false god

In Abrahamic religions, false god is used as a derogatory term to refer to a deity or object of worship besides the Abrahamic 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".{{cite encyclopedia |year=1971 |title=Idol, Idolatry |editor1-last=Bosworth |editor1-first=C. E. |editor1-link=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |editor2-last=van Donzel |editor2-first=E. J. |editor2-link=Emeri Johannes van Donzel |editor3-last=Heinrichs |editor3-first=W. P. |editor3-link=Wolfhart Heinrichs |editor4-last=Lewis |editor4-first=B. |editor5-last=Pellat |editor5-first=Ch. |editor6-last=Schacht |editor6-first=J. |editor6-link=Joseph Schacht |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition |location=Leiden |publisher=Brill Publishers |volume=3 |doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_DUM_1900 |isbn=978-90-04-16121-4}}{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/15027-worship-idol |title=Idol-Worship |last1=Kohler |first1=Kaufmann |last2=Blau |first2=Ludwig |author1-link=Kaufmann Kohler |author2-link=Ludwig Blau |encyclopedia=Jewish Encyclopedia |publisher=Kopelman Foundation |year=1906 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130504235442/https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/15027-worship-idol |archive-date=4 May 2013 |url-status=live |access-date=18 April 2021}}{{cite web |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/idol |title=Definition of idol |date=2021 |website=Merriam-Webster.com |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |location=Edinburgh |access-date=18 April 2021}}

The term false god is often used throughout the Abrahamic scriptures (Torah, Tanakh, Bible, and Quran) to single out Elohim/Yahweh (interpreted by Jews, Samaritans, and Christians) or Alihat/Allah (interpreted by Muslims) as the only true God. Nevertheless, the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament itself recognizes and reports that on multiple occasions, the Israelites were not monotheists but actively engaged in idolatry and worshipped many foreign, non-Jewish Gods besides Yahweh and/or instead of Him,{{cite book |last=Stahl |first=Michael J. |year=2021 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=drMlEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA52 |chapter=The "God of Israel" and the Politics of Divinity in Ancient Israel |title=The "God of Israel" in History and Tradition |location=Leiden |publisher=Brill Publishers |series=Vetus Testamentum: Supplements |volume=187 |pages=52–144 |doi=10.1163/9789004447721_003 |isbn=978-90-04-44772-1|s2cid=236752143 }} (such as Baal, Astarte, Asherah, Chemosh, Dagon, Moloch, Tammuz, and more), and continued to do so until their return from the Babylonian exile (see Ancient Hebrew religion).

Judaism, the oldest Abrahamic religion, eventually shifted into a strict, exclusive monotheism,{{cite journal |author-last=Leone |author-first=Massimo |date=Spring 2016 |title=Smashing Idols: A Paradoxical Semiotics |url=https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1561609/136254/Massimo%20Leone%202016%20-%20Smashing%20Idols.pdf |editor-last=Asif |editor-first=Agha |journal=Signs and Society |location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Semiosis Research Center at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=30–56 |doi=10.1086/684586 |doi-access=free |hdl=2318/1561609 |eissn=2326-4497 |issn=2326-4489 |s2cid=53408911 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170923020328/https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/handle/2318/1561609/136254/Massimo%20Leone%202016%20-%20Smashing%20Idols.pdf |archive-date=23 September 2017 |access-date=28 July 2021}} based on the sole veneration of Yahweh,{{cite book |last=Van der Toorn |first=Karel |author-link=Karel van der Toorn |year=1999 |chapter=God (I) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yCkRz5pfxz0C&pg=PA352 |editor1-last=Van der Toorn |editor1-first=Karel |editor2-last=Becking |editor2-first=Bob |editor3-last=Van der Horst |editor3-first=Pieter W. |title=Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible |location=Leiden |publisher=Brill Publishers |pages=352–365 |edition=2nd |doi=10.1163/2589-7802_DDDO_DDDO_Godi |isbn=90-04-11119-0}}{{cite book |last=Betz |first=Arnold Gottfried |year=2000 |chapter=Monotheism |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qRtUqxkB7wkC&pg=PA916 |editor1-last=Freedman |editor1-first=David Noel |editor2-last=Myer |editor2-first=Allen C. |title=Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans |pages=916–917 |isbn=9053565035}}{{cite book |last=Gruber |first=Mayer I. |year=2013 |chapter=Israel |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q1xbAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA76 |editor-last=Spaeth |editor-first=Barbette Stanley |editor-link=Barbette Spaeth |title=The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Mediterranean Religions |location=New York |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=76–94 |doi=10.1017/CCO9781139047784.007 |isbn=978-0-521-11396-0 |lccn=2012049271}} the predecessor to the Abrahamic conception of God.{{#tag:ref|Although the Semitic god El is indeed the most ancient predecessor to the Abrahamic god,{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Mark S. |author-link=Mark S. Smith |year=2000 |chapter=El |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qRtUqxkB7wkC&pg=PA384 |editor1-last=Freedman |editor1-first=David Noel |editor2-last=Myer |editor2-first=Allen C. |title=Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans |pages=384–386 |isbn=9053565035}}{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Mark S. |author-link=Mark S. Smith |year=2003 |chapter=El, Yahweh, and the Original God of Israel and the Exodus |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=afkRDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA133 |title=The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel's Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=133–148 |doi=10.1093/019513480X.003.0008 |isbn=9780195134803}} this specifically refers to the ancient ideas Yahweh once encompassed in the Ancient Hebrew religion, such as being a storm- and war-god, living on mountains, or controlling the weather.{{cite book |last=Niehr |first=Herbert |year=1995 |chapter=The Rise of YHWH in Judahite and Israelite Religion: Methodological and Religio-Historical Aspects |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bua2dMa9fJ4C&pg=PA45 |editor-last=Edelman |editor-first=Diana Vikander |title=The Triumph of Elohim: From Yahwisms to Judaisms |location=Leuven |publisher=Peeters Publishers |pages=45–72 |isbn=978-9053565032 |oclc=33819403}} 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.|group=Note}} According to rabbinic tradition, the Evil Inclination for idolatry was eradicated in the early Second Temple period, and this is what led to the shift away from earlier Israelite polytheism.{{cite book |last=Klein |first=Reuven Chaim |year=2018 |chapter= The End of an Age: Idolatry as Obsolete Superstition |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dx9xDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA244 |title=God versus Gods: Judasim in the Age of Idolatry |publisher=Mosaica Press|pages=244–276 |isbn= 978-1946351463 |ol=27322748M}}

The vast majority of religions in history have been and/or are still polytheistic, worshipping many diverse deities.{{cite encyclopedia |last=Smart |first=Ninian |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |title=Polytheism |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/polytheism |date=10 November 2020 |origyear=26 July 1999 |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |location=Edinburgh |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111205729/https://www.britannica.com/topic/polytheism |archive-date=11 November 2020 |access-date=25 April 2021}} Moreover, the material depiction of a deity or more deities has always played an eminent role in all cultures of the world. 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,{{cite book |last=Hayes |first=Christine |author-link=Christine Hayes |year=2012 |chapter=Understanding Biblical Monotheism |title=Introduction to the Bible |location=New Haven and London |publisher=Yale University Press |series=The Open Yale Courses Series |pages=15–28 |isbn=9780300181791 |jstor=j.ctt32bxpm.6}}{{cite book |last=Bernard |first=David K. |author-link=David K. Bernard |year=2019 |origyear=2016 |chapter=Monotheism in Paul's Rhetorical World |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0AD1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA53 |title=The Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ: Deification of Jesus in Early Christian Discourse |location=Leiden and Boston |publisher=Brill Publishers |series=Journal of Pentecostal Theology: Supplement Series |volume=45 |pages=53–82 |isbn=978-90-04-39721-7 |issn=0966-7393}} whereas virtually all the other religions in the world have been and/or are still animistic and polytheistic.

The Tanakh refers to deities from other neighboring cultures as shedim ({{langx|he|שֵׁדִים}}),{{cite book |last=Greenbaum |first=Dorian G. |year=2015 |chapter=Part 1: Daimon and Fortune – Hie Thee to Hell: The Place of the Bad Daimon |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BnLsCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA128 |title=The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology: Origins and Influence |location=Leiden |publisher=Brill Publishers |series=Ancient Magic and Divination |volume=11 |pages=128–129 |doi=10.1163/9789004306219_006 |isbn=978-90-04-30621-9 |issn=1566-7952 |lccn=2015028673}} possibly a loan-word from Akkadian in which the word shedu referred to a spirit which could be either protective or malevolent.{{cite book|author1=Rachel Elior|author2=Peter Schäfer|title=על בריאה ועל יצירה במחשבה היהודית: ספר היובל לכבודו של יוסף דן במלאת לו שבעים שנה|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Fg2TiVGRQ0C&pg=PA29|year=2005|publisher=Mohr Siebeck|isbn=978-3-16-148714-9|page=29}}Encyclopedia of Spirits: The Ultimate Guide to the Magic of Fairies, Genies, Demons, Ghosts, Gods & Goddesses. Judika Illes. HarperCollins, Jan 2009. [https://books.google.com/books?id=jDr51XX_YjEC&dq=shedim&pg=PA902 p. 902].The Encyclopedia of Demons and Demonology. Rosemary Guiley. Infobase Publishing, May 12, 2010. [https://books.google.com/books?id=NHosWhaeWDQC&dq=sedim%2C+assyrian+guard+spirits&pg=PA21 p. 21]. They appear twice (always plural), at Psalm {{Bibleverse-nb||Psalms|106:37|HE}} and Deuteronomy {{Bibleverse-nb||Deuteronomy|32:17|HE}}. Both times it is mentioned in the context of sacrificing children or animals to them.W. Gunther Plaut, The Torah: A Modern Commentary (Union for Reform Judaism, 2005), p. 1403 [https://books.google.com/books?id=wCTfI2rpvXEC&dq=shedim&pg=PP1422 online]; Dan Burton and David Grandy, Magic, Mystery, and Science: The Occult in Western Civilization (Indiana University Press, 2003), p. 120 [https://books.google.com/books?id=vSWSSBU7EdwC&dq=%22The+Hebrew+term+for+demons%22&pg=PA120 online]. When the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek, the Hebrew term shedim was translated as daimones, with implied negativity. This gave rise to a dualism between native spirits of the own religion's God, and the spirits of foreign origin as demons.{{cite journal |author-last=Martin |author-first=Dale Basil |date=Winter 2010 |title=When Did Angels Become Demons? |journal=Journal of Biblical Literature |publisher=Society of Biblical Literature |volume=129 |issue=4 |pages=657–677 |doi=10.2307/25765960 |jstor=25765960 |issn=0021-9231}}

{{Main|Gnosticism}}

{{Further|Gnostic texts}}

In Gnosticism, the biblical serpent in the Garden of Eden was praised and thanked for bringing knowledge (gnosis) to Adam and Eve and thereby freeing them from the malevolent Demiurge's control.{{cite book |editor1-last=Kvam |editor1-first=Kristen E. |editor2-last=Schearing |editor2-first=Linda S. |editor3-last=Ziegler |editor3-first=Valarie H. |year=1999 |chapter=Early Christian Interpretations (50–450 CE) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ux3bSDa2rHkC&pg=PA108 |title=Eve and Adam: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Readings on Genesis and Gender |location=Bloomington, Indiana |publisher=Indiana University Press |pages=108–155 |doi=10.2307/j.ctt2050vqm.8 |isbn=9780253212719 |jstor=j.ctt2050vqm.8}} Gnostic Christian doctrines rely on a dualistic cosmology that implies the eternal conflict between good and evil, and a conception of the serpent as the liberating savior and bestower of knowledge to humankind opposed to the Demiurge or creator god, identified with the Hebrew God of the Old Testament.{{cite book |last=Ehrman |first=Bart D. |author-link=Bart D. Ehrman |year=2005 |orig-year=2003 |title=Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew |chapter=Christians "In The Know": The Worlds of Early Christian Gnosticism |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=URdACxKubDIC&pg=PA113 |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=113–134 |doi=10.1017/s0009640700110273 |isbn=978-0-19-518249-1 |lccn=2003053097 |s2cid=152458823}}

Gnostic Christians considered the Hebrew God of the Old Testament as the evil, false god and creator of the material universe, and the Unknown God of the Gospel, the father of Jesus Christ and creator of the spiritual world, as the true, good God.{{cite book |author-last=May |author-first=Gerhard |year=2008 |chapter=Part V: The Shaping of Christian Theology – Monotheism and creation |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6UTfmw_zStsC&pg=PA434 |editor1-last=Mitchell |editor1-first=Margaret M. |editor1-link=Margaret M. Mitchell |editor2-last=Young |editor2-first=Frances M. |editor2-link=Frances Young |title=The Cambridge History of Christianity, Volume 1: Origins to Constantine |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=434–451, 452–456 |doi=10.1017/CHOL9780521812399.026 |isbn=9781139054836}}{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Valentinus and the Valentinians|author=Bousset, Wilhelm|author-link=Wilhelm Bousset|volume=27|pages=852-857|short=x}} In the Archontic, Sethian, and Ophite 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 he created.{{cite book |author-last=Litwa |author-first=M. David |year=2016 |origyear=2015 |chapter=Part I: The Self-deifying Rebel – “I Am God and There is No Other!”: The Boast of Yaldabaoth |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HwcBDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 |title=Desiring Divinity: Self-deification in Early Jewish and Christian Mythmaking |location=Oxford and New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=47–65 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190467166.003.0004 |isbn=9780199967728 |lccn=2015051032 |oclc=966607824}}{{cite journal |last=Fischer-Mueller |first=E. Aydeet |date=January 1990 |title=Yaldabaoth: The Gnostic Female Principle in Its Fallenness |journal=Novum Testamentum |volume=32 |issue=1 |publisher=Brill Publishers |location=Leiden and Boston |pages=79–95 |doi=10.1163/156853690X00205 |eissn=1568-5365 |issn=0048-1009 |jstor=1560677}}{{Catholic Encyclopedia |wstitle=Demiurge |volume=4 |first=John Peter |last=Arendzen}}

However, not all Gnostic movements regarded the creator of the material universe as inherently evil or malevolent.{{cite book |author-last=Logan |author-first=Alastair H. B. |year=2002 |origyear=2000 |chapter=Part IX: Internal Challenges – Gnosticism |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6fyCAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA923 |editor-last=Esler |editor-first=Philip F. |title=The Early Christian World |location=New York and London |publisher=Routledge |edition=1st |series=Routledge Worlds |pages=923–925 |isbn=9781032199344}} 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. All Gnostics were regarded as heretics by the proto-orthodox Early Church Fathers.{{cite book |last=Brakke |first=David |author-link=David Brakke |year=2010 |title=The Gnostics: Myth, Ritual, and Diversity in Early Christianity |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3EQ1XwHg0o0C&pg=PA18 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |publisher=Harvard University Press |pages=18–51 |isbn=9780674066038 |jstor=j.ctvjnrvhh.6 |s2cid=169308502}}

{{Main|Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia}}

{{Further|Islamic mythology|Pre-Islamic Arabia}}

The Quran refers to jinn as entities who had a similar status to that of lesser deities in the pre-Islamic Arabian religion.{{cite book |author-last=al-Azmeh |author-first=Aziz |year=2017 |origyear=2014 |chapter=Chapter 5 – Allāh |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xnU3DgAAQBAJ&pg=PA294 |title=The Emergence of Islam in Late Antiquity: Allāh and His People |location=Cambridge and New York |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=294–295 |doi=10.1017/CBO9781139410854.007 |isbn=9781139410854 |lccn=2013023226}} Although the Quran does not equate the jinn to the rank of demons,{{cite book |last=el-Zein |first=Amira |year=2009 |chapter=Beings of Light and of Fire |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JjTctEZXHCQC&pg=PA52 |title=Islam, Arabs, and Intelligent World of the Jinn |location=Syracuse, New York |publisher=Syracuse University Press |series=Contemporary Issues in the Middle East |page=52 |isbn=9780815650706 |jstor=j.ctt1j5d836.6 |lccn=2009026745 |oclc=785782984}} it reduces them to the same status as human beings.{{cite book |editor1-last=Fee |editor1-first=Christopher R. |editor2-last=Webb |editor2-first=Jeffrey B. |year=2016 |chapter=Jinn |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kXnEDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA526 |title=American Myths, Legends, and Tall Tales: An Encyclopedia of American Folklore |location=Santa Barbara, California |publisher=ABC-Clio |pages=526–527 |isbn=9781610695671 |lccn=2015050529 |oclc=954734705}} Due to their mortality and dependence on fate (ḳadar), they would also be subjected to the final judgment by Allāh. Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī, the 10th-century Persian Muslim scholar, Ḥanafī jurist, and Sunnī theologian who founded the eponymous school of Islamic theology, considered the jinn to be weaker than humans, and asserted that whenever humans act upon the jinn, they humiliate themselves.{{cite journal |last=Düzgün |first=Şaban Ali |date=July 2012 |title=Dinsel ve Mitolojik Yönleriyle Cin ve Şeytan Algımız (Our Conception of Djin and Satan with Their Religious and Mythological Dimensions) |url=https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/179828 |format=PDF |journal=KADER: Kelam Araştırmaları Dergisi |language=tr |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=11–30 |issn=1309-2030 |access-date=8 February 2022}}

Alternatively, ṭāġūt may refer to idols, sometimes thought to be inhabited by one or more demons.{{cite book |author-last=Nünlist |author-first=Tobias |year=2015 |chapter=Zur Liminalität: Die Dämonen als Grenzwesen |editor-last=Nünlist |editor-first=Tobias |title=Dämonenglaube im Islam |location=Berlin and Boston |publisher=De Gruyter |series=Studies in the History and Culture of the Middle East |volume=28 |language=de |pages=192–246 |doi=10.1515/9783110331684-007 |isbn=978-3-110-33168-4}}{{rp|p=210}} Muslims do not necessarily deny the power of spirits within the idol, but deny that they are worthy of worship. In the Kitāb al-ʾAṣnām ("Book of the Idols"), the Arab Muslim historian Ibn al-Kalbī ({{Circa|737–819}} CE) tells how Muhammad ordered Khālid ibn al-Walīd to kill the pre-Islamic Arabian goddess al-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 geographer al-Maqdisī ({{Circa|945/946–991}} CE) wrote about Indian deities (known in Middle Eastern folklore as dīv), asserting that they have the power to enchant people, even Muslims, to worship them. A Muslim is said to have visited them and abandoned Islam. When he reached Muslim land again, he returned to his Islamic faith. The power of idols is not limited to enchantment alone, they could even grant wishes.Elias, J. J. (2014). Key Themes for the Study of Islam. Vereinigtes Königreich: Oneworld Publications

Other similar entities are the shurakāʼ ("partners [of God]"), whose existence is not denied, however their relation to God is. They are regarded as powerless beings, who will be cast into Hell after the Day of Judgment, along with evil jinn and fallen angels turned devils (shayāṭīn), for usurping the divine nature.{{cite book |author-last=Henninger |author-first=Joseph |year=2021 |orig-year=2004 |chapter=Beliefs in Spirits Among the Pre-Islamic Arabs |editor-last=Savage-Smith |editor-first=Emilie |title=Magic and Divination in Early Islam |location=London and New York |publisher=Routledge |edition=1st |doi=10.4324/9781315250090 |isbn=9781315250090}}{{rp|p=41}}

{{Portal|Religion|Society}}

{{div col|colwidth=20em}}

• Ancient Canaanite religion
• Ancient Semitic religion
• Atenism
• Baháʼí Faith and the unity of religion
• Dhimmi
• Demiurge
• Dystheism
• Ethical monotheism
• Evil God challenge
• False prophet
• Gnosticism
• God in Abrahamic religions
• God in the Baháʼí Faith
• God in Christianity
• God in Judaism
• God in Islam
• God in Mormonism
• Jehovah's Witnesses beliefs § God
• God in Sikhism
• God in Zoroastrianism
• Maltheism
• Moralistic therapeutic deism
• Natural religion
• Outline of theology
• Problem of evil
• Problem of Hell
• Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia
• Satanic Verses
• Semitic Neopaganism
• Seven Laws of Noah
• Ger toshav (resident alien)
• Noahidism
• Theistic Satanism
• Theodicy
• Urmonotheismus (primitive monotheism)
• Violence in the Bible
• Violence in the Quran

{{div col end}}

{{reflist|group=Note}}

• {{Wiktionary inline|antigod}}
• {{Wiktionary inline|mammet}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Abrahamic religions

Category:Conceptions of God

Category:Cult images

Category:Gnostic cosmology

Category:Gnostic terms and concepts

Category:Idolatry

Category:Monotheism

Category:Religious discrimination