Are Εἴδωλα Idols?

What is it about?

It is often taken for granted that the Greek word εἴδωλον refers to "idols" in early Jewish texts. This article interrogates the lexicographical problems with such an assumption, which treat the Jewish use of εἴδωλον as unique and even unintelligible in postclassical Greek more broadly. In contrast, this article argues that the use of εἴδωλον in the language of the Septuagint and its reception in other early Jewish texts was in fact remarkably unexceptional: it is one lexical option among many in the wider Greek lexicon of cult images. Continuing to transliterate εἴδωλον as "idol," rather than translating it as "image," keeps the illusion of uniqueness alive. It invites inherently negative associations that closely align with its later Christian legacy but that do not clearly correspond to the use of εἴδωλον in its own time and place.

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