InAbrahamic religions,false god is used as a derogatory term to refer to adeity orobject of worship besides theAbrahamic god that is regarded as either illegitimate or non-functioning in its professed authority or capability, and this characterization is further used as a definition of "idol".[2][3][4][5][7]
Judaism, the oldest Abrahamic religion, eventually shifted into a strict,exclusive monotheism,[3] based on thesole veneration of Yahweh,[9][10][11] the predecessor to the Abrahamic conception of God.[Note 1] According torabbinic tradition, the Evil Inclination for idolatry was eradicated in the earlySecond Temple period, and this is what led to the shift away from earlier Israelite polytheism.[15]
Thevast majority of religions in history have been and/or are still polytheistic, worshipping many diverse deities.[16] Moreover, the material depiction of a deity or more deities has always played an eminent role in allcultures of the world.[1] The claim to worship the "one and only true God" came to most of the world with the arrival of Abrahamic religions and is the distinguishing characteristic of their monotheistic worldview,[3][16][17][18] whereas virtually all the other religions in the world have been and/or are stillanimistic andpolytheistic.[16]
TheTanakh refers to deities from other neighboring cultures asshedim (Hebrew:שֵׁדִים),[19] possibly aloan-word fromAkkadian in which the wordshedu referred to a spirit which could be either protective or malevolent.[20][21][22] They appear twice (always plural), atPsalm106:37 andDeuteronomy32:17. Both times it is mentioned in the context of sacrificing children or animals to them.[23] When theHebrew Bible was translated into Greek, the Hebrew termshedim was translated asdaimones, with implied negativity.[19] This gave rise to a dualism between native spirits of the own religion's God, and the spirits of foreign origin as demons.[24]
Gnostic Christians considered the Hebrew God of the Old Testament as the evil, false god and creator of the material universe, and theUnknown God of theGospel, the father ofJesus Christ and creator of the spiritual world, as the true, good God.[25][26][27][28] In theArchontic,Sethian, andOphite systems,Yaldabaoth (Yahweh) is regarded as the malevolent Demiurge and false god of the Old Testament who sinned by claiming divinity for himself and generated the material universe and keeps the souls trapped in physical bodies, imprisoned in the world full of pain and suffering that hecreated.[29][30][31]
However, not all Gnostic movements regarded the creator of the material universe as inherently evil or malevolent.[28][32] For instance,Valentinians believed that the Demiurge is merely an ignorant and incompetent creator, trying to fashion the world as good as he can, but lacking the proper power to maintain its goodness.[28][32] All Gnostics were regarded asheretics by theproto-orthodoxEarly Church Fathers.[25][26][27][33]
Alternatively,ṭāġūt may refer to idols, sometimes thought to be inhabited by one or moredemons.[38]: 210 Muslims don't necessarily deny the power of demons within the idol, but deny that they are worthy of worship. In theKitāb al-ʾAṣnām ("Book of the Idols"), theArab Muslim historianIbn al-Kalbī (c. 737–819CE) tells howMuhammad orderedKhālid ibn al-Walīd to kill the pre-Islamic Arabian goddessal-ʿUzzā, who was supposed to inhabit three trees. After cutting down all the trees, a woman with wild hair appears, identified with al-ʿUzzā. After battle, she is killed, and thus al-ʿUzzā considered to be defeated.
Similarly, the Arab Muslim geographeral-Maqdisī (c. 945/946–991 CE) wrote aboutIndian deities (known in Middle Eastern folklore asdīv), asserting that they have the power to enchant people, even Muslims, to worship them. A Muslim is said to have visited them andabandoned Islam. When he reachedMuslim land again, he returned to his Islamic faith. The power of idols is not limited to enchantment alone, they could even grant wishes.[39]
Other similar entities are theshurakāʼ ("partners [of God]"), whose existence is not denied, however their relation to God is. They are regarded as powerless beings, who will be cast intoHell after theDay of Judgment, along with evil jinn and fallen angels turneddevils (shayāṭīn), for usurping the divine nature.[40]: 41
^Although theSemitic godEl is indeed the most ancient predecessor to the Abrahamic god,[8][9][12][13] this specifically refers to the ancient ideasYahweh once encompassed in theAncient Hebrew religion, such as being astorm- andwar-god, living on mountains, or controlling the weather.[8][9][12][13][14] Thus, in this page's context, "Yahweh" is used to refer to God as conceived in the Ancient Hebrew religion, and should not be referenced when describing his later worship in today's Abrahamic religions.
^abcdeAngelini, Anna (2021). "Les dieux des autres: entre «démons» et «idoles»".L'imaginaire du démoniaque dans la Septante: Une analyse comparée de la notion de "démon" dans la Septante et dans la Bible Hébraïque. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism (in French). Vol. 197.Leiden andBoston:Brill Publishers. pp. 184–224.doi:10.1163/9789004468474_008.ISBN978-90-04-46847-4.
^Encyclopedia of Spirits: The Ultimate Guide to the Magic of Fairies, Genies, Demons, Ghosts, Gods & Goddesses. Judika Illes. HarperCollins, Jan 2009.p. 902.
^The Encyclopedia of Demons and Demonology. Rosemary Guiley. Infobase Publishing, May 12, 2010.p. 21.
^W. Gunther Plaut,TheTorah: A Modern Commentary (Union for Reform Judaism, 2005), p. 1403online; Dan Burton and David Grandy,Magic, Mystery, and Science: The Occult in Western Civilization (Indiana University Press, 2003), p. 120online.
^ This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Arendzen, John Peter (1908). "Demiurge". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
^Nünlist, Tobias (2015). "Zur Liminalität: Die Dämonen als Grenzwesen". In Nünlist, Tobias (ed.).Dämonenglaube im Islam. Studies in the History and Culture of the Middle East (in German). Vol. 28.Berlin andBoston:De Gruyter. pp. 192–246.doi:10.1515/9783110331684-007.ISBN978-3-110-33168-4.
^Elias, J. J. (2014). Key Themes for the Study of Islam. Vereinigtes Königreich: Oneworld Publications
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Arendzen, John Peter (1908). "Demiurge". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
