IDALAH

successful, and the Galatians afterwards contributed to the collection for the poor Christians of Jerusalem. The alternative view is that Iconium is not really included in the Acts narrative after 16^; as the words quoted above from Ac 168 and 18^ refer to a different district to the far north of Iconium, and that the Epistle to the Galatians, being addressed to that northern district, had no connexion with Iconium. In any case, Iconium is one of the places included in the (province) Galatia which is addressed in First Peter (about a.d. 80 probably), and the large number of Christian inscriptions which have been found there reveal the existence of a vigorous Christian life in the third and following centuries. A. Souteb.

IDALAH.— A town of Zebulun (Jos 19").

IDBASH. — One of the sons of the father of Etam (1 Ch 4').

IDDO.— 1. Ezr 8" (1 Es 8«'- Loddeus) the chief at Casiphia, who provided Ezra with Levites and Nethinim. 2. 1 Ch 272' gon of Zechariah, captain of the half tribe of Manasseh in Gilead, perh. =No. 4. 3. Ezr 10" (1 Es 9^5 Edos) one of those who had taken 'strange' wives. 4. 1 K 4" father of Abinadab, who was Solomon's commis-sariat officer in Mahanaim in Gilead (see No. 2). 5. 1 Ch 6^' a Gershonite Levite called Adaiah in v.". 6. A seer and prophet cited by the Chronicler as an authority for the reigns of Solomon (2 Ch 9^'), Reho-boam (2 Ch 12«), Abijah (2 Ch 13^). 7. Zee !'■ ', Ezr 5' 6" (1 Es 6' Addo) grandfather (father ace. to Ezr.) of the prophet Zechariah; possibly of the same family as No. 2. 8. Neh 12*- 1' one of the priestly clans that went up with Zerubbabel.

IDOLATRY. — Hebrew religion Is represented as beginning with Abraham, who forsook the idolatry, as well as the home, of his ancestors (Gn 12', Jos 24'); but it was specially through the influence of Moses that Jehovah was recognized as Israel's God. The whole subsequent history up to the Exile is marked by frequent lapses into idolatry. We should therefore consider (1) the causes of Hebrew idolatry, (2) its nature, (3) the opposition it evoked, and (4) the teaching of NT. The subject is not free from difficulty, but in the light of modem Biblical study, the main outlines are clear.

1. Causes of Hebrew idolatry. — (l) When, after the Exodus, the Israelites settled in Canaan among idolatrous peoples, they were far from having a pure monotheism (cf. Jg 11"). Their faith was crude, (o) Thus the idea that their neighbours' gods had real existence, with rights of proprietorship in the invaded land, would expose them to risk of contamination. This would be the more likely because as yet they were not a united people. The tribes had at first to act independently, and in some cases were unable to dislodge the Canaanites (Jg 1). (6) Their environment was thus perilous, and the danger was intensified by intermarriage with idolaters. Particularly after the monarchy was established did this become a snare. Solomon and Ahab by their marriage alliances introduced and promoted idol cults. It is significant that post-exilic legislation had this danger in view, and secured that exclusiveness so characteristic of mature Judaism (Ezr 102'). (c) The political relations with the great world-powers, Egypt and Assyria, would also tend to influence religious thought. This might account for the great heathen reaction under Manasseh.

■(2) But, specially, certain ideas charadenatic of Semitic religion generally had a strong influence, (a) Thus, on Israel's settling in Canaan, the existing shrines, whether natural (hills, trees, wells — each understood to have its own tutelary baal oi lord) or artificial (altars, stone pillars, wooden poles), would be quite innocently used for the worship of J". (&) Idols, too, were used in domestic worship (Jg 176; cf. Gn SI'', 1 S 19"). (e) A darker feature, inimical to Jehovism, was the

IDOLATRY

sanction of sexual impurity, cruelty and lust for blood (see below, § 2 (1)).

Here then was all the apparatus for either the in-appropriate worship of the true God, or the appropriate worship of false gods. That was why, later on in the eighth and seventh centuries b.c, when the earlier Jehovism was changing into typical Judaism, all such apparatus was felt to be wrong, and was attacked with increasing violence by prophets and reformers, as their conception of God became more clear and spiritual.

2. Itsnatnre. — (1) Common to all CanaanitereUgions, apparently, was the worship of Baal as representing the male principle in nature. Each nation, however, had its own provincial Baal with a specific name or title — Chemosh of Moab, Molech of Ammon, Dagon of PhiUstia, Hadad-Rimmon of Syria. Associated with Baalism was the worship of Ashtoreth (Astarte), repre-senting the female principle in nature. Two features of these religions were prostitution [of both sexes] (cf. Nu 25"-, Dt 23'"-, 1 K 14", Hos 4", Am 2', Bar 6«3) and human sacrifice (cf. 2 K 17", Jer 7'', and art. Topheth). Baalism was the chief Israelite idolatry, and sometimes, e.g. under Jezebel, it quite displaced Jehovism as the established religion.

(2) The underlying principle of all such religion was nature-worship. This helps to explain the calf- worship, represented as first introduced by Aaron, and at a latei^ period established by Jeroboam i. In Egypt — which also exercised a sinister infiuence on the Hebrews — religion was largely of this type; but living animals, and not merely images of them, were there venerated. Connected with this idolatry is totemism, so widely traced even to-day. Some find a survival of early Semitic totemism in Ezk 8'".

(3) Another form of Hebrew nature-worship, asirolatry, was apparently of foreign extraction, and not earlier than the seventh cent. b.c. There is a striking allusion to this idolatry in Job Sl^^-zs. There were sun-images (2 Gh 34'), horses and chariots dedi-cated to the sun (2 K 23"); an eastward position was adopted in sun-worship (Ezk 8"). The expression 'queen of heaven' in Jer 7'* 44" is obscure; but it probably points to this class of idolatry. In the heathen reaction under Manasseh the worship of the 'host of heaven' is prominent (2 K 17"). Gad and Men! (Is 65") were possibly star-gods. Related to such nature- worship perhaps was the mourning for Tammuz [Adonis] (Ezk 8", Is 17'" RVm) . Nature-worship of all kinds is by implication rebuked with amazing force and dignity in Gn 1, where the word God as Creator is written 'in big letters over the face of creation.' Stars and animals and all things, it is insisted, are created things, not creators, and not self-existent.

(4) There are no clear traces of ancestor-worship in OT, but some find them in the teraphim (household gods) and in the reverence for tombs (.e.g. Machpelah); in Is 65* the context suggests idolatry.

(5) A curious mixture of idolatry and Jehovism existed in Samaria after the destruction of the Northern Kingdom. The foreign colonists brought with them the worship ot various deities, and added that of J" (2 K 17"-"). These gods cannot be identified with certainty. By this mixed race and reUgion the Jews of the Return were seriously hindered, and there resulted the Samaritan schism which, in an attenuated form, still exists.

3. Opposition to idolatry. — While fully allowing for the facts alluded to in § 1, it is impossible to account — not for mere temporary lapses, but — for the marked persistence of idolatry among the Hebrews, unless we recognize the growth which characterizes their laws and polity from the simple beginning up to the finished product. Laws do but express the highest sense of the community— however deeply that sense may be quickened by Divine revelation — whether those laws are viewed

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