What is a graven image?

When I was thinking about images – I stumbled onto an interesting idea.

What is a graven image?

In Exodus 20:4, it says, “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.”

Honestly, it sounds like we cannot create anything – and maybe we are limited in what we should create. Let’s think through it before we decide.

When it says, “make for yourself an image,” sometimes it is translated “graven image” and sometimes “carved image” and sometimes “idol.”

I did a little word study because I was curious about graven, and this may be a stretch, I don’t know, but it spoke to me.

Graven also evolved into engrave, which means to cut or carve out. But the word graven comes from the word grave, which used to mean “to dig or excavate,” which is how we over time formed the word “grave” to refer to burial. It also means to carve or to shape, or to impress or to fix (as a thought) deeply. The word grave also alludes to “death,” which is one reason “grave” also refers to a serious situation. However, when I looked at these things in the dictionary, I saw that “graven” has only been in use since sometime around the 12th century, which meant there must have been a word in Hebrew that was older and meant relatively the same thing.

I got out my key word study bible where I can find out what Hebrew or Greek words mean, because I wanted to know if there was any link to death in the definition or original language. I wanted to know if a graven image = a dead image.

What I found was that the Hebrew word generally meant, “idol, graven image” and “to carve or to cut.” Since graven is a relatively new word compared to the biblical word I was still intrigued. In the definition, I found a bible verse which supported the idea of a dead image. Generally idols do refer to carved or cut materials such as wood, metal, or stone, but could it refer to more than carved images?

Everyone is senseless and without knowledge;
    every goldsmith is shamed by his idols.
The images he makes are a fraud;
    they have no breath in them. Jeremiah 10:14

If you have extra time, read the whole chapter (Jeremiah 10).

The word translated breath generally means, “spirit, wind, breath,” and often refers to the Holy Spirit.

What does this mean for us?

It means that any image without life is dead – even the personal images we create, the images we think about, and the way we choose to create anything – if it is not Spirit breathed, then it is a dead image or idol.

The Bible without the Spirit is a dead idol, but we don’t have to worry about that because the Bible says that it is God-breathed (2 Tim 3:16).

You without the Spirit are a dead idol because you are your own god.

A book written out of our own creativity without the life-force of God could in fact be an idol.

Anything we pursue that God has not fanned the flame of pursuit is a dead pursuit.

However, with God as creator in you, you are free to create. Naturally, being in the image of God, there is an innate desire in us to create, and I think this applies to all mankind.

Think about how He created us – He breathed life into us. What we create should breathe life into us and to others.

As we think about who we are, it only makes sense that we should gravitate to the things that give us energy and incite passion in us – God has designed us with certain passions for a reason. Those passions are a clue to who you are.

The places we pretend and hide – those are dead images; those are the ways in which we are fraudulent. Perhaps that’s why God insisted that Adam and Eve come out of hiding in the beginning. It is impossible to have a relationship with God if we insist on pretending or hiding.

Could it be that the reason He does not want us to create graven images is that it is easier to worship the created and what we’ve created over the true Creator? Could it be that graven images lead to death not life and He wants what is best for us – to live life abundantly and to offer it to others as well?

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