eat unclean animals! They said to him: The law was stated at Sinai but was included in its proper place. For a summary of the issues surrounding pre-Sinaitic rules, see the entry in theEncylopedia Talmudit, One may not learn [rules] from the time before the giving of the Torah, (vol. Writing, especially in the above examples, allows people who were not witnesses to the events to meet the reality of the event in a mediated encounter. Can one really neutralize the true meaning of a verse and read shivim (seventy) instead of shevuayim (two weeks)? [26]It would be wrong to simplify the dichotomy by trying to distinguish between the simple person, who would wish to hide from contradictions since answering them would be beyond this persons ability, and the learned person, who, ostensibly, can deal with such tensions. [20]For more discussion on this question, see the position of R. Mordechai Breuer as he expressed it first inDeot12 (Winter 5720): pp. Child sacrifice. Anyone who accepts the seven mitzvot (of the Noahides) and is careful not to violate them should be considered one of the righteous gentiles and has a share in the World to Come. Abraham is to be killed for his righteousness, and is saved by God Inasmuch as Abrahams fight against idolatry is a common theme in the Bible, so is the prophet of God, in the face of adversity, being persecuted for his beliefs. 13 "Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Thy servants to whom Thou didst swear by Thyself, and didst say to them, 'I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall "[5] There is no description of a biblical interaction between Nimrod and Abraham. These were the feelings of Abraham, and he taught his father's house, and all around him, as far as he had the privilege. Abraham responds that wind pushes clouds. This Abraham is entirely in the hands of heaven (in a different and positive sense). Bruce Feiler (Abraham) says that probably less than one per cent of the stories told about Abraham appear in the Bible, with an explosion of detail beginning to appear in Jewish tradition from the third century BCE onwards. Later, a woman walked into the store and wanted to make an offering to the idols. I loved learning about the gospel. Following the analysis offered here, the halachic tradition makes the religious value of any historical event that occurred before the revelation at Sinai contingent upon the power given to it by its inclusion in the narrative that came down to the world at Sinai. ORLOV 'The Gods of My Father Terah' 35 Testament of Abraham, also deny the possibility that God has a human- like form. Kush was the son of Ham, the lowest and least important of Noah 's three sons. Abraham did destroy his father's idols though. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of Such narrative strategies, as I mentioned above, would be subject to factual investigation as well as comparative evidence, taking into account alternative versions. Nimrod becomes angry with Abraham and declares that Abraham shall be cast into the fire, and if Abraham is correct, i.e. 3 The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. Philip Munoa notes that 'the Testament of Abraham studi- ously avoids physical description of God when describing Abraham's heavenly ascent and tours of heaven explicitly identifying God with Establishing the pillars of faith upon the bedrock of the historicity of past events requires an honest person to evaluate, without bias, the question of the historical reality of the Torahs claims. The commentary explains what happened to Abraham when he was a young boy working in his father's idol shop. Although I felt able to push the first question into the sidelines, the second question seemed to me more problematic. Idols Are Destroyed 31 Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah, broke the memorial stones in pieces, cut down the [ a]Asherim and pulled down the high places and the altars throughout Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, until [ b]they had destroyed them all. Such a perspective does not diminish the connection between humanity and God; it strengthens it.[23]. You may unsubscribe from Bible Gateways emails at any time. Now, believing it is safe, Abram leaves Noah's home and returns to his father Terah. 17Then the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham(B) what I am about to do? 20Hezekiah did this throughout Judah; and (W)he did what was good, right, and true before the Lord his God. [13] The sacred written Torah is the teaching of God and it is forbidden to learn it indifferently. Haran is thrown into the fire, and is not saved by God. 30 And Abram viewed them, and behold they had neither voice nor hearing, nor did one of them stretch forth his hand to the meat to eat. 15 And Terah his father was in those days, still captain of the host of king Nimrod, and he still followed strange gods. Furthermore, this objection often remains inchoate and not fully articulated. 47 Bible Verses about Destroying Idols Deuteronomy 12:2-3ESV / 14 helpful votes HelpfulNot Helpful You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.". 25 And his mother did so, and she fetched a kid, and made savory meat thereof, and brought it to Abram, and Abram took the savory meat from his mother and brought it before his fathers gods, and he drew nigh to them that they might eat; and Terah his father, did not know of it. which benefit does a community experience when its members have a high level of health literacy? 50:2); 11 they entail the desolation of altars, the breaking of statues, the The worshipping of idols is forbidden under the word . But Abraham, trying to reason with his father, said that probably the gods had got to fighting among themselves and had killed one another. The Bible tells us the Lord said to him: Get thee up from thy fathers house, from the land wherein thou wast born, and go up to a land I will show unto thee, and which I will afterwards give unto thee for an inheritance. And we are told that he went up, not knowing whither he went. 4, It is said Abrahams father was an idolater, and that he had a number of gods in his house. [25]This imagery comes from Rav Kook. See also the words of Maharal of Prague about Abraham and Sarah in hisGlosses on Aggadot(part 3, p. 83), but compare these with his comments inGevurot Hashem(ch. If this is a story, he said, it is a very human story. I am not surprised, therefore, at the literary prowessvery much like human literary prowessdemonstrated in Torah by its author. Perhaps they even needed to be narrated in exactly the way the Torah itself narrates them. When a man would come to buy [an idol], [Abraham] would ask him: "How old are you?" The plot point of Abrahams fattempted murder for his beliefs is found in four source texts. When his father saw that his son Abraham had broken his gods he was very angry with him. 2 Kings 23:14 And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men. [3]See the long discussion inResponsa Rashba(1:414), where Rashba uses strong language to criticize various sages who suggested a philosophical-allegorical understanding for a number of biblical characters, including Abraham. English Revised Version He was looking forward. 2And Hezekiah appointed (B)the divisions of the priests and the Levites by their divisions, each according to his service, both the priests and the Levites, (C)for burnt offerings and for peace offerings, to serve and to give thanks and to praise in the gates of the camp of the Lord. 42 Is there in these gods spirit, soul or power to do all thou hast told me? This is the meaning of the phrase, In every generation a person must look upon himself as if he left Egypt.[14], This perspective is reflected in the world of halacha as well. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities. 14 And Abram knew the Lord, and he went in his ways and instructions, and the Lord his God was with him. [16]Whether one must take the account of the Sinai revelation as historical or not is dealt with in chapter 4 of my book. 54 And the king said to Abram, Had they power to speak and eat and do as thou hast said? When Terah returned, he asked Abraham what happened to all the idols. Nevertheless, the Sages statement can be seen in conjunction with other statements of theirs, which are close in spirit to the interpretation offered in this essay (for example, the statement in the Haggada of Pesach that in every generation people stand against us to destroy us.) These statements were expanded upon and intensified in Hasidic thought. In a world where there are many doubts about the historicity of core events in the Torahs narrative,[24] establishing the palace of Torah upon a higher foundation would seem to be a constructive goal. In order for such values to find a permanent place in the spiritual life of individuals, they must be narrated. [5]A lot has been written about the principle of the slippery slope. See, for example, the essay by Yuval Cherlow, Halacha and the Slippery Slope,Akdamut23 (5769): 33-48 [Hebrew]. Muhammad describes Abraham's anguished attempts to reason with His father and persuade him to accept a new divine Message this way: "O my Father! Would you like updates when content is posted? Terah was the father of Abram (his name was later changed to The first statement, the simpler one, would probably be acceptable to anyone. A similar point was made by R. Abraham Kook inEder ha-Yakkar, (Jerusalem, 5726), p. 42. There have been responses that take a more conservative approach; see, for instance, Adam Zertal,A Nation is Born: The Altar on Mount Ebal and the Beginning of Israel(Israel: Yedioth Aharonot, 2000), 292 [Hebrew]; Yitzhak Meitlis,Excavating the Bible: New Archaeological Evidence for the Historical Reliability of Scripture(Bartleby, 2012). All rights reserved. Although the Bible says Terah "worshiped other gods" 61 And when Abram had ceased speaking before the king and princes, Abram lifted up his eyes to the heavens, and he said, The Lord seeth all the wicked, and he will judge them. 11, p. 68. Dr. Seeing the Torah as the story of God establishes a persons faith in Torah from Heaven at its highest and purist level. These were the feelings of Abraham, and he taught his fathers house, and all around him, as far as he had the privilege. So Nimrod declares they worship wind. 1 Kings 15:13 And also Maachah his mother, even her he removed from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove; and Asa destroyed her idol, and burnt it by the brook Kidron. So he got a club, or some other weapon, and knocked off the heads of some, the arms and legs of others, and made a general wreck among the idols, but left the biggest untouched. Rabbi Amit Kulaisthe rabbi of Kibbutz Alumim as well as of Beit Midrash Daroma at Ben Gurion University. that we are sacrificed to the Lord for this end, that our former life being destroyed in us, we may be raised up to a new life. [b](P) 23Then Abraham approached him and said: Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? De Du). Abraham told him that the gods had had a quarrel among themselves, and, said he, here is the fellow, (pointing to the big one he had spared) that did it. Said the father: My son, why do you tell me such a thing. [26] Therefore, even if a believers intellectual powers allow him or her to consider the possibility that an ahistorical Torah could be more sophisticated and spiritual than a historical one, nevertheless, he or she cannot ignore the outer voiceor even the inner voicethat makes it difficult to be satisfied with scholarly justifications. I.e., wooden symbols of a female deity (Asherah). The business deal or the event is the main matter of significance, describing the event in writing is simply a means of conveying knowledge of that deal or event to others. From whence sprang the suggestion to interpret the Torah against the way it has been read? 49 And Abram hastened and sprang from before his father, and took the hatchet from his fathers largest idol, with which Abram broke it and ran away. Discourse by President John Taylor, Duties of the SaintsThe Atonement, etc. So Abraham took a stick, smashed the idols and placed the stick in the hand of the largest idol. 20 And Abram said to his father, My lord, shew them to me I pray thee; and Terah brought Abram into the chamber of the inner court, and Abram saw, and behold the whole room was full of gods of wood and stone, twelve great images and others less than they without number. Terah exclaimed that such a thing was impossible, since idols could not quarrel or fight. What if only thirty can be found there?, He answered, I will not do it if I find thirty there., 31Abraham said, Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?, He said, For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it., 32Then he said, May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. Is there a truer story than this? The fervent attempt to capture some meaning in each and every word of the Torah, without making recourse to any external factors as a control, is a clear expression of this perspective. (C) 18Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation,(D) and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. Why is Abraham is cutting up all these animals in Genesis 15? I discuss this halacha in greater detail in the book. On the other hand, Haran needed to see that Abraham would be saved by God before believing, and because of this, Haran was not saved from the fire by God. See also Ravads commentad loc.

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