I. Derivation of the Term. — The etymology and mean- ing of this word may be inferred from the various modes in which it is rejiresented by the Greek translators, such as Btpafeii', TO Siipa(pelv, or tu ^epafi)', reminding us of the etymological connection of r)"iI3, w]"ip, to )ioi(?ish, with Tp'i<p-ur. Its remote derivatives in modern lan- guages, viz. the Italian tarifa, French tarif, and even the English tripe, throw a little light upon our subject. Ac- cording to its etymology, the word teraphim has been lit- erally translated mitrito)-es, nouriskerK. It seems that the plural form was used as a collective singular for the per- sonified combination of all nourishing powers, as the plu- ral teraphim signifies God, in whom all superior powers to be revered with reverential awe are combined (comp. the classical epithets of gods — Sol, Phoebus, Ceres, Venus, Cybele, Pales, Trivia, Fides, Sibylla, etc.,alinus, cijuTrvioc, Tp(''(pifioc). The word teraphim signified an object or oljjects of idolatry, as we may learn from some of the above renderings of the Sept., t'iSujXov, yXvTTTi'n'; and that it was in meaning similar to the Penates is indicat- ed bj- KtroTa<pior. Aquila renders it f.iop(pix)i.iaTa, irpo- Topai, av^vcJKiiptntc, tTTiXvaic, tlCwXa ; Symmachus also translates it dcwXa.
The book Zohar derives the name terajdiim from w|"iir, turpitude, but mentions also that rabbi Jehuda ilerives it from nS"i, to slacken, because they slackened the hands of men in well-doing. The rabbi adds that they uttered a n£~i ili<.^'Z7,prophetia laxa, inanis, vana, a loose sort of prediction. Hence rabbi Bechai says that D"^S~n are the same as D^S"i, /"ceWe, objects not to be depended upon. But in Tanchuma the former etymology is produced, since the teraphim were ri'w2."53 Cl"i1I2, opus turpitudinis seu foeditatis (see Buxforfii Lex. Talmud, et liubb. s. v. r)~r, which root occurs in the Lat. turpis). C)nkelos renders teraphim in Gen. xxxi by X'^J^-U, and Jonathan in Judg. xvii and xviii by j "I'^S'Si, images. The Targum ou Hos. iii, 4 has "^iniDi
TERAPHBI
281
TERAPHIM
iruHccm.o, expounder of oracles, where the Greek has ^/j- \(oi>; and the Targum on 1 Sam. xv, io it.'r'''"'^, hhils. Goussetius, under Cjir, goes so far as to assert that the wurd ch'^pioTTOi' is formed from CBTn. Lud. de Dieu, and after him Spencer, in Lei;. Bit. Ihhr. Dissert. (vii, 1. 3, c. 3, § 7), urges the frequent interchange of the sounds t and *■ and *■/(, in order to show that, teraphim and seraphim are etymologically connected. llot- tinger, in his Smeijma, and Kirclier, in the tirst vol- ume of his OZdipus yEcjijptiucus, exhibit the etymo- logical progression thus: Sor Apis {aiop aTr,arlc of the ox), Sarapis, Serapis, Terapis, Teraphim. The Ara- bic author Aben Neph also asserts the identity of Tera- phim and Serapides, Otliers appeal to SE"^, bipa- TTEvtiv, to heal (comp. Wichmannshausen, 7^i.«t'/-^<//«t» de Teraphim; Witsius, ^^(jyptiaca, i, 8; Ugolino, Thes. xii, 780). Coin, in his Biblische Theoloyie, derives teraphim from the Syriac araph, percontari. Gesen- ius ( 7"/(f'AYH//-. p. 1519) refers it to the Arabic root taraph, "to live in comfort;" and compares it with the Sanscrit fi-ip, "to delight," and the Greek TtpTro- lini. Flirst {f/eb. Lex.) returns to the root >r]"ir, in the sense oViiourishiiig.
II. Jiiblical References. — 1. Teraphim are first men- tioned in (ien. xxxi, 19, where we arc tokl that Kachel stole the teraphim of her father Labau, and successfully concealed them from his search under the hiran, or coarse carpet which is used to cover the wicker-work pack-saddle of the camel. Ahen-Ezra says that she stole them in order that her father might not, by means of their oracles, discover the direction of Jacob's tlight (^and we note that Laban adopted this or some other mode of augury from his use of the word nichdshthi, "I have augured" [xxx, 27]); but Josephus says that she carried off these rvTrovt; twv ^iiiiv that they might serve as a material protection to her if overtaken, al- tlmugh she herself disbelieved in them (KararppovHi' /.ifi' Trig ToiavTi]Q Tip^i; twv Bho)' ^iSd^ai'Tog avTqv Tov 'UiKojjiov [Ant. i, 19, 8]) ; and, lastly, some sup- ]ii)se that she was tempted by the precious metals of which they were made. It is far more probal)le that, like her father, Kachel, whose mind was evidently taint- ed with superstition ((ien. xxx, 14), regarded the tera- phim as tutelary "gods" (xxxi, 30). Laban's eagerness to recover them sliows the importance in which they were held; an<l it is important to observe that, although a believer in Elohim (ver. 53), he openly paid to these teraphim, which were probably ancestral divinities of his family (ibid.), an idolatrous worship. Jurieu (/list, des JJogmes et des Cultes, ii, 3,450), after elaborately entering into the question, thinks that they may have been images of Shem and Noah. From this Biblical notice it would seem that they were usually somewhat large figures, w'hich could not very easily be secreted.
2. It is extremely probable that these household de- ities were among the "strange gods" and talismanic earrings which Jacob required his family to give up, and which were buried by him under the boughs of Allim- Meonenim, "the sorcerers' oak" (Judg. ix, 37). But an isolated act would naturally be inetfectual to abolish a cidt which had probably existed for centuries in the Aramwan home of the Shemites; and, conse- quently, in the time of the Judges we find the worship of teraphim existing in full vigor. The 17tli and 18th chapters of Judges are entirely occupied with the storj' of Micah, an Ephraimite, who in those wild and igno- rant times had fancied that he could honor Jehovah (xvii, 13) by establishing a worship in his own house. To the ephod and teraplnm which he already possessed (ver. 5) his mother added a Pesel and Mussekdh (possibly "a graven and a molten image") made out of the gold which she had consecrated to Jehovah and which he had stolen. When Jonathan, the grandson of Moses, arrived at the house in his accidental wanderings, Mi- cah engaged him as a regular priest, and anticipated, in