Categories
Ancient Documents
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Greece
Ancient Israel
Ancient Near East
Ancient Other
Ancient Persia
Ancient Rome
Archaeology
Bible History
Bible Searches
Biblical Archaeology
Childrens Resources
Church History
Evolution & Science
Illustrated History
Images & Art
Intertestamental
Jesus
Languages
Maps & Geography
Messianic Prophecies
Museums
Mythology & Beliefs
People in History
Rabbinical Works
Societies & Studies
Study Tools
Timelines & Charts
Weapons & Warfare
World History
January 9 Scripture
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Easton's Bible Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
Teraphim givers of prosperity, idols in human shape, large or small, analogous to the images of ancestors which were revered by the Romans. In order to deceive the guards sent by Saul to seize David, Michal his wife prepared one of the household teraphim, putting on it the goat's-hair cap worn by sleepers and invalids, and laid it in a bed, covering it with a mantle. She pointed it out to the soldiers, and alleged that David was confined to his bed by a sudden illness (1 Sam. 19:13-16). Thus she gained time for David's escape. It seems strange to read of teraphim, images of ancestors, preserved for superstitious purposes, being in the house of David. Probably they had been stealthily brought by Michal from her father's house. "Perhaps," says Bishop Wordsworth, "Saul, forsaken by God and possessed by the evil spirit, had resorted to teraphim (as he afterwards resorted to witchcraft); and God overruled evil for good, and made his very teraphim (by the hand of his own daughter) to be an instrument for David's escape.", Deane's David, p. 32. Josiah attempted to suppress this form of idolatry (2 Kings 23:24). The ephod and teraphim are mentioned together in Hos. 3:4. It has been supposed by some (Cheyne's Hosea) that the "ephod" here mentioned, and also in Judg. 8:24-27, was not the part of the sacerdotal dress so called (Ex. 28:6-14), but an image of Jehovah overlaid with gold or silver (comp. Judg. 17, 18; 1 Sam. 21:9; 23:6, 9; 30:7, 8), and is thus associated with the teraphim. (See THUMMIM ¯T0003648.) |
Easton, Matthew George. M.A., D.D., "Definition for 'Teraphim' Eastons Bible Dictionary".
bible-history.com - Eastons; 1897.
Copyright Information
© Easton's Bible Dictionary
Eastons Bible Dictionary Home
Bible History Online Home
Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
Online Bible (KJV)
Naves Topical Bible
Smith's Bible Dictionary
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
Hitchcock's Bible Dictionary