5. The teraphim were consulted even after the Cap- tivit\' by persons upon whom true religion had no tirm hold, in order to elicit some supernatural oniina, simi- lar to the aiir/uria of the Romans. Thus (Zech. x, 2) : " For the idols (teraphim) have spoken vanity," etc. In like manner at a previous age, in connection with the hnraspicia instituted by tlie king of Babylon, \#e read (Ezek. xxi, 21, 26) that he consulted images (tera- phim).
The main and certain results of this review are that the teraphim were rude huinan images; that the use of them was an antique Aramaic custom; that there. is reason to suppose them to have been images of deceased ancestors; that they were consulted oracularly; that they were not confined to Jews; that their use contin-
ued down to the latest period of Jewish history ; and lastly, that, although the more enlightened prophets and strictest later kings regarded them as idolatrous, the priests were much less averse to such images, and their cidt was not considered in any way repugnant to the pious worship of Elohim ; nay, even to the worship of him " under the awful title of Jehovah," as in the case of Aaron, Jonathan, Uriah, etc. (See some acute remarks on tliis subject in Nicolas, Etudes Crit. sur la Bible, p. 129-135.) In fact, they involved a monothe- istic idolatry, very different indeed from polytheism; and the tolerance of them by priests as compared with the denunciation of them by the keener insight and more vivid inspiration of the prophets offers a close analogy to the views of the Roman Catholics respecting pictures and images as compared with the views of Protestants. It was against this use of idolatrous sym- bols and emblems in a monotheistic worship that the second commandment was directed, whereas the first is aimed against the graver sin of direct polytlieism. But the whole history of Israel shows how early and how utterly the law must have fallen into desuetude. The worship of the golden calf and of the calves at Dan and Bethel, against which, so far as we know, neither Elijah nor Elisha said a single word; the tolerance of high- places, teraphim, and baity tila; the oftering of incense for centuries to the brazen serpent destroyed by Hezekiah ; the occasional glimpses of the most startling irregidari- ties sanctioned, apparently, even in the Temple worship itself, prove most decisively that a pure monotheism and an independence of symbols were the result of a slow and painful course of God's disciplinal dealings among the noblest thinkers of a single nation, and not, as is so con- stantly and erroneously urged, the instinct of the wh(de Shemitic race; in other words, one single branch of the Shemites was, under God's providence, educated into pure monotheism only by centuries of misfortmie and series of inspired men. In fact, we have most remarkable proofs that the use of teraphim coexisted with the wor- ship of Jehovah even in comparatively pious families; and we have more than one instance of the wives of worshippers of Jehovah not finding full contentment and satisfaction in the stern moral truth of spiritual worship, and therefore carrying on some private sym- bolism by fondling the teraphim. It seems, however, that this swerving from truth was comparatively inno- cent. It was never denounced and suppressed with the same rigor as the worship of Moloch. There is, in fine, no positive evidence that the teraphim ever were actually worshipped. They seem rather to have been cherished as talismans than as idols. See Magic.
III. Opinions of Later Scholars. — Besides Spencer's theory, to which we have already alluded, we may men- tion others, utterly valueless indeed, yet curious as bear- ing on the history of the sid)ject.
1. Rabbins. — According to the great rabbi Eliezer, who was the son of Hyrcanus and the brother-in-law of (iamaliel II, who seems to have been the tutor of Paul (in Pirke Aboth, and the Targum of Jona- than on Gen. xxxi, 19), the worship of teraphim was connected with atrocities. " The makers of teraphim slaughtered a man who was a first-born, cut his head off and salted it, and cured it with spices and oil. Af- ter this, they wrote the name of an impure spirit and sentences of divination on a golden plate, which they placed under the tongue of the head, which was fas- tened to the wall, and lighted lamps before it, and knelt down in adoration, upon which the tongue began to utter divinations." Rabbi Salomo, or Rashi (2 Kings xxiii, 24), says, '"The teraphim uttered divinations by magical and horoscopic arts." On 1 Sam. xix, 13 sq., he adduces the opinion that the teraphim were horo- scopic and astrological instruments made of brass; but he confesses that this opinion, to which he is himself much inclined, is not consistent with the account of Michal, from which it is evident that the teraphim had the shape of man. On Gen. xxxi, Aljen-Ezra ad-
TERAPHIM
283
TEREBINTH
duces the opinion that the teraphim were auiomula, maile by astrologers so as to show the hours and to utter (Uvinaiiuiis. Hence the Persian Tawas in Gen. xxxi translates astrolahia. Alien - Ezra also adduces the opinion that Rachel stole the teraphim of Laban in order to prevent him from idolatry, and from asking the teraphim whither his children had fled. Eabbi Levi ben-Gersom (on Genesis) states that the teraphim were human figures, b}' which the imagination of di- viners was so excited that tliey supposed they heard a low voice speaking about future events with which their own thoughts were tilled, although the image did not speak, an operation which can only be performed by such natural organs as God has provided for that purpose.