abraham destroyed idols bible verse

Hebrews 13:5 - Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Later, a woman walked into the store and wanted to make an offering to the idols. 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? All rights reserved worldwide. 58 Dost thou not know, or hast thou not heard, that this evil which thou doest, our ancestors sinned therein in days of old, and the eternal God brought the waters of the flood upon them and destroyed them all, and also destroyed the whole earth on their account? See:The Complete Works of Achad Ha-Am(Tel Aviv, 1947), p. 342 [Hebrew]. This Midrash can be interpreted as an example of persecution against those of monotheistic beliefs during a time when polytheism dominated.[8]. Child sacrifice. Berean Standard Bible Rather, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and chop down their Asherah poles. Does the story become less powerful, less complete, less true? Bible verses about False Idols. His analysis deals with how in modern times, Abraham came to be seen as the only monotheist. [21]An ant and an elephant are running through the desert. Because of the signs in the heavens that were associated with his birth Nimrod tried to kill him at that time. 21. This Abraham is entirely in the hands of heaven (in a different and positive sense). Abram Rescues Lot. 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. Although the book focuses on a period of time later than that discussed herethe period of David and Solomonnevertheless, the rhetorical force of the essays that express reservations similar to that expressed aboveessays that come from very different scholarsdemonstrates the tangible reality of the emotional power that stands behind the truth problem. I must admit that I could not personally identify with any of the (admittedly thoughtful) analyses in that collection, and this is probably due to my own alternative way of thinking about this problem, as described in this essay. [7]Doubtless, this claim reveals an important educational principle whose significance is beyond reproach. Save 15% on BibleGateway+ with code SPRINGSTUDY15. However, in this case, God was testing the obedience and faith of Abraham. In many ways, the challenge faced by such a person is similar to the one faced by Rambam when he tried and demonstrate to the world that God has no body. The Bible says we should put living in a righteous manner above all other pursuits of the flesh and mind. 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 16 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. I simply believe it. It is this difference, which lies at the heart of the distinction between the two interpretive methods described above. Save 15% for life on BibleGateway+ with code SPRINGSTUDY15. Although I felt able to push the first question into the sidelines, the second question seemed to me more problematic. either making or worshiping idols or "other gods.". why would the ancient Greeks have Worshipped Demeter. Finally, Abraham is not punished . 22 And Terah bowed down to his gods, and he then went away from them, and Abram, his son, went away with him. 6The sons of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and (I)the tithe of [d]sacred gifts which were consecrated to the Lord their God, and placed them in heaps. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. When the Torah describes various events that appear to be rooted in a concrete time and place, its account is more a retelling than a reconstruction. The plot point of Abrahams fattempted murder for his beliefs is found in four source texts. A divinely originated narrative has no need for real historical events in order to grow sinews and flesh and become something substantial. Abraham responds that water puts out fire. that there is a real God, then that God will save him. Continue Learning about Religious Studies. [22]This distinction is similar to that of Achad Ha-Am between historical truth (the way a group relates to events from its past, what we now call cultural memory or mnemohistory) and archaeological truth (what actually happened in the past.) Would you like updates when content is posted? English Revised Version Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities. 18 And Abram went from them, and his anger burned within him. Lets imagine that Gods message is cloaked with descriptions of events that modern day historians believe cannot be accepted as factso what? For it is hardly surprising that events that occurred in history would be recorded in the writings of various cultures that witnessed these events. 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). [29] How should this believer relate to the fact that the very type of faith that he or she sees as inferior is exactly the one which sits best with the majority of the faithful? In my book, I explore a middle position that distinguishes between cases where it is necessary to free ourselves from a historicity that strangles the spirit of the text and cases where the historicity of the story would actually make the spirit of the story that much brighter. Understanding the Torah this way can strengthen the deep vitality buried in its every story, every verse, every word even every letter. And Nimrod and all his princes and servants were that day sitting before him, and Terah sat also before them. 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. Many in Maimonides generation believed that the existence of God was coterminous with Gods physical existence. Sons were born to them after the flood. 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. [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]. Terah responded by saying that they are only statues and have no knowledge. [2]For a discussion of the phenomenon of filling the gaps see Yonah Frankel,Midrash ve-Aggada, (5753), 41 [Hebrew]. Abraham married them according to the Book of Genesis). So Abraham took a stick, smashed the idols and placed the stick in the hand of the largest idol. Christian Standard Bible The ant says to the elephant, Just look at the dust-clouds were making!. , was an idol-maker and merchant in Ur.1 Terah. 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. This comes from the idea that Abraham did not need proof of God before being cast into the fire, which is why God saved him. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of Ibn Munzir said that pictures and statues made of wood or metal, etc. If not, I will know., 22The men(N) turned away and went toward Sodom,(O) but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Abraham had three wives: Sarah, Hagar, and Keturah (by date when Abraham went thence to his mother, and he spoke to her, saying: Behold, my father has shown those unto me who made heaven and earth and all the sons of men. The Idol Of Complacency. can they hear thy prayers when thou callest upon them? One time a woman came carrying a dish of fine flour. Terah responded by saying that they are only statues and have no knowledge. Which is the most important river in Congo? [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. It would always have been possible to claim that one author, Moses for instance, wrote it on his own. The first statement, the simpler one, would probably be acceptable to anyone. Thus, whenever a question arises about something written, our goal would be to try and get as close as we can to reproducing the event as it occurred, to analyze the event itself, if possible, in order to learn what really happened. We would not shy away from reading alternative descriptions of the event, even contradictory ones, and compare these versions to the one we have in our hands. 31 And in the evening of that day in that house Abram was clothed with the spirit of God. 5 From . 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. 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. Instead, the full power of the divine message comes once the message finds its place within a persons heart. ), or adding matres lectionis (). 14 And Abram knew the Lord, and he went in his ways and instructions, and the Lord his God was with him. Would we really be unable to give ear and listen to Gods story with great focus, attention, and feeling unless we could simultaneously locate it in a specific time and place? However, see Rambams comments inThe Guide of the Perplexed(3:50) as well as chapter 5 of my book. Bible. Therefore, by necessity we would need to distill from his historical persona what parts of his life were his own choice, (i.e. If this is a story, he said, it is a very human story. 1, p. 164: Tamar Ross makes great use of this principle, primarily in dealing with the feminist critique of Torah. Instead, the text of the Torah should be understood on its own terms; the Torah itself is the matter being studied. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?, If I find forty-five there, he said, I will not destroy it., 29Once again he spoke to him, What if only forty are found there?, He said, For the sake of forty, I will not do it., 30Then he said, May the Lord not be angry,(Z) but let me speak. The believer who adopts this narrative wishes to engage it directly. you shall devote to the Lord the first offspring of every womb, and the first offspring of every beast that you own; the males belong to the Lord. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places. Burn their Asherah poles and cut down their carved idols. 35 And Terah, having heard the noise of the hatchet in the room of images, ran to the room to the images, and he met Abram going out. Moreover, the traditional approach to Torah, which accompanies the study of the written text, greatly emphasizes the function of studying the past for contemporary times. See:The Guide of the Perplexed, 1:1. It is precisely the struggle of thinkers like Rambam and Rav Kook that can be most helpful in answering such questions. In order for such values to find a permanent place in the spiritual life of individuals, they must be narrated. 45 And forget the Lord God who made heaven and earth, and who created you in the earth, and thereby bring a great evil upon your souls in this matter by serving stone and wood? This grieved Abraham, whilst his father wanted his son to believe and worship as he himself did; but Abraham knew better than to do such a thing. [16] Only from the time of its inclusion in the Sinai covenant could a given law become the Archimedean point for the spiritual makeup of a person. Join today!. [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. 2. And you shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and you shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place. However, see the words of Maimonides about Adam, Eve and the serpent inGuide of the Perplexed(2:30). An event with significant import to the wider population that is never reported will end up being known by only a handful of people who witnessed it.[12]. Enter your email to subscribe and receive notifications of new content. Abraham asked him how old he was and the man responded 50 years old. Abraham then said, You are 50 years old and would worship a day old statue! At this point the man left, ashamed. [20] Moreover, even if the Torah had been written from one perspective only, in one clear and flowing style, that would not have proven that it came from God. Exodus 23:13 And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth. 41). NASB, Zondervan NASB Study Bible, Red Letter Edition, NASB, Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Bible, 2nd Edition, Comfort Print: Holy Bible, New American Standard Bible, NASB, Super Giant Print Reference Bible, Red Letter Edition, 1995 Text, Comfort Print, NASB, Thinline Bible, Large Print, Red Letter Edition, 2020 Text, Comfort Print, NASB, Thinline Bible, Red Letter Edition, 1995 Text, Comfort Print, NASB, Thinline Bible, Red Letter Edition, 2020 Text, Comfort Print. "You shall not delay the offering from your harvest and your vintage. 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. And yet, even as a boy, I knew I was missing something. 15 And Terah his father was in those days, still captain of the host of king Nimrod, and he still followed strange gods. NASB 1995 Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them in the camel's saddle, and she sat on them. Nevertheless, this possibility brings to mind the old joke about the elephant and the ant. Abraham grabs a stick and smashes all the idols, except the biggest one, in whose hand he places the stick. 27 And Abram mocked them, and said, Surely the savory meat that I prepared has not pleased them, or perhaps it was too little for them, and for that reason they would not eat; therefore tomorrow I will prepare fresh savory meat, better and more plentiful than this, in order that I may see the result. 52 And the king sent three men of his servants, and they went and brought Abram before the king. Access 50+ premium resources. are also to be treated as idols." Nimrod came from a line which was cursed by Noah: "Cursed be Canaan, a slave of slaves shall he be unto his brothers." By birth, Nimrod had no right to be a king or ruler. Douay-Rheims Bible And when he had destroyed the altars, and the groves, and had broken the idols in pieces, and had demolished all profane temples throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. So, one day when I was very young, I went to our basement and smashed on the concrete floor every bottle of liquor! Can those idols in which thou trustest deliver thee? As such, writing is secondary to the event itself. My gods cannot fight; they have legs, but they cannot walk; they have arms, but they cannot use them; they have eyes and ears, but they cannot see nor hear. Why, father, said Abraham, is it possible that you worship a god that cannot hear or see, walk or use himself at all? The god of the Christians, according to their own description of him, being a god without body, parts or passions, would be as unlikely to hear them when they called upon him, as were the gods of Terah, Abrahams father, when he called upon them. These were the feelings of Abraham, and he taught his father's house, and all around him, as far as he had the privilege. What does the Bible say about idolatry? Seeing the Torah as the story of God establishes a persons faith in Torah from Heaven at its highest and purist level. 42 Is there in these gods spirit, soul or power to do all thou hast told me? [1] Many commentaries throughout the generations have taken up this question; see, for example, Ramban on Genesis 11:28 and Maharal of Prague inNetzah Yisrael, ch. 13 And in the fiftieth year of the life of Abram son of Terah, Abram came forth from the house of Noah, and went to his fathers house. [9] Kugel's interpretation continues in the tradition of looking at this midrash as part of the analysis of monotheism. Conjunctive waw | Verb - Piel - Conjunctive perfect - second person masculine plural, Noun - masculine plural construct | third person masculine plural, Noun - feminine plural construct | third person masculine plural, Verb - Qal - Imperfect - second person masculine plural | Paragogic nun, Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine plural construct | third person masculine plural, A Phoenician goddess, also an image of the same, Verb - Piel - Imperfect - second person masculine plural | Paragogic nun, Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural construct, gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative, Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine plural, Holy things must be eaten in the holy place, and holy things must be eaten in the holy place, Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers, OT Law: Deuteronomy 12:3 And you shall break down their altars (Deut. 46 Did not our fathers in days of old sin in this matter, and the Lord God of the universe brought the waters of the flood upon them and destroyed the whole earth? In an ahistorical reading, we exchange Abraham the man, his biographic detailsonly some of which have any connection to Godwith Gods Abraham. Intuitive attachment to our inherited traditions is common to all people, regardless of education. 51 And he said, I beseech thee my lord, to hear meNow fifty years back a child was born to me, and thus has he done to my gods and thus has he spoken; and now therefore, my lord and king, send for him that he may come before thee, and judge him according to the law, that we may be delivered from his evil. 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. The power of a story cannot be found purely in the ideological explication of the divine message contained within, even if the message once understood, requires a person to live up to it in his or her life. And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. One day I jumped on the streetcar and went to an LDS bookstore to find a book about the Church. New International Version (NIV). SeeIggrot Raayahvol. To me, the key question is whether ones approach to exploring the ahistoricity of the narrative is in order to reduce the vital importance of the Torah and its message or whether it is the opposite, to increase it, as I suggest above. The second approach, however, is rather surprising. [13] The sacred written Torah is the teaching of God and it is forbidden to learn it indifferently. But Abraham, inspired by the Lord, went on a certain occasion into the temple of these gods and smote them right and left, upsetting and breaking them in pieces. 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. Rijksmuseum 1 The Midrashic Abraham Rabbi Chiyya said: Terah was an idol worshiper. Abraham is known to have done something similar. This is a false dichotomy. 26 And Abram saw on the day when he was sitting amongst them, that they had no voice, no hearing, no motion, and not one of them could stretch forth his hand to eat. 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. "Turn from Thy burning anger and change Thy mind about doing harm to Thy people. Presenting the Torah as Gods narrative does not take away from its religious significance. Therefore, it is the job of the historian to tell his or her story about history. Last edited on 18 February 2023, at 01:39, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Abraham_and_the_Idol_Shop&oldid=1140022488, This page was last edited on 18 February 2023, at 01:39. What are they if not dry historical descriptions? This is true even for a person who can digest the nuances of the ahistorical approach to the Torah. 14 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, "Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. Abraham is cast into the fire and is saved by God. Although these events have halachic weight in Jewish tradition, this is not because they happened in the past (before the revelation at Sinai) but because they were included in the Torahs narrative at Sinai.[15]. 19 And Abram asked his father, saying, Father, tell me where is God who created heaven and earth, and all the sons of men upon earth, and who created thee and me. TheTorah.com is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.We rely on the support of readers like you. Abraham chose to follow God alone, and he demonstrated his commitment by circumcising every male in his household. In response to the first question, I admitted that I am not trying at all to prove that the biblical author was God. [a] 19For I have chosen him(E), so that he will direct his children(F) and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord(G) by doing what is right and just,(H) so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.(I), 20Then the Lord said, The outcry against Sodom(J) and Gomorrah is so great(K) and their sin so grievous(L) 21that I will go down(M) and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. These events occurred at some point in the past, and the Holy Author (God) describes them from the unique perspective of the divine. The idols argued about which one should eat the offering first, then the largest idol took the stick and smashed all the other idols. Is it somehow illegitimate that the scriptural Author would retell a version of a popular story and include it within the broader narrative, and, with tremendous creativity, recast the story anew according to Gods own principles. [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. 18The genealogical enrollment included [k]all their little children, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, for the whole assembly, for they consecrated themselves [l]faithfully in holiness. New American Standard Bible Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them in the camel's saddlebag, and she sat on them. When I ask myself the question, What is more important: that Abraham lived in Ur 3500 years ago, or that he should live for 3500 years in the hearts of the people of Israel, I choose the second option. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities. President Nelson shared the following story last April: I adored my parents.

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