Falsos ídolos de la Biblia

Desde Baal y Asera de Canaán hasta Bel y Nebo de Babilonia, la Biblia menciona decenas de dioses contra los que advierte a su propio pueblo, y decenas más que sus vecinos adoran en lugar del Señor. Algunos de los peores abusos no son de nadie en particular: un becerro de oro en el Sinaí, un ídolo doméstico en la alforja de Raquel, un santuario privado que un efraimita llamado Miqueas construyó para sí mismo.

Explore los 20 ídolos que aparecen a continuación, según el lugar donde se les adoraba y su aparición en la cronología bíblica. Haga clic en una cultura para filtrar la página.

Canaanita
— Los cultos a la fertilidad y a las tormentas propios de Canaán, contra los cuales se advierte repetidamente a Israel y que este adopta repetidamente.
Filisteo
— Los dioses de las ciudades-estado filisteas costeras, venerados en Asdod, Ecrón y las demás ciudades filisteas.
Moabita / Amonita
— Los dioses nacionales de los vecinos de Israel al este del Jordán: Moab y Amón.
Arameo
— El dios de la tormenta de Damasco y de los reinos arameos (sirios) más amplios situados al norte de Israel.
Mesopotámico
— Los dioses de Asiria y Babilonia, los imperios que conquistaron y exiliaron a ambos reinos israelitas.
Egipcio
— El panteón egipcio, que se enfrentó directamente a las plagas antes del Éxodo.
Greco-romano
— Los dioses del mundo helenístico y romano con los que la iglesia del Nuevo Testamento se encuentra más allá de Judea.
Israelita
— Se trata de las propias caídas de Israel en la idolatría —becerros de oro e ídolos domésticos— en lugar de un dios extranjero prestado.

Algunos lectores relacionan a estos dioses nacionales con "principados" territoriales, poderes espirituales asignados a naciones específicas. El respaldo más claro de las Escrituras a esta idea es limitado: en Daniel 10:13, 20, un ángel describe cómo se le oponía el "príncipe de Persia" y, posteriormente, el "príncipe de Grecia", antes de que interviniera el arcángel Miguel. Este es el único pasaje que nombra un poder espiritual vinculado a una nación específica, no una afirmación que esta página haga sobre todos los ídolos que se mencionan a continuación.

Donde eran venerados

A lo largo de la línea de tiempo bíblica

Era patriarcal

Éxodo y Conquista

Jueces

Monarquía

Exilio

Nuevo Testamento

Los 20 ídolos

Baal Mount Carmel

Canaanita · también Baal-berith

Canaan's chief storm-and-fertility god, worshipped across the judges and monarchy periods under regional titles like Baal-berith and Baal-zebub. Elijah challenges 450 of his prophets to a contest on Mount Carmel: fire falls only on Elijah's altar, and the prophets who call on Baal all day get no answer at all.

1 Kings 18:20-40

Asherah Ophrah

Canaanita

A Canaanite mother-goddess whose wooden cult pole stood beside local Baal altars throughout Israel's history. God orders Gideon to tear down his own father's Asherah pole and Baal altar in Ophrah by night, and the town's demand for Gideon's death gives him the name Jerubbaal, "let Baal contend for himself."

Judges 6:25-32

Ashtoreth Beth-shan

Canaanita · también Astarte, Ashtaroth

A Sidonian and Philistine goddess of love and war, later adopted by Solomon despite God's warning against foreign wives' gods (1 Kings 11:5, 33). After Saul's death at Gilboa, the Philistines hang his armor in Ashtoreth's temple at Beth-shan and fasten his body to the city wall.

1 Samuel 31:9-10

Molech Topheth

Canaanita · también Molek

A god demanding child sacrifice by fire, explicitly forbidden in the Law (Leviticus 18:21; 20:2-5) yet practiced at Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem. King Josiah's reforms defile the site so no one can burn a child there again.

2 Kings 23:10

Dagon Ashdod

Filisteo

The Philistines' grain god, whose temple at Ashdod receives the captured ark of the covenant as a trophy. Dagon's statue is found fallen face-down before the ark twice, the second time broken at the head and hands — Philistine priests still avoid stepping on Dagon's threshold there "to this day."

1 Samuel 5:1-5

Baal-zebub Ekron

Filisteo · también Beelzebub

"Lord of the flies," a Philistine oracle god at Ekron consulted by Israel's King Ahaziah after a fall injures him. Elijah intercepts Ahaziah's messengers and rebukes the king for seeking a foreign god "because there is no God in Israel."

2 Kings 1:2-3

Chemosh Kir-hareseth

Moabita / Amonita

Moab's national god, called "the abomination of Moab" in Kings. Besieged at Kir-hareseth by Israel, Judah, and Edom, King Mesha sacrifices his own firstborn son as a burnt offering on the city wall to Chemosh.

2 Kings 3:26-27

Milcom Rabbah

Moabita / Amonita · también Malcam

The national god of Ammon, whose capital Rabbah anchors his cult. Solomon builds a high place for Milcom on a hill facing Jerusalem to please his foreign wives — the same high place Josiah later tears down.

1 Kings 11:5, 7

Baal of Peor Peor

Moabita / Amonita

A regional form of Baal worshipped at Peor in Moab, tied to sacrificial meals and sexual immorality that draws Israelite men into apostasy just before entering Canaan. The resulting plague kills 24,000 before Phinehas's intervention ends it.

Numbers 25:1-3

Rimmon Damascus

Arameo

Syria's storm god, worshipped at a temple in Damascus where the king of Aram bows in official duty. After Elisha heals him, the Aramean commander Naaman asks pardon in advance for the times he must still bow there at his master's side.

2 Kings 5:17-18

Nisroch Nineveh

Mesopotámico

An Assyrian god worshipped at Nineveh, named only at the moment King Sennacherib is assassinated by his own sons while bowing in Nisroch's temple. The killing comes shortly after Sennacherib's army is destroyed for mocking the God of Jerusalem.

2 Kings 19:36-37

Bel and Nebo Babylon

Mesopotámico · también Marduk, Nabu

Babylon's two chief gods, Bel (Marduk) and his son Nebo (Nabu), pictured by Isaiah as dead weight loaded onto exhausted pack animals during the city's fall. The prophet contrasts them with the LORD, who carries Israel rather than needing to be carried.

Isaiah 46:1-2

The Gods of Egypt Egypt

Egipcio

Not one god but the whole Egyptian pantheon — Scripture doesn't name them individually here, only says the tenth plague executes judgment "against all the gods of Egypt." Each of the ten plagues has been read as targeting a specific claimed domain, from the Nile to the sun to Pharaoh's own divinized person.

Exodus 12:12

Artemis of Ephesus Ephesus

Greco-romano · también Diana

The fertility goddess whose temple at Ephesus was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Silversmiths who profit from her shrine souvenirs riot against Paul, filling the theater for two hours chanting "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians."

Acts 19:23-41

The Unknown God Athens

Greco-romano

An altar in Athens inscribed "to an unknown god," hedging against offending any deity the city's crowded pantheon had missed. Paul uses the inscription as his opening line before the Areopagus, introducing the God "who made the world and everything in it."

Acts 17:22-23

The Golden Calf (Sinai) Sinai

Israelita

While Moses is on the mountain receiving the Law, Aaron melts the people's gold jewelry into a calf modeled on Egyptian bull-worship and declares a feast to the LORD. Moses burns the calf, grinds it to powder, and makes Israel drink it in water.

Exodus 32:1-6

Jeroboam's Calf (Bethel) Bethel

Israelita

After the kingdom splits, Jeroboam sets up golden calves at Bethel and Dan so his subjects won't return to worship at Jerusalem's temple. The text calls it "sin," and every later king of Israel is measured against whether he continues it.

1 Kings 12:28-30

Jeroboam's Calf (Dan) Dan

Israelita

The northern twin of Jeroboam's Bethel shrine, placed at Dan so worshippers from the kingdom's far north wouldn't have to travel to Jerusalem or even to Bethel. Judges 18 also records Dan as the site of Micah's earlier stolen idol, so the city carries two separate idolatry stories under two different eras.

1 Kings 12:28-30

Rachel's Household Gods Haran

Israelita · también teraphim

Small household idols (teraphim) belonging to Laban, possibly tied to inheritance rights, that Rachel steals when Jacob's family flees Haran. When Laban searches the camp, Rachel hides them under her camel's saddle and sits on them, claiming she can't rise because "the manner of women is upon me."

Genesis 31:19, 34-35

Micah's Idol Laish

Israelita

An Ephraimite named Micah casts silver into a household idol and hires a wandering Levite as his private priest — the narrator's refrain, "everyone did what was right in his own eyes," frames the whole account. When the tribe of Dan migrates north, they steal Micah's idol and priest and set up their own shrine with it at Laish, which they rename Dan.

Judges 17:1-6; 18:30-31

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