The Israeli Flag

[rae_ekaf]

I am presently considering writing a report for school on the origins of the star on the Israeli flag. I can't seem to be able to find any biblical references to it. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[mattfivefour]

Nobody knows the origins of the Magen David (Star of David). It is not recorded in the Tanakh (the Hebrew bible, almost identical with our Old Testament). It's origins have been attributed to everything you can think of, including pagan worship and the occult! If you Google "Magen David" and "origins" you will get more than 8 million results ... most of which are completely contradictory to one another. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, the Magen David "is the symbol most commonly associated with Judaism today, but it is actually a relatively new Jewish symbol." The Messianic Jewish site menorah.org supports that view: "Although scholars have attempted to trace the Star of David back to King David himself; to Rabbi Akiva and the Bar Kokhba ("son of the star") rebellion (135 C.E.); or to kabbalists, especially Rabbi Isaac Luria (16th century), no Jewish literature or artifacts document this claim. Rather, all evidence suggests that the early use of the hexagram was limited to "practical Kabbalah," that is, Jewish magic, probably dating back to the 6th century C.E."

I hope this helps.

[rae_ekaf]

Nobody knows the origins of the Magen David (Star of David). It is not recorded in the Tanakh (the Hebrew bible, almost identical with our Old Testament). It's origins have been attributed to everything you can think of, including pagan worship and the occult! If you Google "Magen David" and "origins" you will get more than 8 million results ... most of which are completely contradictory to one another. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, the Magen David "is the symbol most commonly associated with Judaism today, but it is actually a relatively new Jewish symbol." The Messianic Jewish site menorah.org supports that view: "Although scholars have attempted to trace the Star of David back to King David himself; to Rabbi Akiva and the Bar Kokhba ("son of the star") rebellion (135 C.E.); or to kabbalists, especially Rabbi Isaac Luria (16th century), no Jewish literature or artifacts document this claim. Rather, all evidence suggests that the early use of the hexagram was limited to "practical Kabbalah," that is, Jewish magic, probably dating back to the 6th century C.E."

I hope this helps.

Well it does but I am having trouble with what you posted in light of what i just found in Acts chapter 7. I am somewhat disturbed by the account of Acts 7:43 and the star that Stephen said they took up. Stephen was ultimately stoned to death for pointing this out. What is "practical kabbala" or Jewish magic anyway? What is the purpose of it?

[mattfivefour]

I am not quite sure why you are having trouble with what I posted "in light of Acts 7". The star mentioned there is not the star of David (which is not known to have existed at that time). And remember the context of Acts 7:43. Stephen is convicting the Jews of their unfaithfulness to God, in the process of which he recites to them part of the Septuagint translation (an ancient and unreliable translation) of Amos 5:26, which in the reliable Hebrew bibles and our own bible translations reads along the lines of: "You also carried along Sikkuth your king and Kiyyun, your images, the star of your gods which you made for yourselves."

This entire event Stephen is speaking of took place about 750 years earlier. His point is that even their forefathers whom they revered as servants of the One True God were false idolaters by God's own Word. The account of the climax of his speech reads: "You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become, you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.” (Acts 7:51-53 NASB)

To accuse the Pharisees of not keeping the law was the greatest insult a person could make to them; and so, as the next verse says, "when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him." At this point Stephen is given a vision of Jesus in the Heavens and tells them that he can see the Son of Man with God. this was the final straw and they "cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse. When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him." (Acts 7:57-58 NASB) It was both the charge that they did not keep the law and that Stephen saw Jesus with God that caused them to kill him.

There are some people today who try to make an unwarranted connection between the star of DAvid and the star of Remphan. These are usually people who are anti-Semites and it is useful to their hatred of Jews to be able to connect Jews with evil. Please do not fall for that wicked lie. Dr Robert Luginbill, a theologian and a Hebrew and Greek scholar (also, incidentally a former captain in the US Marines) has an excellent article dealing with the lie regarding the Star of David on his Ichthys website: Is the star of Acts 7:43 the star of David?.

Anyway, here are what some of the great Bible commentators over the centuries have said about the Acts 7:43 passage.

Albert Barnes: "Moloch - This word comes from the Hebrew word signifying 'king.' This was a god of the Ammonites, to whom human sacrifices were offered. Moses in several places forbids the Israelites, under penalty of death, to dedicate their children to Moloch, by making them pass through the fire, Leviticus 18:21; Leviticus 20:2-5. There is great probability that the Hebrews were addicted to the worship of this deity after they entered the land of Canaan. Solomon built a temple to Moloch on the Mount of Olives 1 Kings 11:7; and Manasseh made his son pass through the fire in honor of this idol, 2 Kings 21:3, 2 Kings 21:6. The image of this idol was made of brass, and his arms extended so as to embrace anyone; and when they offered children to him, they heated the statue, and when it was burning hot, they placed the child in his arms, where it was soon destroyed by heat. It is not certain what this god was supposed to represent. Some suppose it was in honor of the planet Saturn; others, the sun; others, Mercury, Venus, etc. What particular god it was is not material. It was the most cutting reproof that could be made to the Jews, that their fathers had been guilty of worshipping this idol. And the star - The Hebrew in this place is, 'Chiun your images, the star of your god.' The expression used here leads us to suppose that this was a star which was worshipped, but what star it is not easy to ascertain; nor is it easy to determine why it is called both 'Chiun' and 'Remphan.' Stephen quotes from the Septuagint translation. In that translation the word "Chiun" is rendered by the word 'Raiphan,' or 'Rephan,' easily changed into 'Remphan.' Why the authors of that version adopted this is not known. It was probably, however, from one of two causes:

"(1) Either because the word 'Chiun' in Hebrew meant the same as 'Remphan' in the language of Egypt, where the translation was made; or,

"(2) Because the 'object' of worship called 'Chiun' in Hebrew was called 'Remphan' in the language of Egypt. It is generally agreed that the object of their worship was the planet 'Saturn,' or 'Mars,' both of which planets were worshipped as gods of evil influence. In Arabic, the word 'Chevan' denotes the planet Saturn. Probably 'Rephan,' or 'Remphan,' is the Coptic name for the same planet, and the Septuagint adopted this because that translation was made in Egypt, where the Coptic language was spoken."

Albert Johnson: "Ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch. Israel turned to the abominable worship of Moloch and other false gods, and hence shall be carried into Captivity. Moloch, a god of the Amorites, worshiped by human sacrifices. Remphan. Some planet worshiped as a god. Beyond Babylon. A punishment brought on all Israel for its sins, predicted by Amos (Am 5:25-27). Observe still his point of showing their national sinfulness."

John Gill: "And the star of your god Remphan. The Alexandrian copy reads 'Raiphan'; some copies read 'Raphan'; and so the Arabic version; others 'Rephan'; the Syriac version reads 'Rephon,; and the Ethiopic version 'Rephom'. Giants, with the Hebrews, were called 'Rephaim'; and so Mo, who is here meant, is called 'Rephan', and with an epenthesis 'Remphan', because of his gigantic form; which some have concluded from the massy crown on his head, which, with the precious stones, weighed a talent of gold, which David took from thence, 2 Samuel 12:30 for not the then reigning king of the Ammonites, but Molech, or Milchom, their idol, is meant: this is generally thought to be the same with Chiun in Amos; but it does not stand in a place to answer to that; besides, that should not be left untranslated, it not being a proper name of an idol, but signifies a type or form; and the whole may be rendered thus, 'but ye have borne the tabernacle of your king, and the type, or form of your images, the star of your god'; which version agrees with Stephens's, who, from the Septuagint, adds the name of this their king, and their god Rephan, or Remphan. Drusius conjectures, that this is a fault of the Scribes writing Rephan for Cephan, or that the Septuagint interpreters mistook the letter for and instead of Cevan read Revan; and Chiun is indeed, by Kimchi and Aben Ezra (h), said to be the same with Chevan, which, in the Ishmaelitish and Persian languages, signifies Saturn; and so does Rephan in the Egyptian language: and it is further to be observed, that the Egyptians had a king called Remphis, the same with Apis; and this may be the reason why the Septuagint interpreters, who interpreted for Ptolomy, king of Egypt, put Rephan, which Stephen calls Remphan, instead of Chiun, which they were better acquainted with, since they both signify the same deity, and the same star; and which also was the star of the Israelites, called by them because supposed to have the government of the sabbath day, and therefore fitly called the 'star of your god'."

John Wesley: "Moloch was the planet Mars, which they worshipped under a human shape. Remphan, that is, Saturn, they represented by a star. And I will carry you beyond Babylon - That is, beyond Damascus (which is the word in Amos) and Babylon. This was fulfilled by the king of Assyria, 2 Kings 17:6."

Jamieson, Fausset and Brown: "Two kinds of idolatry are charged upon the Israelites: that of the golden calf and that of the heavenly bodies; Molech and Remphan being deities, representing apparently the divine powers ascribed to nature, under different aspects."

Matthew Henry: "You took up the tabernacle of Moloch. Moloch was the idol of the children of Ammon, to which they barbarously offered their own children in sacrifice, which they could not do without great terror and grief to themselves and their families; yet this unnatural idolatry they arrived at, when God gave them up to worship the host of heaven. See 2 Chr. 28:3. It was surely the strongest delusion that ever people were given up to, and the greatest instance of the power of Satan in the children of disobedience, and therefore it is here spoken of emphatically: Yea, you took up the tabernacle of Moloch, you submitted even to that, and to the worship of the star of your god Remphan. Some think Remphan signifies the moon, as Moloch does the sun; others take it for Saturn, for that planet is called Remphan in the Syriac and Persian languages. The Septuagint puts it for Chiun, as being a name more commonly known. They had images representing the star, like the silver shrines for Diana, here called the figures which they made to worship. Dr. Lightfoot thinks they had figures representing the whole starry firmament, with all the constellations, and the planets, and these are called Remphan-'the high representation,' like the celestial globe: a poor thing to make an idol of, and yet better than a golden calf! Now for this it is threatened, I will carry you away beyond Babylon. In Amos it is beyond Damascus, meaning to Babylon, the land of the north. But Stephen changes it, with an eye to the captivity of the ten tribes, who were carried away beyond Babylon, by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, 2 Ki. 17:6. Let it not therefore seem strange to them to hear of the destruction of this place, for they had heard of it many a time from the prophets of the Old Testament, who were not therefore accused as blasphemers by any but the wicked rulers."

To your other questions: the Kabbalah is merely ancient Hebrew occultic practice. There is a good survey of it on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Practical_Kabbalah. There is no need to spend any time on the subject, anymore than you would studying Satanism. The occult is the occult regardless of what you call it; and a Christian has no need to study it, except perhaps in the process of a course in Apologetics.

I pray this helps.

[rae_ekaf]

I am saddened to reply that i am now more confused than ever. Are you suggesting in your explanation that Stephen was killed because he was antisemitic. I don't get it. I thought Stephen himself was a semite, I think, correct me if i am wrong, and that he was displeased at the practices that were, in effect, unGodly and had nothing to do with the genetic stock of anyone.

[IamPJ]

Mattfivefour...that was some good information. I knew they had gotten mad at Steven for what he said to them, but now I know exactly why they got so mad. Thanks....

[Elijah's Mantle]

regarding the flag of Israel and the star I read a snippet of a only way to say it is total speculation could have originated from kabbalah not certian I dont know that proposed a question

the question is somewhat inflamatory however

Is RA EL ?

meaning of such a question



Its considered inflammatory

but considering Israels history
you can gather where it may have originated from

[micah719]

Get e-sword, it's cool and it's free...

H3478
ישׂראל
yiśrâ'êl
yis-raw-ale'
From H8280 and H410; he will rule as God; Jisrael, a symbolical name of Jacob; also (typically) of his posterity: - Israel.

H8280
שׂרה
śârâh
saw-raw'
A primitive root; to prevail: - have power (as a prince).

H410
אל
'êl
ale
Shortened from H352; strength; as adjective mighty; especially the Almighty (but used also of any deity): - God (god), X goodly, X great, idol, might (-y one), power, strong. Compare names in “-el.”

H352
איל
'ayil
ah'-yil
From the same as H193; properly strength; hence anything strong; specifically a chief (politically); also a ram (from his strength); a pilaster (as a strong support); an oak or other strong tree: - mighty (man), lintel, oak, post, ram, tree.

H193
אוּל
'ûl
ool
From an unused root meaning to twist, that is, (by implication) be strong; the body (as being rolled together) also powerful: - mighty, strength.

[rae_ekaf]

Most of all I wanted to find a biblical origin for the star on the flag. I started out with nothing but an idea with a question and now I've been led by people at school and in here about the origin of the star and yet still no biblical origin. The kaballah suggestion led me down a road that i did a search for on the internet and it seems that kaballah is something Jesus taught against. So whats going here concerning the star on the flag. Where did it originate? And why would our friends in Israel use a symbol from the kaballah on their flag. And in this research, it seems, that i have discovered that flags are idolatrous symbols and should not be given any shrift. am I being led astrayed in this study or are flags really idolatrous symbols? I'm getting scared about all the implications. Things I have never considered before.

[micah719]

.

[mattfivefour]

Most of all I wanted to find a biblical origin for the star on the flag. I started out with nothing but an idea with a question and now I've been led by people at school and in here about the origin of the star and yet still no biblical origin. The kaballah suggestion led me down a road that i did a search for on the internet and it seems that kaballah is something Jesus taught against. So whats going here concerning the star on the flag. Where did it originate? And why would our friends in Israel use a symbol from the kaballah on their flag. And in this research, it seems, that i have discovered that flags are idolatrous symbols and should not be given any shrift. am I being led astrayed in this study or are flags really idolatrous symbols? I'm getting scared about all the implications. Things I have never considered before.

1) There is no biblical origin for the star. As you read in the info I posted, it is a relatively recent invention.
2) The kabbalah "suggestion" was just that— a suggestion. That doesn't make it fact. The main proponents of the Star of David being a kabbalistic symbol are those who hate Jews and want to discredit them by suggesting they are involved in occult practices.
3) Jesus did not teach against the kabbalah. He taught against the religious leaders who taught the letter of the Law but missed the Spirit. They religiously kept the first four commandments and the 600 other mitzvot that the rabbi's had come up with, but circumvented or ignored every one of the remaining 6 commandments.
4) The Israelis use the six-pointed Star of David because a few hundred years ago it somehow became symbolic of their desire for aliyah, return to their historic homeland. To a Messiainic Jew (and non-Jewish Christians) it represents God interacting with man. The downward pointing triangle represents The Father at the top apex, and Jesus and the Holy Spirit at the two bottom apexes; the upward pointing triangle represents the physical body at the bottom apex and man's spirit and soul at the other two apexes. In this way we see the perfect interaction of God with man. The are other interpretations out there (for example the six points represent God's omnipresence: north, south, east, west, up, down) but I prefer the one I gave you first.
5) Flags are not idolatrous in and of themselves. Even the bible talks about Israel and her flags: Numbers 1:52; 2:2-25. Flags can be rallying banners, symbols indicating a common cause, and instruments of national identification. There is nothing inherently wrong with them. But if a man raises the flag higher than God in his own estimation and value, then he has made it idolatrous. In fact ANYTHING that man exalts higher than God is idolatrous. Even the Cross can be made idolatrous if men worship it, as some do. Your favorite sports team can become an idol, or your favorite band or tv sahow, or your hobby. Anything that is more important to you than God is an idol.
6) Take a breath and relax. There is no great evil going on in any of these things. Those who see evil in all sorts of symbols and ideas and people and happenings are themselves deceived by Satan. The real evil in the world is man refusing the salvation in Jesus Christ offered him by the Father and presented to him by the Holy Spirit. The real conspiracy is not some secret organizati0on trying to take over the world, but Satan trying to destroy as many human beings as he can, robbing God of the souls for whom He suffered on the Cross and died as the substitute for them, taking the punishment we all deserve. Keep your focus on Jesus and the gospel we are to proclaim. Don't let Satan drag you off into vain concerns and activity.

[Chris]

Dr. Reagan did an article on the "story" behind Israel's Flag. Check it out here:

The Story Behind Israel's Flag

[IamPJ]

Excellent article Chris!!! Thanks for sharing. It was very interesting!

[mattfivefour]

I agree, Chris: that is indeed a fascinating and informative article.