IMAGO DEI. LES « IDOLES » ÉGYPTIENNES COMME « IMAGE DU DIEU

Idols in the Bible are "gods of gold, silver or stone" (Deut. 29.16). It is possible that the first Egyptians have believed that objects or animals were divine, but texts from Middle and New Kingdoms show that they distinguished between the statue and the god. The text of the Memphite Theo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Rivista degli studi orientali 2012-01, Vol.85 (1/4), p.313-327
Main Author: Laisney, Vincent Pierre-Michel
Format: Article
Language:fre
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Idols in the Bible are "gods of gold, silver or stone" (Deut. 29.16). It is possible that the first Egyptians have believed that objects or animals were divine, but texts from Middle and New Kingdoms show that they distinguished between the statue and the god. The text of the Memphite Theology says that the gods "enter" (̔ḳ) in their statues; the Teaching for Merikare distinguishes between the god and his sanctuary. The texts of the New Kingdom show that then the divine transcendence was recognized. The Ptolemaic inscriptions use a rich vocabulary to describe the union between the gods and their statues. All this evidence shows that, at the time of the Judaism, the Egyptians no longer believed that the idol was a god, but that the god dwelt in his statue.
ISSN:0392-4866
1724-1863