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What Is the History of Idolatry in the Bible? So, the point is not that God has a problem with creating images in and of itself he has a problem with idolatry. Isaiah 44:13-20 describes this action with the story of a carpenter who cuts down a tree and uses half the wood to cook food and the other half to make an idol. However, Biblical scholars have generally agreed that the phrase refers to “ household idols,” statues that pagans made as personal gods to worship and pray to. Some fundamentalist groups over the centuries have taken this to mean that people should not make artwork of any kind. The command is reiterated in Leviticus 26:1, which says, “You shall not make idols for yourselves or erect an image or pillar, and you shall not set up a figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God.” Generally, Protestants refer to it as the second commandment, building on the commandment “you shall have no other gods before me” ( Exodus 20:3). This is one of the 10 Commandments that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai, depending on your Bible translation or tradition its order may change. The phrase comes from Exodus 20:4, which in the King James translation reads, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” What Is a Graven Image according to the Bible?
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It gets to the heart of a classic temptation that every human faces: the temptation to worship and glorify something other than God. Changes in language aside, the concept is actually very important. Unless you grew up reading the King James Bible, the term “graven image” probably sounds a bit old-fashioned.
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