Topic
God, Strange
12 passages cited, from 1 classic reference work.
These works date from 1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Genesis 35:2ISBE
Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:
- Genesis 35:4ISBE
And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.
- Deuteronomy 31:16ISBE
¶ And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have…
- Deuteronomy 32:12ISBE
So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.
- Deuteronomy 32:16ISBE
They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger.
- Joshua 24:2ISBE
And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.
- Judges 10:16ISBE
And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the LORD: and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.
- Psalms 44:20ISBE
If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;
- Psalms 81:9ISBE
There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god.
- Isaiah 43:12ISBE
I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God.
- 2 Esdras 1:6ISBE
Because the sins of their fathers are increased in them: for they have forgotten me, and have offered unto strange gods.
- Acts 17:18ISBE
Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.
In the reference works
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 12 references
stranj: The word "strange," as used in this connection in the Old Testament, refers to the fact that the god or gods do not belong to Israel, but are the gods which are worshipped by other families or nations. In several cases a more exact translation would give us the "gods of the stranger" or foreigner. So in Ge 35:2,4; Jos 24:2; Jud 10:16; De 31:16; 32:12, etc. In a few passages like De 32:16; Ps 44:20; 81:9; Isa 43:12, the word is an adjective, but the idea is the same: the gods are those which are worshipped by other peoples and hence are forbidden to Israel, which is under obligation to worship Yahweh alone (compare 2 Esdras 1:6).
In the New Testament the phrase occurs only once, in the account of Paul's experiences in Athens (Ac 17:18), when some of his auditors said, "He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods" (xena daimonia). Here the thought is clearly that by his preaching of Jesus he was regarded as introducing a new divinity, that is one who was strange or foreign to the Athenians and of whom they had never heard before. Like the Romans of this period the Athenians were doubtless interested in, and more or less favorable to, the numerous new cults which were coming to their attention as the result of the constant intercourse with the Orient. See preceding article.
Walter R. Betteridge
Texts: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.