We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry by G. K. Beale & G. K. Beale

Author:G. K. Beale & G. K. Beale [Beale, G. K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2016-11-14T16:00:00+00:00

EXCURSUS ON KOINŌNOS/KOINŌNIA

One last observation on this word group koinōnos/koinōnia is perhaps appropriate: it occurs only five times in the canonical Old Testament, one of which is in 2 Kings 17:11 [LXX]: “and they [Israel] burned incense on all the high places . . . and dealt with familiar spirits [koinōnos] and they carved [images] to provoke the Lord to anger.” The translation of koinōnos by familiar spirits is probably a viable dynamic-equivalent rendering,59 since the word clearly refers to idolatrous practices.60 A rigid translation would be “they dealt with”61 “companions” or “partners” or “sharers,”62 but this does not make much sense unless it is unpacked; that is, Israel’s idolatrous practices (which the Hebrew refers to as “doing evil things”) included them having such a close relationship with their idols that the idols could be referred to as partners or companions with which the Israelites shared a common reality. The Greek Old Testament’s interpretive rendering of “familiar spirits” is an attempt to personify the idols as partners in Israel’s idolatrous crime (the description of which continues in v. 12).

What is striking about this idolatrous use in 2 Kings 17 is that it is contextually related to the entire history of Israel’s idolatry up to the point of King Hoshea’s reign over northern Israel. As we saw in chapter 3, the beginning point of this idolatry is traced all the way back to the wilderness, the first instance of which was the golden calf cult (cf. 2 Kings 17:7: “Now this came about because the sons of Israel sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and they had feared other gods,” presumably beginning with the golden calf, though the focus is on subsequent idolatry in the Promised Land). The description of their idol worship is resumed in 2 Kings 17:14-19 (citing here the English rendering of the Hebrew):

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