Another ill.u.s.tration occurs in the history of Jeroboam, late a refugee and perhaps idolater in Egypt, who, fearing that if the people of the ten tribes, and the Levites who dwelt among them, should continue to go up to Jerusalem to worship Jehovah in the temple, their hearts would be turned from him to Rehoboam as their rightful king, "made two calves of gold, and said unto the people, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold thy Elohe, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. And this thing became a sin." Doubtless the people regarded these graven images in the same light as that made under the direction of Aaron; for, with the exception of the priests and Levites, they acquiesced in the change, though a week before they were ready, as subjects of the legitimate successor of Solomon, to continue in the established worship of Jehovah in the temple. The priests and Levites were expelled as too closely connected with the service in Jerusalem; new priests were appointed, and the same rites were observed before the images as before Jehovah in the temple. And when Jehu, in his zeal for Jehovah, slew all the partisans of Baal, he still adhered to the golden calves in Dan and Bethel, as not in his view inconsistent with the true worship. 2 Kings x.
In the same cla.s.s of acts, in point of turpitude, and in respect to the apparent intention of the actors and the tendency of their acts, may be included that of Nadab and Abihu, in "offering _strange fire_ before Jehovah, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from Jehovah and devoured them, and they died before Jehovah;" and that of Korah and his company, who usurped the priests" office and burned incense, and were destroyed with their families and fourteen thousand of their adherents.
These ill.u.s.trations show that the worship rendered to images did not terminate in them as its object, but referred to an unseen Intelligence beyond them, who was supposed to be cognizant of their circ.u.mstances and their acts, and to be able to protect them and grant their requests. It proceeded on the a.s.sumption that the visible emblem, the graven image, or whatever was selected by individuals or canonized by the priests, and worshipped as an idol--the proper signification of which is, a figure, likeness, or representation--was a medium of intercourse with the Being worshipped.
This was the case, not merely with the Israelites in their use of images in the real or pretended worship of Jehovah, but equally of the devoted worshippers of Baal. A few references out of many which might be made, will show that their prayers and offerings were directed to the unseen object of their homage. Thus, in the formal controversy between Elijah, as prophet of Jehovah, and the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, to demonstrate by fire, to Ahab and the people, which was supreme, whether Jehovah or _the_ Baal was _the_ Elohim to be worshipped and obeyed; Elijah proposed that each party should offer a sacrifice of animals, and let it be seen which would be miraculously consumed, and said: "Call ye on the name of your Elohe,"--rendered here and elsewhere erroneously _G.o.ds_ in the plural, as if there were more than one Baal,--"and I will call on the name of Jehovah; and _the_ Elohim that answereth by fire, let him be the Elohim. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken. And Elijah said unto the prophets of _the_ Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first, for ye are many, and call on your Elohe; but put no fire under. And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of _the_ Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O _the_ Baal, hear us! But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar that was made. And it came to pa.s.s at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud, for he is an Elohim; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked. And they cried aloud, and cut themselves, after their manner, with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them. And they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, and there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded." 1 Kings xviii.
In this case there does not appear to have been any intervening image or idol. The priests called on the name of the absent, invisible Baal, but he answered not. He could not a.s.sist them by working a real miracle, and under the circ.u.mstances they could not counterfeit one; and with the approbation of the people, who saw that they were impostors, they were all slain.
That the real object of their worship was distinct from their images, is implied in their selecting high places for their religious rites, and erecting lofty towers for that purpose, where the sun could be earliest seen at rising, and where the stars or host of heaven could be most advantageously observed; and in burning their children as sacrifices, making them pa.s.s through the fire to Baal or Moloch. Thus, in the reign of Ahaz, 2 Kings xvii., "They made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pa.s.s through the fire." Mana.s.seh made his son pa.s.s through the fire; and in Josiah"s reformation he put down the idolatrous priests "that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun [literally, to Baal, the sun] and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven." 2 Kings xxiii. Jeremiah says: "They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal." Chap. xix. 5. Again: "And they built the high places of Baal, to cause their sons and their daughters _to pa.s.s through the fire_ unto Moloch." Jer. x.x.xii. 35. And of Josiah it is said, that he defiled Tophet--"that no man might make his son or his daughter _to pa.s.s through the fire_ to Moloch." 2 Kings xxiii. 10.
Their idea evidently was, that by sacrificing in this way the most valued offering they could make, that of their children, they would pa.s.s in and through that element to Baal, whose residence was conceived to be in the solar orb.
The term Moloch--variously written Melech, Moloch, Malcom, Milcom--as a designation, refers to the same being as Baal; the literal import of the latter being the same as that of _the Lord_, as the sun is lord of the day; and that of the former, the same as _the king_, as the sun is king of the day. The molten images, representative of Moloch, in the heated chest or arms of which, children offered in sacrifice were burnt, are somewhat variously described, but generally as having the head of a calf and the body of a man, with an opening in the chest, into which, when heated from below, the victims were cast alive; and to drown their cries, as in the burning of widows in India, under the same general notion, drums were beaten.
It appears evident from the pa.s.sages in which they occur in the Scriptures, that the terms Bel, Baal, and Baalim, are personal designations of the intelligence worshipped by the Chaldeans, and other idolaters, as their G.o.d, and by the Israelites in opposition to Jehovah.
Thus, Jer. l. 2: "Declare ye among the nations, ... Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces;" and li. 44: "I will punish Bel in Babylon.... The nations shall not flow together any more to him." That is, by the destruction of Babylon, Bel, the G.o.d of their idolatry, is confounded, punishment is inflicted on him; Merodach, the chief idol representative of Bel, is broken in pieces.
In most of the instances in which the same designation is rendered _Baal_, it has the article, making the personal reference emphatic.
"Throw down the altar of _the_ Baal that thy father hath, and out down the grove [statue of wood, or pillar carved statue or image-like] that is by it: and build an altar unto Jehovah thy Elohe.... And when the men of the city arose in the morning, behold, the altar of _the_ Baal was east down, &c.... If he be an Elohim, let _him_ plead for _himself_....
Let _the_ Baal plead against Gideon, because he hath thrown down _his_ altar." Judges vi. 25, 26, &c.
Ahab "went and served _the_ Baal, and worshipped _him_. And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of _the_ Baal which he had built in Samaria." 1 Kings xiv. 31, 32.
"And Elijah said, If Jehovah be _the_ Elohim, follow him: but if _the_ Baal, then follow him." 1 Kings xviii. 21.
So in the narrative of the destruction of the house, and the prophets, priests, and worshippers of _the_ Baal, by Jehu, 2 Kings x. 18-28, the article occurs with the name in the successive verses. And chap. xi.
18: "All the people of the land went into the house of _the_ Baal and brake it down; _his_ altars and _his images_ brake they in pieces."
It is manifest from these and other like pa.s.sages, that while the statues and images of Baal were many and various, in all countries and places, _the_ Baal, the real object of worship, represented by them, was one. To him, under another of his designations, that of _Moloch_, human victims offered in sacrifice were supposed to pa.s.s through the element of fire.
Nor does this conclusion appear to be invalidated by the occurrence of the designation in a plural form, rendered Baalim. The usage in this respect seems a.n.a.logous to that of the word Elohim. In both cases the article is often prefixed; and the reference is to one agent only. Thus, Judges viii. 33: "The children of Israel turned again ... after _the_ Baalim, and made Baal-berith their Elohim." Again, chap. x. 10-16, the children of Israel said: "We have forsaken our Elohe, and also served _the_ Baalim. And Jehovah said, ... Ye have forsaken me, and served other Elohim.... Go and cry unto the Elohim which ye have chosen.... And they put away the strange Elohe from among them, and served Jehovah."
The terms, _Baal-berith_, signify _the G.o.d of the covenant_, _i. e._, of the covenant between Baal and his worshippers; as _Melach Berith_, Mal.
iii. 2, signifies _the Messenger of the Covenant_ of grace.
It is thus presumed to be evident beyond a doubt, that the whole system was based upon a theory and a sense of the necessity of mediation; and whether the earlier or later idolaters, the instructed or the ignorant, referred in their worship to a being beyond or superior to Baal, regarding him as created by that superior being, and yet himself as creator of the world, or whether their homage terminated in him, does not affect the question under consideration.
Mosheim, in his Commentaries on the three first centuries of the Christian era, observes, with respect to the costly and sumptuous buildings of the pagans, called temples, fanes, &c., and dedicated to the worship of their G.o.ds, that internally "they were ornamented with images of the G.o.ds, and furnished with altars," &c. "The statues were supposed to be animated by the deities whom they _represented_; for though the worshippers of G.o.ds like those above described must, in a great measure, have turned their backs upon every dictate of reason, they were yet by no means willing to appear so wholly dest.i.tute of common sense as to pay their adoration _to a mere idol of metal_, _wood_, _or stone_; but always maintained that the statues, when properly consecrated, were filled with the presence of those divinities whose forms they bore." Vol. i. 16.
CHAPTER XXI.
Idolatry an imposing and delusive Counterfeit of the Revealed System, in respect to the leading features of its Ritual, and the prerogatives ascribed to the Arch-deceiver--Reference to the Symbols of the Apocalypse.
This antagonist system was, in respect to the attributes and prerogatives impiously arrogated by the great Adversary, and in respect to the leading features of its ritual, a bold, seductive, and imposing counterfeit of the revealed system taught and practised by Noah and his descendants in the line of Shem.
To subst.i.tute a false appearance, a deceitful imitation, a resembling counterfeit, a cheat, a lie, was as obviously expedient, and even necessary, in such a case, as it is in keeping with the craft and subtlety of Satan to deceive and beguile. He had to entice, allure, and impose on those who knew what the true system was, and by what miracles and wonders it had been sanctioned; who witnessed its effects in the lives of those who practised it, were familiar with its inst.i.tutions and public observances; and whose understandings must have been more or less influenced by its inherent and its hereditary claims, and by its voice of encouragement and hope to the righteous, and of alarm and terror to the wicked. Under such circ.u.mstances, to resist and counteract the system divinely prescribed and established, it was necessary to impose on the understandings of men, as well as to enlist their feelings, give scope to their propensities, and gratify their pa.s.sions. To have called on them to worship him directly in his true character, without disguise, or to worship him as a being of inferior claims to those of Jehovah, or by rites and ceremonials less significant and imposing, would not have been likely to secure their homage and allegiance. His own undisguised character would have been revolting; an inferior could not protect them against the superior Being; to dispense with public and visible rites and ceremonies would have been to disappoint and resist their propensities and pa.s.sions; and no others but such as were already in use could be made to maintain a compet.i.tion with them.
Accordingly, he arrogated the name, power, prerogatives, works, relations and government of Jehovah. He claimed to be G.o.d of this world: its creator, providential ruler, dispenser of benefits, protector of his followers, and rightful object of their homage and obedience, in opposition to Jehovah. He took the then current name in Babylon of the sun, Bel--or, as pointed and commonly rendered, Baal--Lord of Heaven, Supreme Ruler, like the sun in the visible heaven; afterwards, with the same import, the Egyptian name of the same object, On, (often rendered Aven.) Also, Moloch, (Melek,) King; Baal-Zebub, Lord of Hosts--Zebub being a corruption of Zebaoth, hosts, as in the formula, Jehovah Zebaoth, Lord of Hosts; and among the Phnicians, Baal Samen, Lord of Heaven.
He arrogated the sun as his tabernacle or shekina, and the solar fire and light as his element: imitating, we may well believe, in respect to the first of these particulars, what had been exhibited in Eden, and from time to time prior to the age of Abraham, as it was afterwards, and especially to Moses in Midian, in the pillar of cloud, at the Red Sea, on Mount Sinai, and in the tabernacle. And in imitation of the tabernacle erected by Moses in the wilderness, the partisans of Baal created the tabernacle of Moloch, _i. e._, Baal under that name. Amos v.; Acts vii.
Prideaux, Part I., Book 3, treating of the origin of idolatry, and yet describing it at an advanced stage, when, in addition to the sun, the planets and stars had been brought into its service, observes: "That they took upon themselves to address the being whom they worshipped,"
and whom he supposes they regarded as the true G.o.d, "by mediators of their own choosing. And their notion of the sun, moon, and stars being, that they were the tabernacles or habitations of intelligences which animated those orbs, in the same manner as the soul of man animates his body, and were the causes of all their motions; and that those intelligence were of a middle nature between G.o.d and them; they thought these the properest beings to become the mediators between G.o.d and them; and, therefore, the planets being the nearest to them of all these heavenly bodies, and generally looked on to have the greatest influence on this world, they made choice of them in the first place for their _G.o.d"s-mediators_, who were to mediate for them with the Supreme G.o.d, and procure from him the mercies and favors which they prayed for; and accordingly they directed divine worship unto them as such. And here began all the idolatry that hath been practised in the world. They first worshipped them _per sacella_, that is, by their _tabernacles_, and afterwards by images also. By these _sacella_ or _tabernacles_ they meant the orbs themselves, which they looked on only as the _sacella_ or _sacred tabernacles_ in which the intelligences had their habitations.
And therefore, when they paid their devotions to any one of them, they directed their worship towards the planet in which they supposed he dwelt. But these orbs, by their rising and setting, being as much under the horizon as above, they were at a loss how to address to them in their absence. To remedy this, they had recourse to the invention of images, in which, after their consecration, they thought these intelligences, or inferior deities, to be as much present by their influence as in the planets themselves, and that all addresses to them were made as effectually before the one as before the other. And this was the beginning of image worship among them. To these images were given the names of the planets they represented.... After this, a notion obtaining that good men departed had a power with G.o.d also to mediate and intercede for them, they deified many of those whom they thought to be such; and hence the number of their G.o.ds increased, in the idolatrous times of the world. This religion first began among the _Chaldeans_, which their knowledge of astronomy helped them to. And from this it was that Abraham separated himself when he came out of _Chaldea_. From the _Chaldeans_ it spread itself over all the East, where the professors of it had the name of Sabians. From thence it pa.s.sed into Egypt, and from thence to the Grecians, who propagated it to all the western nations of the world; and therefore those who mislike the notion advanced by Maimonides, that many of the Jewish laws were made in opposition to the idolatrous rites of the Sabians, are much mistaken when they object against it that the Sabians were an inconsiderable sect, and therefore not likely to be so far regarded in that matter.... Anciently, they were all the nations of the world that worshipped G.o.d by images. And that Maimonides understood the name in this lat.i.tude is plain from hence, that he tells us the Sabians whom he spoke of were a sect whose heresy had overspread almost all mankind.... That which hath given them the greatest credit among the people of the East is, that the best of their astronomers have been of this sect, as Thebat Ebn Korrah, Albatani, and others; for the stars being the G.o.ds they worshipped, they made them the chief subject of their studies. These Sabians, in the consecrating of their images, used many incantations to draw down into them, from the stars, those intelligences for whom they erected them, whose power and influence they held did afterwards dwell in them."
"Directly opposite to these were the Magians, another sect, who had their original in the same Eastern countries. For they, abominating all images, worshipped G.o.d only by fire." These, instead of branching off from the Sabians, doubtless preceded them. "Their chief doctrine was, that there were two principles: one which was the cause of all good, and the other the cause of all evil: that is to say, G.o.d and the Devil. That the former is represented by light and the other by darkness, as their truest symbols, and that of the composition of these two all things in the world are made.... And concerning these two G.o.ds there was this difference of opinion among them--that whereas some held both of them to have been from eternity, there were others that contended that the good G.o.d only was eternal, and that the other was created. But they both agreed in this, that there will be a continual opposition between these two till the end of the world. That then the good G.o.d shall overcome the evil G.o.d, and that from thenceforward each of them shall have his world to himself: that is, the good G.o.d his world, with all good men with him, and the evil G.o.d his world, with all evil men with him. That darkness is the truest symbol of the evil G.o.d, and light the truest symbol of the good G.o.d: and therefore they always worshipped him before fire, as being the cause of light, and especially before the sun, as being, in their opinion, the perfectest fire, and causing the perfectest light. And for this reason, in all their temples, they had fire continually burning on altars created in them for that purpose. And before these sacred fires they offered up all their public devotions, as likewise they did all their private devotions before their private fires in their own houses.
Thus did they pay the highest honor to light, as being in their opinion the truest representative of the good G.o.d, but always hated darkness, as being what they thought the truest representative of the evil G.o.d, whom they ever had in the utmost detestation, as we now have the Devil."
The author"s account of the origin and nature of idolatry is in most particulars undoubtedly correct. The exceptions, however, are of great significance. He seems to suppose that the system was contrived and adopted by men, without the instigation of Satan, and that their object was the worship of the true G.o.d, in opposition to that evil being. But the intelligence whom they called the good G.o.d was Satan himself, supposed to be in the sun as his tabernacle, and in fire and light as his element. And as to what they termed the evil G.o.d, it was obviously necessary to the success of his system, as a counterfeit of the true, that it should pretend to have a devil and a perpetual antagonism. It was probably as well known then, and perhaps more generally believed than it is now, that there was such an evil being; and that he was and would continue to be utterly opposed to the true G.o.d. And a false or counterfeit system, in which the false G.o.d was to arrogate the name and pa.s.s himself off for the true G.o.d, must provide also an antagonist, a compet.i.tor, a devil; and to carry out the cheat, a.s.sign to him darkness as his tabernacle, in opposition to light as his own.
It were superfluous to dwell on the imposing and plausible aspect of the scheme in the particulars above referred to, considered as addressed to the depraved hearts, corrupt imaginations, and evil pa.s.sions of men; opposed to the purity, the requirements, and the restraints of the true religion, and willingly the followers and servants of the Evil One.
While it imposed no restraint upon their corruptions, every point in the contrast must have had its effect. It excluded mystery, and appealed directly to their senses; presenting in the sun an object of homage, not only familiar to their view without causing fear, but apparently the beneficent and constant source of their daily comforts and greatest blessings; and by means of fire and light, artificially produced, enabling every individual to avail himself of the immediate presence and the beneficial influence and effects of that object, brought thus within their control, in their dwellings and on their hearths.
The ritual of worship prescribed the erection of altars, a priesthood, various offerings besides the sacrifice of animals, prayers, the burning of incense, feasts, celebrations, and other counterfeits of the revealed system. As a counterpart to the sacred oracle and the gift of prophecy, the worshippers of Baal had auguries, divinations, and pretended oracles in every country. Their prophets prophesied in the name of Baal. Jer. ii.
8; xxiii. 13. "Ahaziah being sick, sent messengers, and said unto them, Go and inquire of Baal-Zebub, the G.o.d of Ekron, whether I shall recover of this disease." 2 Kings i. The responses of their oracles, which continued till after the destruction of the first temple and the cessation of true prophets, and more or less down to the Advent, when they appear to have ceased, were studiously contrived so as to admit equally well of different interpretations, and so as not to be interpreted with any confidence till after the event; and in this respect they were just what the great ma.s.s of learned interpreters and expositors of the Scripture prophecies have for ages taken them to be; imputing to them a double sense: to their literal language a figurative meaning, to their definite local references a symbolical import, capable only of being guessed at, and in general regarding them as enigmas--inspired indeed by Him who is head over all things for the information and preservation of his Church, but not intended to be understood, unless by those who survive the events predicted.
It would be easy to show, by tracing the parallel in numberless other and more minute details, that the false system was throughout a parody of the true; and to ill.u.s.trate the ceaseless antagonism and rivalship which was carried on, in the face of the universe, by the conflict of the two systems, with their visible agencies, inst.i.tutions, instrumentalities, and effects; occupying, directing and stimulating the attention and the energies, the thoughts and feelings, the hopes and fears, and involving the temporal well-being and the immortal destiny of the whole race: presenting a scene which, whether considered in relation to one period or another, the past or the present, Paganism or Romanism, superst.i.tion or rationalism, can be accounted for, with or without the Bible, upon no a.s.sumption or theory but that of the enmity and opposition announced and commenced in Eden, which is still in progress and still has a future.
In the progress of this war, the Devil and his angels, the Prince of the power of the air, with the princ.i.p.alities, powers, and rulers of the darkness of this world under him, has, from policy if not from necessity, kept concealed behind his instruments. But the heads and leaders of his visible partisans among men, whether in the abominations of heathenism, the enormities of idolatry, the wars and butcheries of nations, the tyrannies of government, the horrors of anarchy, the immolation of human victims, the persecution and slaughter of prophets and martyrs, or in the no less fatal systems of heresy, false theology, and false philosophy, have never scrupled or been backward to do the utmost he could wish in furtherance of his object. Many of them, like the Cerinthians, Marcionites, Valentinians, and other prevalent sects in the first ages of Christianity, ascribed to him the works of creation and providence; and there were not wanting such as worshipped him by name, and others under the designation of the Serpent; and still others who paid the highest honors to Cain, Judas, and similar characters, as his most conspicuous representatives.
The popular notion of idolatry, under the name of polytheism, as if it involved the supposition of a plurality of supreme deities, owes its influence, at least among those who read the English version of the Scriptures, to the fact that the translators rendered the designations of the G.o.d of the idolatrous system as plural, though in the Hebrew they are written in the singular number. Knowing that there was but one true G.o.d, they uniformly rendered Elohim as well as Elohe, when employed with reference to that Being, in the singular number; but when employed with reference to the rival usurper, the false G.o.d, their rendering is plural, _G.o.ds_; as if the molten images and numberless idols in other forms, instead of being all representative of one supposed deity, or being regarded as mediators, or representatives of mediators between them and him, were themselves so many independent deities. Thus, in Laban"s remonstrance with Jacob: "Wherefore hast thou stolen my _Elohe_?" rendered _G.o.ds_, and in Jacob"s answer: "With whomsoever thou findest _thy Elohe_," rendered _G.o.ds_, the meaning plainly is, (though there seems to have been more than one image, teraphim-images, v. 34,) that which represents my Elohe. Gen. x.x.xi. 30-32. Again, Exod. xx. 1-23: "And Elohim spake all these words: I am Jehovah thy Elohe; thou shall have no other Elohim before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. Ye shall not make with me Elohe of silver;" an Elohe, a G.o.d, rendered _G.o.ds_. "Neither shall ye make unto you Elohe of gold;" an Elohe, a molten image representative of me, rendered _G.o.ds._ "Against the _Elohe_ of Egypt I will execute judgment." Exod. xii. 12, rendered, "against all the _G.o.ds_ of Egypt," &c. "Thou shalt not bow down to their Elohe," (_Eng. G.o.ds._) "Ye shall serve Jehovah your _Elohe_," (_Eng.
G.o.d._) Exod. xxiii. 24, 25. "Aaron made it a molten calf: and they said, This is _thy Elohe_, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." Exod. x.x.xii. 4, rendered, "_These be thy G.o.ds_, O Israel."
Undoubtedly the meaning is: This molten image is a visible token or representative of Jehovah thy Elohe--a visible mediator or medium of intercourse with thy Elohe, in place of Moses. So Jeroboam, having made _two_ such images, two calves of gold, said: "Behold thy _Elohe_, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." 2 Kings xii.
28: rendered, Behold thy _G.o.ds_, O Israel. This usage characterizes the translation.
Besides the absurdity of supposing that the Israelites, with the revelation of the one Supreme Being by which they were distinguished, or that the heathen should admit the notion of a plurality of such beings, it is apparent from the nature of the case that the counterfeit of the true system must originally, in order to its success, have been a counterfeit in this, the first and most essential of all its particulars. The very nature of the antagonism, and the false system of mediation by which idolatry was sustained and rendered practically successful, required this. Even when Astarte, as Queen of heaven, was a.s.sociated with Baal, it was only in a subordinate relation, as mediatrix, the moon being her shekina, and her office being the prototype of that of the Popish Mary; while Baal arrogated the prerogatives of Jehovah, and the sun as his shekina.
To this evil being, among others, the following designations are applied in the Hebrew Scriptures: _Serpent_, as in Gen. iii.: "Jehovah Elohim said unto the _serpent_, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed." Thee, the "tempter," "the dragon, that old _serpent_ which is the Devil and Satan." Rev. xx. "The great dragon, that old _serpent_, called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world." Rev. xii. The apostle expresses his fear "lest by any means" the false teachers should corrupt his converts, "as the _serpent_ beguiled Eve through his subtlety." 2 Cor. xi. The original word, when not employed as a personal designation, is often rendered "enchantment, divination," &c. _Satan_ is commonly rendered _adversary_; but frequently Satan, as a personal designation of the Evil One, where his local agency is particularly mentioned, as Job i, and ii.; 1 Chron. xxi.
1; Zech. iii. 1, 2.
"By collecting all the pa.s.sages where Satan or the Devil is mentioned, it may be observed that he fell from heaven, with all his company; that G.o.d cast him down from thence for the punishment of his pride; that by his envy and malice, sin, death, and all other evils came into the world; that by the permission of G.o.d he exercises a sort of government in the world over his subordinates, over apostate angels like himself; that G.o.d makes use of him to prove good men and chastise bad ones; that he is a lying spirit in the mouth of false prophets, seducers, and heretics; that it is he or some of his that torment or possess men; that inspire them with evil designs, as he did David, when he suggested to him to number his people; to Judas, to betray his Lord and Master, and to Ananias and Sapphira, to conceal the price of their field. That he roves full of rage, like a roaring lion, to tempt, to betray, to destroy us, and to involve us in guilt and wickedness. That his power and malice are restrained within certain limits, and controlled by the will of G.o.d.
In a word, that he is an enemy to G.o.d and man, and uses his utmost endeavors to rob G.o.d of his glory and men of their souls." "Devil--a most wicked angel, the implacable enemy and tempter of the human race.
He is called Abaddon in Hebrew, Apollyon in Greek; that is, destroyer, Rev. ix. 11. Angel of the bottomless pit, Prince of the world, John xii.
31. Prince of darkness, Ephes. vi. 12. A roaring lion and an adversary, 1 Pet. v. 8. A sinner from the beginning, 1 John iii. 8. Beelzebub, Matt. xii. 24. Accuser, Rev. xii. 10. Belial, 2 Cor. vi. 15. Deceiver, Rev. xx. 10. Dragon, Rev. xii. 3. Liar, John viii. 44. Leviathan, Isa.
xxvii. 7. Lucifer, Isa. xiv. 12. Murderer, John viii. 44. Serpent, Isa.
xxvii. 1. Satan, Job ii. 6. Tormentor, Matt. xviii. 34. The G.o.d of this world, 2 Cor. iv. 4. He is compared to a dog, Ps. xxii. 16. Fowls, Matt. xiii. 4. A fowler, Ps. xci, 3. Lightning, Luke x. 18. Locusts, Rev. v. 3. A wolf, John x. 12. An adder, Ps. xci. 13. These names are given to the Prince of devils. Devil is put for, [1] Idols, Ps. cvi. 37; 2 Chron. xi. 15. [2] A wicked man, John vi. 70. [3] Persecutor, Rev. ii.
10." Cruden"s Concordance, Art. "Satan and Devil."
This fallen being was expressly worshipped in or through the form of the _serpent_, by the ancient Persians, under the name _Ahriman_; by the Egyptians, under that of _Typhon_; by the Greeks, under that of _Python_; and by the Syrians, Hindoos, Mexicans, and other nations, under different designations.
In Leviticus xvii. 7, Satan and his angels appear to be referred to under the word _devils_, where the children of Israel are commanded "to sprinkle the blood of animals slain by them on the altar of Jehovah, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and to burn the fat for a sweet savor unto Jehovah." "And," it is added as a reason of the command, "they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto _devils_, after whom they have gone a whoring." Probably the images before which they thus offered sacrifices were those of goats, as the same word is often rendered _goats_. Again, 2 Chron. ii. 15, it is said of Jeroboam that "He ordained him priests for the high places, and for the _devils_, and for the calves which he had made." This may with propriety be rendered, "and for the devils, _even_ for the calves," the representatives of Satan which he had made. A different original word is rendered _devils_, Deut. x.x.xii. 17, where it is said that Israel "forsook G.o.d which made him, and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation. They provoked him to jealousy, &c. They sacrificed unto _devils_, not to G.o.d; to Elohim whom they knew not." The word here translated _devils_ is often rendered _spoiler_, _destroyer_, _destruction_, &c. Doubtless the reference is to an intelligence beyond any visible image. The same word occurs, Ps. cvi. 36, 37: "They served their idols, which were a snare unto them; yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto _devils_."
Since the existence of the fallen angels and of their prince and leader was known from the beginning; and that he was prince and leader also of the party of the human race which was at enmity with the true worshippers of Jehovah; and since they manifested their hostility chiefly in their false system of religion, it seems reasonable and even necessary to conclude that they followed and supported their leader in his rivalship, and regarded him, however represented by images, as the object of their worship, in opposition to Jehovah, the object, through sacrifices, of the homage of his worshippers. In this view of their conduct, it is easy to conceive that their serving and worshipping idols should provoke Jehovah to jealousy. They served and worshipped an antagonist, a rival.