One of the most common themes throughout the Bible is the Jewish
People’s adherence to idolatry despite God’s repeated injunctions
against it. In fact, this is the Torah’s quintessential prohibition. In this
work, we explore the history of the struggle between Judaism and idolatry
and seek to clearly record how this pattern played out historically.
In doing so, we delve into the general history of avodah zarah (which
literally means “foreign worship” and is the generally used term for
“idolatry”) and trace its influences on the Jewish People throughout
the Biblical period. As we clarify Biblical stories related to idolatry, we
gain a better understanding of the Bible itself, as well as the history of
Judaism.

In this volume, we focus on the historical aspects of idolatry from
its very beginnings until its eventual decline with the demise of the
idolatrous temptation. As idolatry became more and more entrenched
worldwide, it became more and more complex. People developed various
systems of worship, with like-minded individuals joining to form cults.
Even when the Jews strayed after idolatry, they did not regress into
worshipping arbitrary images. For example, R. Saadia Gaon (882–942)
writes that the Jews built the Golden Calf deliberately in that form; it
was not mere happenstance that they chose the form of a calf. Different idolaters preferred different forms of idolatry: Some attributed supernatural
powers to living animals or other elements of nature and worshipped
them accordingly, while others wished to worship images which they had
fashioned. Some only worshipped humanoid idols (to which different
cults attributed various names), while still others only worshipped the
perceived astral forces.2 We will explore how these different pagan groups
may have impacted the Jewish People during the Biblical period, and how
the guardians of monotheism resisted their influence.