IDOLATRY
478
IDOLATRY
to the inferior deities and the dead (Homer, Od. x, 519 ; Porph. De Antr. Nrjmph. c. 17). So also the practice of eatmg the flesh of sacrifices " over the blood" (Lev. xix, 26 ; Ezek. xxxiii, 25, 26) was, according to Mai- monides, common among the Zabii. Spencer gives a double reason for the prohibition : that it was a rite of divination, and divination of the worst kind, a species of necromancy by which they attempted to raise the spirits of the dead (comp. Horace, Sat. i, 8). There are supposed to be allusions to the practice of necromancy in Isa. Ixv, 4, or, at any rate, to superstitious rites in connection with the dead. The grafting of one tree upon another was forbidden, because among idolaters the process was accompanied bj^ gross obscenity (jMai- mon. Afor. Neb. c. 12). Cutting the flesh for the dead (Lev. xix, 28; 1 Kings xviii, 28), and making a bald- ness between the eyes (Deut. xiv, 1), were associated with idolatrous rites, the latter being a custom among the SjTians (Sir G.Wilkinson in Eawlinson's Herod, ii, 158 note). The thrice-repeated and much-vexed pas- sage, " Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk" (Exod. xxiii, 19; xxxiv, 26; Deut. xiv, 21), interpreted by some as a precept of humanity, is explained by Cud- worth in a very diiferent manner. He quotes from a Karaite commentary wliich he had seen in MS. : " It was a custom of the ancient heathens, when they had gathered in all their fruit, to take a kid and boil it in the dam's milk, and then in a magical way go about and besprinkle with it all the trees, and fields, and gar- dens, and orchards ; thinking by this means they shoidd make them fructify, and bring forth again more abun- dantly the following year" {On the Lord's Suppe?; c. 2). Dr. Thomson mentions a favorite dish among the Arabs called kbii iiiiinu, to which he conceives allusion is made {The Lund and the Bool; i, 135). The law which regu- lated clean and unclean meats (Lev. xx, 23-26) may be considered both as a sanitary regulation and also as having a tendency to separate the Israelites from the surrounding idolatrous nations. It was with the same object, in the opinion of ;Michaelis, that while in the (vilderness they were prohibited from killing any animp.l for food without first offering it to Jehovah {Laus of Moses, art. 203), The mouse, one of the miclean ani- mals of Leviticus (xi, 29), was sacrificed by the ancient Magi (Isa. Ixvi, 17 ; Movers, Phi/n. i, 219). It may have been some such reason as that assigned by Lewis (Oriff. Ilebr. v, 1), that the dog was the symbol of an Egyptian deity, which gave rise to the prohibition in Deut. xxiii, 18. Movers says (i, 404) the dog was offered in sac- rifice to Moloch, as swine to the moon and Dionysus by the Egyptians, who afterwards ate of the flesh (Herod. iii, 47; Isa. Ixv, 4). Eating of the things offered was a necessary appendage to the sacrifice (compare Exod. xviii, 12; xxxii, 6; xxxiv, 15; Numb, xxv, 2, etc.). Among the Persians the victim was eaten by the wor- shippers, and the soul alone left for the god (Strabo, xv, 732). " Hence it is that the idolatry of the Jews in worshipping other gods is so often described synecdoch- ically under the notion of feastin<;;. Isa. Ivii, 7, ' Upon a high and lofty mountain thou hast set thy bed, and thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice ;' for in those ancient times they were not wont to sit at feasts, but lie down on beds or couches. Ezek. xxiii, 41 ; Amos ii, 8, ' They laid themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar,' i. c. laid themselves down to eat of the sacrifice that was oifered on the altar; compare Ezek. xviii, 11" (Cudworth, id snpra, c. 1; comp. 1 Cor. viii, 10). The Israelites were forbidden " to print any mark upon them" (Lev. xix, 28), because it was a custom of idolaters to brand upon their flesh some symbol of the deitj' they worshipped, as the ivy-leaf of Bacchus (3 Mace, ii, 29). According to Lucian (LJe Dea Syra, 59), all the Assyrians wore marks of this kind on their necks and wrists (comp. Isa. xliv, 5; Gal. vi, 17; Rev. xiv, 1. 11). Many other practices of false worship are alluded to, and made the subjects of rigorous prohibition, but none are more frequently or more severely denounced
than those which peculiarly distinguished the worship of jNIolech. It has been attempted to deny that the worship of this idol was polluted by the foul stain of human sacrifice, but the allusions are too plain and too pointed to admit of reasonable doubt (Deut. xii, 31 ; 2 Kings iii, 27 ; Jer. vii, 31 ; Psa. cvi, 37 ; Ezek. xxiii, 39). Nor was this practice confined to the rites of Molech ; it extended to those of Baal (Jer. xix, 5), and the king of Moab (2 Ivings iii, 27) offered his son as a bumt-of- fering to his god Chemosh. The Phoenicians, we are told by Porphyry {De Abstin. ii, c. 56), on occasions of great national calamity sacrificed to Ivronos one of their dearest friends. Some allusions to this custom may be seen in Micah vi, 7. Kissing the images of the gods (1 Kmgs xix, 18 ; Hos. xiii, 2), hanging votive offerings in their temples (1 Sam. xxxi, 10), and carrying them to battle (2 Sam. v, 21), as the Jews of Maccabseus's army did with the things consecrated to the idols of the Jam- nites (2 Mace, xii, 40), are usages connected with idola- try which are casually mentioned, though not made the objects of express legislation. But soothsaying, inter- pretation of dreams, necromancy, witchcraft, magic, and other forms of divination, are alike forbidden (Deut. xviii, 9 ; 2 Kings i, 2 ; Isa. Ixv, 4; Ezek. xxi, 21). The history of other nations — and, indeed, the too common practice of the lower class of the population of Syria at the present day — shows us that such a statute as that against bestiality (Lev. xviii, 23) was not imnecessary (comp. Herod, ii, 46 ; Rom. i, 26). Purificatorj' rites in connection with idol-worship, and eating of forbidden food, were visited with severe retribution (Isa. Ixvi, 17). It is evident, from the context of Ezek. viii, 17, that the votaries of the sun, who worshipped with their faces to the cast (ver. 16), and "put the branch to their nose," did so in observance of some idolatrous rite. Movers {Phvn. I, 66) unhesitatingly afiirms that the allusion is to the branch Barsom, the holy branch of the Magi (Strabo, xv, p. 733), while Hiivernick {Comm. zu Ezech. p. 117), with equal confidence, denies that the passage supports such an inference, and renders, having 'm view the lament of the women for Tammuz, " Sie entsenden den Trauergesang zu ihren Zorn." The waving of a myrtle branch, says Maimonides (Be Idol, vi, 2), accom- panied the repetition of a magical formula in incanta- tions. An illustration of the use of boughs in worship will be found in the Greek Ixrf rjjnia (^sch. LJum. 43 ; Sttpjyl. 192 ; Schol. on Aristoph. Pint. 383 ; Poqihyr. Be Ant. Nymph, c. 33). For detailed accounts of idolatrous ceremonies, reference must be made to the articles upon the several idols. — Smith. See Sacrifice,