Untitled Sermon
Kiyyun, your images, the star of your gods which you made for yourselves.
REPHAN (DEITY) [Gk Rhaiphan (Ῥαιφαν)]. A deity whom Stephen claimed that Israel worshipped in the wilderness (Acts 7:43). Greek texts of the OT preserve a variety of transliterations for the name of a deity which appears in the Hebrew text of Amos 5:26 as kiyyûn (consonantal text kywn). This Greek tradition is the source for the name Rephan in Acts 7:43 where Amos 5:26 is quoted. A common confusion in the text of the OT between the letters kap and reš accounts for the confusion in the initial letter, and the Greek letter phi points to a pronunciation of the Hebrew waw as consonant. Although the final vowel is consistently represented in Greek as alpha, there is no agreement as to the first vowel, the following forms being attested in Acts and Amos: rompha (n), rempha (m/n), raiphan, rephan, raphan. Since there is no deity known who bears such a name, the Hebrew text should be given priority over the Greek transliterations. The Hebrew consonants in Amos 5:26 correspond to an Akkadian name for the planet Saturn, which was recognized as a deity. See SAKKUTH AND KAIWAN.
‘YOU ALSO TOOK ALONG THE TABERNACLE OF MOLOCH AND THE STAR OF THE GOD ROMPHA, THE IMAGES WHICH YOU MADE TO WORSHIP. I ALSO WILL REMOVE YOU BEYOND BABYLON.’
SAKKUTH AND KAIWAN (DEITIES) [Heb sikkût (סִכּוּת) and kiyyûn (כִּיּוּן)]. A name and epithet, respectively, of the planet Saturn (Amos 5:26). Because Saturn was the most distant of the planets known to the ancients, and hence the planet was the slowest and steadiest movement across the sky, it was described in Mesopotamia by the adjective kayamānu, meaning “the steady one.” Learned speculation enhanced Saturn’s connection with stability, justice, and truth such that it even became identified with the Sun, who was perceived to have the same qualities in Mesopotamian tradition (Parpola 1983:343). Since Akkadian m may appear as w in loanwords into Hebrew, the Akkadian consonants kymn would appear in Hebrew as kywn, as in fact occurs in Amos 5:26. Frequent references to kywn when the planets are invoked in Aramaic and Mandaean texts in the 1st millennium A.D. (Obermann 1940) affirms the longevity, popularity, and cross-cultural transfer of this title for Saturn.
The pronunciation of the Sumerian logogram SAG.KUD as sakkud in Akkadian has been confirmed (Hallo 1977:15), permitting its appearance as a loan into Hebrew as sakkût. But since there is no cuneiform evidence to connect this name with Saturn (Borger 1988), the possible occurrence of both name and epithet in Amos 5:26 is at best hypothetical. 2 Kgs 17:30 is equally problematic in this regard.
Although Amos 5:26 may therefore make a double reference to the planet Saturn worshipped as a deity under its Mesopotamian names, such a reading is not without its problems. The Hebrew actually reads sikkût and kiyyûn, and Gevirtz has demonstrated that these unexpected vowels cannot be explained (as is commonly attempted) from the influence of the vowels of šiqqûṣ, “detestable thing.” Equally respectable alternative interpretations result when the possibility of different vowels is considered, especially the evidence of early texts that do not interpret the consonants skt as a divine name at all but instead translate the word as a singular common noun, “tent of, tabernacle of,” sukkat (LXX, Acts 7:43, Vg; Damascus Rule 7.14–19 provides a plural form but explains it as singular). A similar problem with uncertain vocalization is encountered with the name Kaiwan. See REPHAN.
REMPHAN, rem′fɑn*: The name of a deity mentioned only in Acts 7:43. The readings of the name in the manuscripts are numerous, including the forms Rompha, Romphan, Rempha, Rephan, Raiphan, and Raphan. The passage is a free quotation from Amos 5:26, in which the New-Testament (A. V.) “Remphan” (R. V., “Rephan”; Westcott and Hort, ROMPHA) displaces the Old-Testament “Chiun” (Babylonian Kaawanu, “Saturn”), here following the Septuagint manuscripts BAQ, which read Raiphan or Rephan. No deity named Remphan or Rephan is known, nor is the form known to occur as a title or name for Saturn. On the ground that the change from the form Chiun to Remphan, etc., occurs in the Septuagint, which was made in Egypt, explanations have been attempted, but have proved unsatisfactory, which take into account supposed Egyptian names or combinations, e.g., a Coptic form meaning “king of heaven” (it seems far to go to seek a Coptic form, and the Egyptian equivalent of this Coptic would bear no resemblance to “Remphan”), or an alleged title of Seb (= Saturn) meaning “youngest of the gods” (which is far-fetched, unusual, and unlikely). The best and generally accepted explanation is that the Septuagint form, which Acts borrows, is a mistake in the reading of the Hebrew for “Chiun,” a mistake easily explicable when the form of the letters is taken into account.
REPHAN (AV Remphan).—A word which replaces Chiun of the Hebrew text of Am 5:26, both in the LXX and in the quotation in Ac 7:48. The generally accepted explanation of this word is that Rephan (the preferable form) is a corruption and transliteration of Kewan (Kaiwan, Kaawan—see CHIUN)—r having somehow mistakenly replaced k, and w (the Hebrew wau or vav) having been transliterated ph (the Gr. phi).
CHIUN.—Am 5:26 (see REPHAN, SICCUTH). As shown by the appositional phrase ‘your god-star,’ this name refers to the Assyr. Kaiwanu, the planet Saturn (= Ninib, war-god), whose temple, Bit Ninib, in the province of Jerusalem is mentioned by the Egyptian governors of this city as early as B.C. 1450. The translation of the word as an appellative (‘pedestal’) by some is due to the vocalization of the Massoretes, who are supposed to have considered it a common noun. However, it is far more probable that they, conscious of its reference, substituted for the original vowels those of the word shiqqūts (‘abomination’)—an epithet often applied to strange gods.
SICCUTH.—A word which is found in parallelism with Chiun in Am 5:26. The present form is probably due to the Massoretic combination of the consonants of Sakkuth with the vowels of shiqquts (‘abomination’)—the same vocalization which we find in Chiun. Sakkut is another name for the Assyr. god Ninib, god of the planet Saturn. Kaiwanu (Chiun) is also a name of Ninib. This would make Chiun and Siccuth synonymous—or at least different manifestations of the same deity. As evidence that this is the correct reading of the names, Rogers points out that the Babylonians themselves invoked Sakkut and Kaiwanu together, just as they appear in Amos. (See CHIUN and REPHAN.)
REPHAN (LXX BA Ῥαιφάν, Q Ῥεφάν, in Am 5:26; WH Ῥομφά, variants Ῥεμφάμ, Ῥεμφάν [AV Remphan], Ῥαιφάν, Ῥεφάν, in Ac 7:48).—This word replaces the כִּיוּן of the Heb. text, and there is much difference of opinion as to the reason of this change. Influenced by the fact that the LXX tr. was made at Alexandria in Egypt, some have contended that the translators substituted for the word Chiun (apparently pronounced by them, more correctly, Kewan), the meaning of which was probably obscure to them, an Egyptian equivalent term, viz. repa-[n-neteru], a title of the god Set, identified with Saturn; but this, besides being a hardly probable hypothesis itself, is also unlikely on account of the etymological difficulties involved. The general opinion at present is, that Rephan is simply a mistake for, or an alteration of, the Kewan (Chiun) of the Heb. text, K having been replaced by R, and ph (φ) substituted for ו, with the sound of ν, sharpened to something resembling f. There is no doubt that this is the best of all the explanations proposed, for Kewan would seem to be nothing else but the Semitic-Babylonian Kaawanu, for an older Kayawanu, ‘the planet Saturn.’ That a Babylonian etymology is to be sought rather than any other, may be regarded as indicated by the fact that SICCUTH in the first part of the verse is apparently from the Akkad. Sakkut or Sak-uš, the latter being one of the non-Semitic names of Saturn, translated by Kaawanu in Babylonian. In addition to this, Saturn was also called Ṣalam, Ṣalme, as ‘the dark star,’ a name which recalls the expression צַלְמֵיכֶם, ‘your images,’ which, in the Heb., immediately follows Chiun (=Kaawanu=Rephan), and would furnish a parallel to the translation of מַלְכְּכֶם (‘your king’) after Siccuth, by ‘Moloch’ in the LXX. As has been already shown (see NIMROD, NISROCH, etc.), the Hebrew scribes were accustomed to distort the names of heathen deities, apparently to show their contempt for them, and there is but little doubt that this has been done in the present case. No name resembling Rephan or Remphan as the pronunciation of the ideographs for Saturn has as yet been found in Akkadian or Semitic-Babylonian.
LITERATURE.—Schrader in SK, 1874, pp. 324–335, and in Riehm’s HWB; Delitzsch in the Calwer Bibellexicon, under ‘Chiun,’ and in Assyr. HWB 569 (end of art. ‘Salmu’); and the Comm. on Amos and Acts.
CHIUN.—Notwithstanding the fact that both Luther and our AV have this word, it has continued, even to our own time, to be an open question among English and German scholars whether כיון is a common or a proper noun. If it were the former, it would signify the litter or pedestal on which the image of a deity was carried in ceremonial processions [see illustrations in Perrot and Chipiez’s Chaldæa and Assyria, i. 75, ii. 90]. Ewald maintained this view: ‘כִּיּוּן, gestelle, von הֵכִין stellen mit dem ‘als zweitem Wurzellaute.’ W. R. Smith, too, held that a ‘pedestal’ was meant (Prophets of Israel, p. 400). The balance of opinion however, preponderates in the other direction. Chiun is obviously parallel to Siccuth (RV), or rather Saccuth (Assyr. Sak-kut): if the one is the name of a deity, so is the other. Moreover, it would be very strange if the prophet spoke of the litter rather than of the god carried on it. Ka-ai-va-nu (Schrader, KAT p. 443;* cf. SK 1874, p. 327) is the Assyr. name of the planet and planetary deity Saturn, who was credited with malignant influences. In Arab. and Persian, Saturn is called by the same name. Rawlinson, Phœnicia, p. 26, speaking of the immigration of Phœnician gods into the Egyptian pantheon, says that this deity found his way there under the name Ken. The appositional phrase, ‘your star-god,’ falls in perfectly with this interpretation. The evidence of the VSS is discordant. Aq. and Sym. have χιοῦν [Jer. says chion]. The LXX Ῥαιφάν, a corruption of Καιφάν. The Targ. and Pesh. reproduce the Heb. The Arab. has Raphāna; Vulg. imaginem.
With regard to the sense of the only passage, Am 5:26, where this deity is spoken of, there can be no doubt that it is a threat: ‘But ye shall take up Sakkuth your king, and Kaivân [or Kêvân] your star-god, your images which ye have made for yourselves, and I will cause you to go into exile.’ Wellhausen, Die Kl. Proph. p. 83, argues that this threat must be a later addition, seeing that the Israelites of Amos’ day were not chargeable with the worship of Assyr. gods. The form of the word has struck many students as anomalous. An ingenious explanation has recently been advanced. After adverting to the fact that its vocalisation is the same as that of Siccuth [סִכּוּת, כִּיּוּן], Dr. C. C. Torrey says: ‘It seems to me pretty certain that for the form of these two names in our present text we are indebted to the misplaced wit or zeal of the Massoretes. It is the familiar trick of fitting the pointing of one word to the consonant skeleton of another, as in עַשׁתֹרָת, מֹלֶךְ, תֹּפֶת, and so on. In this case the pointing is taken from the word שִׁקּוּץ shiqqûẓ, “abomination.” ’
KAIWAN (Heb. kiyyûn), AV CHIUN (Am. 5:26). Earlier scholars thought it meant ‘pedestal’ or ‘image-stand’ (see W. R. Harper, Amos, ICC, 1910, pp. 139f.). Vulg. has imaginem, RVmg. ‘shrine’. Most now believe that it represents Assyr. kaiwanu, a name of Ninurta, god of the planet Saturn, but that the Massoretes have changed the original vowel-points of kaiwan to those of šiqqûṣ (= ‘abomination’). LXX Rhaiphan (*REPHAN, AV Remphan) seems to support this view.
SAKKUTH, SIKKUTH, SICCUTH. MT sikkûṯ is translated ‘tabernacle’ (as though it were equivalent to sukkaṯ) in Am. 5:26, AV—a verse which refers to Israel’s adoption of Assyrian gods. In this verse the unvocalized consonants are skkt mlkkm, which are better translated, ‘Sakkuth your king’, than by AV and LXX, ‘the tabernacle of your Moloch’. The consonants skkt were vocalized to read sikkûṯ, ‘tabernacle’, probably by using the vowels of šiqqûṣ, ‘an abominable thing’. However, the verse makes good sense if we read Sakkuth instead of ‘tabernacle’. Sakkuth was the name of the god of war, and of sun and light, Adar-malek or Saturn (cf. 2 Ki. 17:31, Adrammelech), otherwise known as Ninurta (SAG.KUT). Kaimanu or Kaiwanu are alternative names for the planet. Hence Am. 5:26 should be translated, as in RSV, ‘You shall take up Sakkuth your king, and Kaiwan your star-god, your images, which you made for yourselves … ‘(Others, however, like NEB, regard this astral interpretation as improbable, and follow LXX in seeing in Sikkuth a reference to tent-shrines, while translating Kaiwan as ‘pedestal(s)‘—an interpretation attested as early as the Zadokite Work of The 1st century BC.) (*REMPHAN.)
Rephan. Pagan deity mentioned by Stephen in Acts 7:43 (KJV Remphan; NASB Rompha) when he cited the text of Amos 5:26 to portray the paganism of the wandering Israelites. Stephen was quoting from the Septuagint, whose translators had taken kaiwan (NASB kiyyun; KJV chiun) to refer to the Assyrian god of Saturn, or perhaps to the Egyptian Saturn god Repa. Some scholars argue that Amos 5:26 is a general reference to the Israelites’ wilderness paganism and names no ancient deities at all.
Sakkuth. Name of the Babylonian Saturn, an astral deity in Mesopotamian religion (Am 5:26; NASB Sikkuth). Some suggest that sakkuth reflects a corruption of sukkah, meaning “shrine” (NIV) or “tabernacle” (KJV) within which an image would be placed.
See KAIWAN.
SAKKUTH (Săkʹ ŭth) NRSV transliteration of Assyrian divine name applied to god Ninurta (or Ninib), apparently an Assyrian name for Saturn or another astral deity. Some translators take the name as a common noun meaning “shrine” (REB, NIV), “tabernacle” (KJV), since the Hebrew term resembles the word for “tent.” Amos condemned Israel for such false worship (Amos 5:26). See Succoth-benoth.
KAIWAN kāʹwän, kīʹwän [Heb. kîyûn]; AV Chiun (following MT vocalization); NEB “pedestals” (relating kîyûn to kûn—‘be firm, establish’). The name of a god in Am. 5:26. The vocalization by the Masoretes is probably meant to draw the reader’s attention to the word siqqûṣ, “detested thing,” or gillûl, “idol” (cf. the similar phenomenon with the god-name Molech [2 K. 23:10; Jer. 32:35], a deliberate misvocalization of the consonants mlk with the vowels of the word “shame” [bōšeṯ]). Kîyûn is apparently the same as Bab. kayawânu, the god-name given to the planet Saturn (cf. Pesh. ke’wān). The RSV rearranges the MT and translates “Kaiwan your star-god,” which removes a grammatical difficulty (see comms) and accords well with the identification with the Babylonian god. The first part of the verse mentions SAKKUTH, another name for the Assyrian god Ninurta (= Saturn); this lends credence to the identification of this form (i.e., kywn) with the Babylonian god. The LXX translation of the word is Raiphan, which many authorities regard as an inner Greek corruption of an original Kaiphan. The quotation of Am. 5:26 in Acts 7:43, apparently in dependence on the LXX, has Raiphan (or a similar term). The apparent meaning of the verse is that the Israelites will carry the images of their gods into exile beyond Damascus; the images of Saturn are mentioned as representatives. (For alternate views and discussion of the many problems in this verse, see comms)
NINURTA Mesopotamian god of war, vegetation, and fertility. Son of Enlil and Ninlil. Ninurta was the city god of Nippur, where his temple, Ešumeša, was located. He is the hero-god in the Epic of Anzu and is the subject of some short hymns.
Ninurta was so popular that some Assyrian kings included his name as part of their own. For example:
• Tukulti-Ninurta I, late 13th century BC
• Ninurta-apal-Ekur and Ninurta-tukulti-Ashur, 12th century BC
• Tukulti-Ninurta II, ninth century BC
In some texts, Ninurta is identified with Ningirsu, god of Lagash. Yamada suggests that the Seal of Ninurta (in contrast to the seal of the king) was used at Emar to ratify documents, particularly those involving the transaction of real estate, in the name of the god and the city elders (Yamada, “Dynastic Seal,” 61–62).
Biblical Relevance
Although Ninurta does not appear in any biblical texts, there are several possible points of contact. In the “Lugal-e” text, Ninurta/Ningirsu fights against a creature similar to the Leviathan that Yahweh destroys (e.g., Psa 74:14 and Isa 27:1; see also Barker). Several times throughout the Epic of Anzu, Ninurta controls whirlwinds when fighting Anzu. Elsewhere, Ninurta controls the south wind (compare Yahweh coming from a stormwind/whirlwind from the south in Zech 9:14).
Van der Toorn and van der Horst (“Nimrod,” 10–11) have proposed that Ninurta could provide the origin of the biblical character Nimrod, who is associated with Assyria (Mic 5:6). Among other connections, both are portrayed as great hunters, and Nimrod is credited with being the first warrior (Gen 10:8–9; 1 Chr 1:10).
Portrayals in Ancient Texts
Sumerian hymns and other texts use figurative language to depict Ninurta as a fierce warrior. They also associate him with fertility and the perpetuation of life.
Warrior God
In one Sumerian hymn, Ninurta is a dragon. He roams the night with hands like a lion and claws like an eagle, spitting venom like a snake, scattering and destroying enemies in rebellious lands (Pritchard, Ancient Near East, 330–31). In the curses section of the Vassal-Treaties of Esarhaddon, Ninurta is referred to as the leader of the gods and is called upon to kill violators of the treaty with his arrow, leaving corpses on the plains for eagles and vultures to feed upon (Pritchard, Ancient Near East, 221).
Fertility and Vegetation
In another Sumerian hymn, Ninurta is praised for his life-giving semen/seed, his association with animals reproducing and the abundance of fish in the sea, and his bringing waters to make the land fertile (Pritchard, Ancient Near East, 330–31). He also is credited with the invention of irrigation by creating a dam and diverting the water from the mountains to the plains, according to the “Lugal-e” text (ll. 349–66; Karahashi, “Fighting the Mountain,” 112). However, Ninurta’s control of water also could be portrayed negatively; in the Old Babylonian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh, he created the flood (Tablet XI.102).
The Moloch of the Ammonites and the Saturn of the Carthaginians both represented the planet Saturn, which was regarded by the Phœnicio-Shemitic nations as a κακοδαίμων, to be appeased by human sacrifices. Compare
But whether men call the God of the Hebrews Saturn, or declare Him to be Jupiter, let them tell us when Saturn dared to prohibit the worship of a second deity
Saturn or Moloch Worship
The difficulty of the passage is that both Amos and St. Stephen appear to represent the worship of the golden calf as identical with the worship of Moloch and of the planet Saturn; yet though Kaivan is only mentioned here, the nature of the reference would imply that this deity was one familiar both to speaker and hearers. The difficulty vanishes at once, if the plain statement of St. Stephen be accepted, that when God permitted Israel to “go after the stubbornness of their heart, that they might walk in their own counsels” (Ps 81:12) He “gave them up to serve the host of heaven.” The worship of the golden calf was star worship; it was the solar bull, the constellation Taurus, in which the sun was at the time of the spring equinox, that was thus represented. The golden calf was therefore analogous to the familiar symbol of the Mithraic cult, the bull slain by Mithra, Sol Invictus, if indeed the latter did not take its origin from this apostasy of Israel. See CALF, GOLDEN.
And Moloch the king, the idol of the Ammonites and Phoenicians, was intimately connected both with the solar bull and the planet Saturn. According to the rabbins, his statue was of brass, with a human body but the head of an ox. On the Carthaginian worship of Moloch or Saturn, Diodorus (book xx, ch i) writes: “Among the Carthaginians there was a brazen statue of Saturn putting forth the palms of his hands bending in such a manner toward the earth, as that the boy who was laid upon them, in order to be sacrificed, should slip off, and so fall down headlong into a deep fiery furnace. Hence it is probable that Euripides took what he fabulously relates concerning the sacrifice in Taurus, where he introduces Iphigenia asking Orestes this question: ‘But what sepulchre will me dead receive, shall the gulf of sacred fire me have?’ The ancient fable likewise that is common among all the Grecians, that Saturn devoured his own children, seems to be confirmed by this law among the Carthaginians.” The parallelism of the text therefore is very complete. The Israelites professed to be carrying the tabernacle of Jeh upon which rested the Shekinah glory; but in spirit they were carrying the tabernacle of the cruelest and most malignant of all the deities of the heathen, and the fight in which they were rejoicing was the star of the planet assigned to that deity.
Moloch then was the sun as king, and especially the sun as he entered upon what might be considered his peculiar kingdom, the zodiac from Taurus to Serpens and Scorpio, the period of the six summer months. The connection of the sun with Saturn may seem to us somewhat forced, but we have the most direct testimony that such a connection was believed in by the Babylonians. In Thompson’s Reports, obv. of No. 176 reads: “When the sun stands in the place of the moon, the king of the land will be secure on his throne. When the sun stands above or below the moon, the foundation of the throne will be secure.” The “sun” in this inscription clearly cannot be the actual sun, and it is explained on the reverse as being “the star of the sun,” the planet Saturn. No. 176 rev. reads: “Last night Saturn drew near to the moon. Saturn is the star of the sun. This is the interpretation: it is lucky for the king. The sun is the king’s star.” The connection between the sun and Saturn probably arose from both being taken as symbols of Time. The return of the sun to the beginning of the zodiac marked the completion of the year. Saturn, the slowest moving of all the heavenly bodies, accomplished its revolution through the signs of the zodiac in about 30 years, a complete generation of men. Saturn therefore was in a peculiar sense the symbol of Time, and because of Time, of Destiny.
Μολοχ καὶ τὸ ἄστρον τοῦ θεοῦ ὑμῶν Ραιφαν
Molech and the star of your god Kaiwan
