The old noble Romans preserved the Images of their Ancestors with no little Care, and had them carried in Procession in their Funerals and Triumphs.
SECT. II.
This Part entertains us with various Instances of Pagan Deifications, viz. of Men, Beasts, and Things without Life.
I. MEN transformed into Gods.
I Begin with their deified Men, that is, dead Men, who being canonized, past for reputed Gods. Note here, some are of opinion, that the word God, among the Heathen, did not mean the uncreated eternal Being, but some most excellent superior Nature; and accordingly, they gave the Appellation of Gods to all Beings of a Rank higher, and more perfect than Man.
The principal Gods among the antient Heathens were Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Neptune, Apollo, Juno, Vesta, Minerva, &c. The next sort of Gods were called Demy-Gods, or Gods adopted; and these were Men canonized and deify’d. Now, as the greater Gods had possession of Heaven in their own Right, so these lesser Gods had it by Donation, being translated into Heaven, because they were Men renowned for their Virtues, and had lived as Gods upon Earth; and these at first were called Teraphim.
The first certain Account of these we have in Genesis, where ’tis said, Rachel had stoln her Father’s Images. Chap. xxxi. 19. the Teraphim of her Father in the Hebrew, which Laban, (ii. 30.) calls his Gods, Hebr. Eloha.
The word Teraphim is Hebrew, others say Egyptian: Be that as it will, we find it about thirteen times in our Bible, and is commonly interpreted Idols, Images, sacred, superstitious Figures. Spencer maintains the word to be Chaldee, and that those Images were borrowed from the Amorites, Chaldeans, or Syrians, and that the Egyptian Serapis is the same thing with Teraphim of the Chaldeans.
A Learned Jew says the Teraphim were in human Shape, and that when raised upright, they spoke at certain Hours, and under certain Constellations, by the Influence of the celestial Bodies. R. David de Pomis ... Cyclopædia.
This Rabbinical Fable seems to be grounded on Zech. x. 2. The Idols (Hebr. Teraphim) have spoken Vanity.... Some of the learned Jews will have it to denote the Knowledge of Futurity, and for this Signification they quote Ezek. xxi. 21. The King of Babylon stood ... at the Head of the two Ways ... he consulted with Images; with Teraphim, says the Hebrew.