Romans 1:23 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And changed the glory— As their folly was evident in a variety of other vices, in which the philosophers of heathen nations joined with the people in general, so, particularly, in the early and almost universal prevalence of idolatry among them; by which they changed the glory of the immortal, incorruptible, and eternal God, even all the majestic splendours in which he shines forth through earth and heaven, into the representing image of mortal and corruptible man; which, how elegantly soever it might be traced, was a great and insufferable degradation, had their folly proceeded no farther: but, not content with this, they set up as an emblem of Deity, and objects of worship, brutes, and their images, birds, and four-footed animals, and even such vile reptiles as beetles, and various kinds of serpents which creep on the dust. See Acts 28:6. It is a curious speculation, and has employed the thoughts and pens of many, what could be the original of animal worship,—of a worship so degrading as that referred to in the present verse, and which, though prevailing in almost all nations of the earth, was yet in a great measure peculiar to the Egyptians. Bishop Warburton urges, and withgreat shew of reason, in his very learned discourse on the ancient hieroglyphics, that symbolic writing [through the universal corruption of mankind] was the origin of animal worship: for, says he, in those improved hieroglyphics called symbols, in which it is confessed the ancient Egyptian learning was contained, the less obvious properties of animals occasioned their becoming marks of analogical adaption for very different ideas, whether of substances or modes; which plainly intimates that physical knowledge had been long cultivated: now these symbols I hold to be the original of animal worship: for, first, this kind of idolatrywas peculiar to the Egyptian superstition, and almost unknown to all the casts of paganism, but such as were evidently copied from that original. Secondly, The Egyptians not only worshipped animals but plants, and, in a word, every kind of being which had qualities remarkable, singular, and efficacious, because all these had found their place in symbolic writing. Thirdly, Besides the adoration of almost every thing existing, the Egyptians worshipped a thousand chimeras of their own creation, some with human bodies, and the head or feet of brutes, &c. For besides the simpler methods in hieroglyphic writing of expressing their hero-gods by an entire plant or animal, there were two others, which the more circumstantial history of these idol deities brought in use. Thus when the subject was only one single quality of a god or hero, the human shape was only partially deformed, as with the head of a dog, &c. But where the subject required a fuller catalogue of the hero's virtues, there they employed an assemblage of the several parts of various animals, each of which, in hieroglyphicwriting,wassignificativeofadistinct property; in which assemblage that animal more particularly representative of the god was most conspicuous. Fourthly, That animal which was worshipped in one city, was sacrificed in another. Thus at Memphis they adored the ox, at Thebes the ram; yet in one place each of these animals was used in sacrifice. The reason of this can only be, that at Memphis the ox was in hieroglyphical learning the symbol of some deity, and at Thebes the ram: for what else can be said for the original of so fantastical a diversity in representative idol-deities within a kingdom of one national religion? Fifthly, Brute-worship was at first altogether objective to their hero-gods, of whom animals were but the representatives. This is seen from the rank they hold on ancient monuments, from the unvaried worship of some few of them,—as the Apis, which still continued to be worshipped as the representative of Osiris;—and from the testimony of Herodotus, who says, "That when the Egyptians addressed the sacred animal, their devotions were paid to that God to whom the beast belonged." Sixthly, To make the matter plainer, it may be observed, that the most early brute-worship in Egypt was not an adoration of the livinganimal, but only of its picture or image. Were indeed the original of brute-worship any other than what is here supposed, the living animal must have been first worshipped, and the image of it would have been only an attendant superstition.Theseconsiderations are sufficient to shew, that hieroglyphics were the origin of brute-worship, which was consequently begun in Egypt, and was propagated from thence. There the method of the learned was to record the history of their hero-gods in improved hieroglyphics, which gave birth to brute-worship. For the characters of this kind of writing, being the figures of animals, which stood for marks of their elementary gods, and principally of their heroes, soon made their hieroglyphics sacred. And this in a great space of time, introduced a symbolic worship of their gods under hieroglyphic figures. But the people presently forgot the symbol or relation, and depraved this superstition still farther by a direct worship; till at length the animals themselves, whose figures these hieroglyphic marks represented, became the objects of religious adoration. Which species of idolatry, by the credit and commerce of the Egyptians, and their carriers the Phoenicians, in course of time spread amongst other nations. See Div. Leg. b. 4: sect. 4 p. 17