Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Kitto Evening Bible Devotions: May 10
Today is: Saturday, April 20th, 2024 (Show Today's Devotion)
Select a Day for a Devotion in the Month of May: (Show All Months)
Isa_57:6
The earliest intimations of this form of idolatry, which exist in Scripture, describe it as subsisting among the Canaanite. The Hebrews were repeatedly enjoined to destroy these stone idols of the Canaanites, to overthrow their altars, and “break their pillars.” Note: Deu_7:5; Deu_12:3. And when the Israelites themselves, in their aberrations, were tempted to imitate these customs, Moses points a sarcasm at their delusion—“Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted? How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their rock had sold them?” Note: Deu_32:30; Deu_32:37. This seems to have been the earliest form in which terrene objects became objects of idolatry. Before men discovered the use of metals, or the method of cutting rocks, they worshipped these unhewn stones—preferring, probably, those of a shape fit to be set on end, to be the more conspicuous, and smoothed by the action of water; and if the authority of Sanchoniathon is to be accepted, they consecrated pillars to the fire and to the wind, before they learned to hunt, to fish, or to harden bricks in the sun. From Usous, “the first Phoenician,” as he is styled by the same authority, the Canaanites seem to have acquired the practice of stone-pillar worship, traces of which, historical or actual, are to be found in almost every country of the old world—and in none more than in this, the western Extremity of Europe, particularly in Cornwall, and in the islands and promontories from the Land’s End to Caithness.
We must not confound these, as some do, with the simple stones of memorial such as Jacob set up at Bethel, Note: Gen_28:18; Gen_28:22. or those which the Israelites set up at Gilgal, Note: Jos_4:5. and the one placed by Joshua at Shiloh. Note: Jos_24:26. Indeed, in the second instance, all suspicion of superstitious taint or heathen irritation is precluded by the act being done by Divine command. It is, however, observable, that in this instance the stones were taken from the bed of the river, by the action of whose waters they had doubtless been smoothened, and, therefore, in this single respect offer a curious analogy to the “smooth stones of the stream” in the present text. It may also be conceded, that stones, originally set up for memorial purposes, may, in the course of time, have become objects of such superstitious regard, as not to be distinguishable from those of the other class, which were even in their origin idolatrous.
The worship of erected stones has maintained its ground, in some kind of superstitious reverence or other, to a much later period than is usually imagined. In Cornwall, which may have derived it directly from the Phoenicians, it did not cease till several centuries after the introduction of Christianity. Borlase, in his Antiquities of Cornwall, says: “After Christianity took place, many continued to worship these stones—coming hither with lighted torches, and praying for safety and success; and this custom we can trace through the fifth and sixth centuries, and even into the seventh, as will appear from the prohibition of several councils.”
Scheffer, in his Description of Lapland in 1673, states that the practice of stone-pillar worship then existed there, and that Storjunkar, one of the deities of Scandinavian mythology, was “represented by a stone. Neither do they use any art in polishing it, but take it as they find it upon the banks of lakes and rivers. In this shape they worship it as his image, and call it Kied kie jumbal—that is, the stone god.” He adds, that they select the unhewn stone, because it is the form in which it was shaped by the hand of the Creator himself. This, again, offers a curious coincidence with the text in Isaiah.
To come nearer, Martin, in his very curious account of the Western Islands of Scotland in 1703, describes repeatedly numerous pillar-stones, which were then objects of respect in the several localities; and in one instance he states, that an image, which was held in veneration in one of the islands, was swathed in linen. In speaking of the island of Eriska, to the north of Barra, Martin says: “There is a stone set up to the south of St. Columbus’s church, about eight feet high, and two broad. It is called by the natives the bowing stone; for when the inhabitants had the first sight of the church, they set up this stone, and then bowed, and said the Lord’s Prayer.” Borlase, who notices this passage in his Antiquities of Cornwall, gives a more learned derivation of the name. He says: “They call them bowing stones, as it seems to me, from the reverence shown them; for the Eben Maschit, which the Jews were forbade to worship, Lev_26:1, ‘Neither shall ye set up any image of stone,’—signifies really a bowing stone, and was, doubtless, so called, because worshipped by the Canaanites.”
In all parts of Ireland, stone pillars are to be found in comparative frequency. A writer in the Archæologia of the Society of Antiquaries for 1800, remarks that many of the stone crosses which form so beautiful and interesting a feature of Irish antiquities, were originally pagan pillar-stones, on which the cross was sculptured subsequent to the introduction of Christianity, in order that “the common people, who were not to be easily diverted from their superstitious reverence of these stones, might pay a kind of justifiable adoration to them, when thus appropriated to the use of Christian memorials by the sign of the cross.”
“Justifiable adoration,” indeed! But it seems very remarkable, that in at least one part of Ireland, a kind of adoration, not even in this degree “justifiable,” is even in this enlightened nineteenth century rendered to a stone. In a work by the Earl of Roden, recently published, entitled, Progress of the Reformation in Ireland, there occurs a curious account of a remnant of this ancient form of fetishism, still existing at Inniskea, an island off the coast of Mayo, with about 380 inhabitants; among whom, he says, “A stone carefully wrapped up in flannel (like that mentioned by Martin) is brought out at certain periods to be adored; and when a storm arises, this god is supplicated to send a wreck on their coast.” The same volume contains a letter from a correspondent, who states that, “Though nominally Roman Catholics, these islanders have no priest resident among them; they know nothing of the tenets of that church, and their worship consists in occasional meetings at their chief’s house (an intelligent peasant of the name of Cain), with visits to a holy well called Derivla. The absence of religion is supplied by the open practice of pagan idolatry. In the south island a stone idol, called in the Irish Neevougi, has from time immemorial been religiously preserved and worshipped. Of the early history of this idol, no authentic information can be procured, but its power is believed to be immense, they pray to it in time of sickness; it is invoked when a storm is desired to dash some hapless ship upon their coast; and again, it is solicited to calm the waves to admit of the islanders fishing or visiting the mainland.”
This is certainly a startling intimation; and it would, as Sir J. Emerson Tennant suggests, Note: In a communication, of which the above is (with some additional facts) mainly an abstract, inserted in the No. for February 7, 1852, of a meritorious literary publication; called Notes and Queries. be an object of curious inquiry to ascertain whether this be indeed the last relic of pillar-worship now remaining in Europe, and especially whether any further trace of it is to be found in any other portion of the British dominions. The stones themselves, we know, exist in abundance; but are there remaining instances of superstitious regard being paid to them?