Amos 5:26

Amos 5:26. And Chiun your images— And the image of our idols. Houbigant; who understands the word כיון chiun to be an appellative, and not a proper name in this place. The LXX for Chiun read Ραιφαν, Raiphan, and St. Stephen, Acts 7:43. Ρεμφαν, Remphan, or, as some copies read, Ραφαν, or Ρεφαν. Parkhurst is of opinion, that Chiun and Remphan are two words very properly expressive of one and the same god. Learned men have generally supposed that the Arabian or Canaanitish כיון chiun, answers to the Greek Chronos, and the Roman Saturn: an opinion not a little confirmed by the attributes given to Chronos, in the Orphic hymn addressed to that idol. He is there called the ever-blooming father of gods and men. He is said to subdue or consume all things, and again to renew them. The attributes of universal parent of the world,—fructifier [Βλαστημα ] of earth and heaven, and several other remarkable epithets are assigned to him. We meet with an idol of the same kind, and almost of the same nature as Chiun, among the West-Indian philosophers: the Peruvians relate, "That a man of extraordinary shape, whose name was Choun, and whose body had neither bones nor muscles, came from the north into their country: that he levelled mountains, filled up valleys, and opened himself a passage through the most inaccessible places: and that this Choun created the first inhabitants of Peru, giving them herbs and wild fruits of the field for their sustenance." They also relate, that "this first founder of Peru, having been injured by some savages who inhabited the plains, changed part of the ground which before had been very fruitful, into sand; forbad the rain to fall, and dried up the plants: but, being afterwards moved with compassion, he opened the springs, and suffered the rivers to flow. This Choun was worshipped as a god, till such time as Pachacamac came from the South." See Religious Ceremonies, &c. vol. 3: p. 199 and Parkhurst's Lexicon on the word כיון.

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