A note on idolatry and culture

Idol worship in the Old Testament

When Moses received the 10 commandments on Mount Sinai, the first two dealt with idol worship.

3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20)

These are also the two commandments that the Israelites struggled with the most, as far as I can tell. Already while Moses received these commandments, the Israelites made and worshiped a golden calf. As soon as they started settling in the promised land, many of the Israelites started worshiping the local deities of the other nations there, despite the numerous warnings they had received in advance.

This is puzzling to us. Why would making and bowing down to a carved image be so tempting and so difficult to abstain from? To answer this question, I think it is important to understand the ancient Near Eastern culture. The gods (with plural ‘s’ since the monotheism of Israel was unique) had a central role in every community, for good or bad. Whenever something good happened, it was by divine favor, and whenever something went wrong, a petty god had been offended. The NRSV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible states:

The polytheism of the ancient world was not just a matter of numbers. In the ancient world identity was found in one’s community rather than in one’s individuality. Like people, gods found their identity in relationship to the group to which they belonged. Each god had a constellation of attributes, just as people have different skills and abilities. As in human communities, the community of the gods called for hierarchy. So the pantheon of the gods was characterized by a hierarchy (cosmic gods, national gods, city patrons, clan deities, ancestral deities) and by differentiation (according to their jurisdiction, manifestations and attributes). Given this cultural reality, we can surmise that it was very difficult for the Israelites to adjust to a single God spanning all levels of hierarchy and all categories of jurisdiction.

So one explanation is the difficulty of Israel to adjust to a single God. This is certainly not a challenge for us, at least in a literal sense. We may of course have many so-called idols in the form of money, status, luxury items, sports, etc. This is often the modern-day Sunday School application of the ancient problem of idol worship and certainly one way to update an ancient and obsolete problem to our time. But I think there are also other underlying factors that help explain why bowing down to an image was so natural and attractive to an ancient Israelite, that I will get back to.

As I am studying the Old Testament cover to cover this year, I also read the parts that are often omitted from the church curriculum. By all means, I don't blame those who make the church manuals. First of all, there would be 18-19 chapters to study every week. Second, the poor Sunday School teachers would have to grapple with what to us is very strange behavior by ancient Israelites, and try to explain that to a group of people puzzled by what they have read during the week. Anyway, I have gotten a stronger sense of how different things were back then. Still, if you and I were born in Palestine around 1300 BC with our exact same genes, we would obviously think and act like most people did at the time. It would be hard to argue against that. It is the society and culture in which we have been raised that make the ancient Near Eastern culture seem so foreign and strange. But it has been quite rewarding for me to try to understand how people were thinking and acting and what underlying values and motives their behavior was based on, rather than just dismissing them as weird.

There is no doubt that these people in return would find modern people, especially in the Western World, really strange. Our actions would simply not make sense to them. A couple of examples would be

• Our culture of expressive individualism would seem extremely weird, selfish and even narcissistic to an ancient faithful Israelite. How could true believers of God be so self-centered?
• Our sexualized society would be shocking to an ancient faithful Israelite. Even if the modern day heathens treat the topic of sex very casually, show much skin at the beach, etc., surely true believers of God should know better and distance themselves from this far more than they actually do?

Similarly, we ask how people who had at least heard of and perhaps even seen the miracles of God leading them into the promised land could possibly start worshiping graven images? But the examples listed above would probably be just as strange to them as idolatry seems to us. Here is a common denominator that I have reflected on: It is done because it is considered normal. Normal is by definition what everybody else is doing. We don't even think about the examples I listed above and how peculiar they are compared to virtually the entire history of the human race. Because this is the normal worldview and behavior in the society that we find ourselves in right now. It was the same for Israel. They did not drive out all the inhabitants of the promised land. They lived among or close to other nations and they all had multiple gods that they worshiped, that they relied on for crop yields, weather, offspring, warfare, etc. The Israelites were the weird ones who only had one god. They relied on him alone for all of these things, but whenever they felt that He did not hear them, many of them resorted to other gods. To them, that was the only alternative. If the crops yields were too meager, what else was there to do?

It is easy for us to feel both morally and intellectually superior to ancient Near Eastern people. But we determine morality by our moral codes that are in fact quite different from these ancient societies. But for believers in the one true God it should be the same because the gospel is everlasting, right? Not quite, I would argue. Culture definitely influences our norms and our emphasis on some moral codes or commandments over others. How about intellect? Isn't idol worship kind of stupid? We obviously have the advantage of education, access to information and knowledge that people anciently could not even dream of. But if I were to be born in an ancient Israel society with the same cognitive abilities, I am pretty sure that I would not be any more successful there than I am here. A better approach than becoming arrogant is trying to understand ancient cultures. At least for me, that has been greatly rewarding.

Idol worship in the Book of Mormon

Idolatry is mentioned in the Book of Mormon, but is less prevalent than in the Old Testament. The word, "idol" appears 13 times, but almost half of those are from Isaiah quotes. The word "idolatry" appears 8 times. It is usually just mentioned as a vice among the wicked without giving details or including specific stories involving idol worship. It does make sense that the Nephites are a little less influenced by it than the Israelites. Lehi and Nephi surely did not bring that tradition across the sea. It would rather have come from other people living in the Americas already, of which the Book of Mormon tells us virtually nothing. But I believe that especially the Lamanites mingled with them.

Thus they were a very indolent people, many of whom did worship idols, and the curse of God had fallen upon them because of the traditions of their fathers; notwithstanding the promises of the Lord were extended unto them on the conditions of repentance. (Alma 17:15)

We learn that "many" Lamanites worshiped idols, which implies that not all did, like Israel's neighbors. Also, the general physical separation and distance between Nephites and Lamanites, at least after Mosiah-I's exodus, perhaps contributed to somewhat less influence. Still, some problems with idolatry among the Nephites at times is also evident.

And now behold, he had got great hold upon the hearts of the Nephites; yea, insomuch that they had become exceedingly wicked; yea, the more part of them had turned out of the way of righteousness, and did trample under their feet the commandments of God, and did turn unto their own ways, and did build up unto themselves idols of their gold and their silver. (Helaman 6:31)

Now it came to pass that after the end of Korihor, Alma having received tidings that the Zoramites were perverting the ways of the Lord, and that Zoram, who was their leader, was leading the hearts of the people to bow down to dumb idols, his heart again began to sicken because of the iniquity of the people. (Alma 31:1)

As mentioned, we know little about what exactly the idolatry of the Lamanites and apostate Nephites looked like. For the Nephites, it often seems connected to riches and pride. The concept is generalized by Jacob

30 But wo unto the rich, who are rich as to the things of the world. For because they are rich they despise the poor, and they persecute the meek, and their hearts are upon their treasures; wherefore, their treasure is their god. And behold, their treasure shall perish with them also...

37 Yea, wo unto those that worship idols, for the devil of all devils delighteth in them. (2 Nephi 9)

Conclusion

The modern Western world is vastly different from any previous society in the history of mankind. But apart from the societal influences, which obviously play a very large role, we still may not have changed that much as people. We tend to habitually do whatever is considered normal and find people with a different worldview and behavior weird and perhaps even morally and intellectually inferior. But they just do the same as we do in a sense. For ancient Israelites, the commandment to have no other gods before Yahweh was arguably the hardest one, because it represented a drastic change from the rest of the world they knew. The Nephites also tended to devolve into this in periods of wickedness, but perhaps to a lesser degree, which can possibly be explained by less influence. As human beings then and now, we are very easily influenced by whatever others are doing and we don't like to stand out as different. Sometimes, God commands us to do just that. Those commandments are often the hardest to obey.