In the New Testament the word [Greek: eidôlolatreia] (_idololatria_, afterwards shortened occasionally to [Greek: eidolatreia], _idolatria_) occurs in all four times, viz. in 1 Cor. x. 14; Gal. v. 20; 1 Peter iv. 3; Col. iii. 5. In the last of these passages it is used to describe the sin of covetousness or "mammon-worship." In the other places it indicates with the utmost generality all the rites and practices of those special forms of paganism with which Christianity first came into collision. It can only be understood by reference to the LXX., where [Greek: eidôlon] (like the word "idol" in A.V.) occasionally translates indifferently no fewer than sixteen words by which in the Old Testament the objects of what the later Jews called "strange worship" (Hebrew: avoda zara) are denoted (see _Encyclopaedia Biblica_). In the widest acceptation of the word, idolatry in any form is absolutely forbidden in the second commandment, which runs "Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image; [and] to no visible shape in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth, shalt thou bow down or render service" (see DECALOGUE). For some account of the questions connected with the breaches of this law which are recorded in the history of the Israelites see the article JEWS; those differences as to the interpretation of the prohibition which have so seriously divided Christendom are discussed under the head of ICONOCLASTS. In the ancient church, idolatry was naturally reckoned among those _magna crimina_ or great crimes against the first and second commandments which involved the highest ecclesiastical censures. Not only were those who had gone openly to heathen temples and partaken in the sacrifices (_sacrificati_) or burnt incense (_thurificati_) held guilty of this crime; the same charge, in various degrees, was incurred by those whose renunciation of idolatry had been private merely, or who otherwise had used unworthy means to evade persecution, by those also who had feigned themselves mad to avoid sacrificing, by all promoters and encouragers of idolatrous rites, and by idol makers, incense sellers and architects or builders of structures connected with idol worship. Idolatry was made a crime against the state by the laws of Constantius (_Cod. Theod._ xvi. 10. 4, 6), forbidding all sacrifices on pain of death, and still more by the statutes of Theodosius (_Cod. Theod._ xvi. 10. 12) enacted in 392, in which sacrifice and divination were declared treasonable and punishable with death; the use of lights, incense, garlands and libations was to involve the forfeiture of house and land where they were used; and all who entered heathen temples were to be fined. See Bingham, _Antiqq._ bk. xvi. c. 4. See also IMAGE-WORSHIP; and on the whole question, RELIGION. FOOTNOTE: