The myth of the fallen angels and of their demonic offspring thus became a central element in the Christian discourse of idolatry. It is, however, noteworthy that the same narrative was given a very different significance in early rabbinic sources.

Rabbinic midrashim strongly oppose the angelic interpretation of the “sons of God” mentioned in Genesis 6:4. In fact, the early rabbis traced the origins of idolatry to even earlier times in the primeval history of man, and tend to refuse attributing its origins — and, for that matter, the origins of evil in general — to anything other than mankind itself. Thus, they related the origins of “inappropriate worship” to the generation of Enosh, the second generation after Adam and Eve, when “people began to invoke the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:26). The verse allowed a rather positive interpretation of Enosh as the founder of religion in Second Temple Jewish — and later early-Christian — sources. But for the rabbis, it meant that the generation of Enosh was the first to profane the name of the Lord, and to worship idols.

By contrast, Christian authors suggested the exact contrary, namely that Enosh was the first man to witness piety towards god and that the verse thus pertains to the origins of religion rather than idolatry. In his Hebrew Questions on Genesis, Saint Jerome remarked that while Christians admit that in the days of Enosh the name of the Lord was first invoked, the Jews, for their part, claim that this is when the first idols were made.

Eduard Brerewood, Enquiries Touching the Diversity of Languages and Religions (London, 1614).

Enosh thus appears as the point in history to which Christian exegetes trace the origins of religion, while the Jewish sages view it as marking the beginnings of idolatry. Obviously, these conflicting readings shed light on the ways the entangled Jewish and Christian normative traditions eventually adopted clearly distinct representations of the human condition, and of the role of man in human history. Comparing these Jewish and Christian mythologies of idolatry reveals the tension between two readings of the religious history of mankind, one theocentric, and the other one anthropocentric, considering “idolatry” as either the product of supernatural and external forces (i.e., demons) or the product of human attitudes and behaviors themselves.

The demonological pattern introduced by the Church fathers in the narrative of man’s religious history lastingly informed the Christian representation of other religions. It became almost ubiquitous in the sixteenth century, when discussing the idolatries (read “religions”) encountered by European explorers in the Americas, in India, China, or Japan. In his Enquiries Touching the Diversity of Languages and Religions (1614), the English scholar Edward Brerewood noted with astonishment that idolatry seemed to outnumber all other religions in terms of demography.

Eventually, however, “idolatry” gradually escaped the realm of transcendent powers, and was transferred to the realm of man, of human experiences and emotions. The rediscovery of the Jewish anthropocentric perspective in the early modern period, notably through the works of the medieval Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides, played an invaluable role in this paradigm shift.

Maimonides explained how in the days of Enosh, mankind started paying homage to the stars and celestial bodies, believing that by honoring God’s servant they were also honoring God himself. He then described how humans had gradually descended into ever more foolish forms of idolatry. False prophets arose, establishing a given star as an object of worship. Soon enough, images of these sham divinities were set up and multiplied. Idolatry became common, and the knowledge of God was blurred in the minds of most men until the days of Abraham, who was the first to openly proclaim that there is but one God who “guides the celestial sphere and created everything” (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws Concerning Idolatry 1). One of the main objectives of the Mosaic law, Maimonides explained, was precisely to put an end to idolatry, and correct mankind’s natural inclination to disobey God and succumb to religious impiety, and eventually moral disorder and social violence. He further sought to show how even the most obscure biblical commandment was in fact conceived by God as an antidote to the erroneous beliefs of the idolaters, as he pieced them together through a careful reading of the textual evidence found in the books of the ancient Sabians, the people in whose midst Abraham had been raised. To understand the Law, claimed Maimonides, one had to understand human nature, including man’s propension to idolatry. This also meant studying the sources available to him and provide an anthropological account of ancient religion.

Enlightenment scholars of religion followed suit. The origins and nature of idolatry thus became an essential question, soon addressed in more general terms: when and why did humans start worshipping gods, and in what form?

Daniel Barbu is a Researcher tenured at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and vice-Chair of the Graduate Program in Religious Studies at Paris Sciences-et-Lettres Research University / École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris.  His essay, “The Invention of Idolatry”, recently appeared in the journal History of Religions.

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