manwithdream

I was reading Isaiah 44 which talks about people making idols from wood and also using the same wood to cook food and how dumb that is. It also mentions different kinds of trees used to make idols. I have tried to look up wooden idols in the ancient near east to find out if individual idols were made from one kind of wood or several kinds of wood put together in one idol, but I can't find out this. Does anyone know this kind of obscure information?

Also, could someone explain to me ancient idol worship. If they worshiped the moon, did they worship it directly or did they pray to an idol of the moon? If they prayed to an idol, did they make it look like the moon or a man somehow? The same thing for animals. Did they worship animals like sheep or an idol that looked like a sheep? If they had the real animal, why would they make an idol of it?

Kenneth Greifer

Toto

I suspect that idols could be anything, but the wooden idols were generally stripped down trees. There is a lot written on the Asherah, which could be poles, trees, or ceramic figurines.

Interesting question. I think that the idol worshippers were worshipping a spirit that supposedly lived in the wooden or other structure. The golden calf was an idol that represented the sun, but I don't know if the ancient Hebrews who worshipped it were worshipping the sun, or some spirit in the golden calf. They might not even know.