Acts 7:41

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

At that time they made an idol in the form of a calf, brought a sacrifice to the idol, and began rejoicing in the works of their hands.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

Καὶ ἐμοσχοποίησαν ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις, καὶ ἀνήγαγον θυσίαν τῷ εἰδώλῳ, καὶ εὐφραίνοντο ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις τῶν χειρῶν αὐτῶν.

Transliteration

And they emoschopoiēsan in the hēmerais those, and anēgagon thysian to-the eidōlō, and euphrainonto in the ergois of-the cheirōn of-them.

Grammar Details

• *emoschopoiēsan*: aorist active indicative, 3rd plural - made a calf
• *hēmerais*: dative, feminine, plural - days
• *anēgagon*: aorist active indicative, 3rd plural - brought up/offered up
• *thysian*: accusative, feminine, singular - sacrifice
• *eidōlō*: dative, neuter, singular - idol
• *euphrainonto*: imperfect middle/passive indicative, 3rd plural - were rejoicing
• *ergois*: dative, neuter, plural - works
• *cheirōn*: genitive, feminine, plural - hands

Word Meanings

• *emoschopoiēsan*: made a calf-idol/fashioned a young bull
• *anēgagon*: brought up/offered up/led up
• *thysian*: sacrifice/offering
• *eidōlō*: idol/image
• *euphrainonto*: rejoiced/celebrated/made merry

Referenced Verses

• Exod 32:2-8 : 2 So Aaron said to them,“Break off the gold earrings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people broke off the gold earrings that were on their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 He accepted the gold from them, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molten calf. Then they said,“These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said,“Tomorrow will be a feast to the LORD.” 6 So they got up early on the next day and offered up burnt offerings and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play. 7 The LORD spoke to Moses:“Go quickly, descend, because your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have acted corruptly. 8 They have quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them– they have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and said,‘These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt.’”
• Exod 32:17-20 : 17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses,“It is the sound of war in the camp!” 18 Moses said,“It is not the sound of those who shout for victory, nor is it the sound of those who cry because they are overcome, but the sound of singing I hear.” 19 When he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became extremely angry. He threw the tablets from his hands and broke them to pieces at the bottom of the mountain. 20 He took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, poured it out on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.
• Deut 9:12-18 : 12 And he said to me,“Get up, go down at once from here because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have sinned! They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them and have made for themselves a cast metal image.” 13 Moreover, he said to me,“I have taken note of these people; they are a stubborn lot! 14 Stand aside and I will destroy them, obliterating their very name from memory, and I will make you into a stronger and more numerous nation than they are.” 15 So I turned and went down the mountain while it was blazing with fire; the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands. 16 When I looked, you had indeed sinned against the LORD your God and had cast for yourselves a metal calf; you had quickly turned aside from the way he had commanded you! 17 I grabbed the two tablets, threw them down, and shattered them before your very eyes. 18 Then I again fell down before the LORD for forty days and nights; I ate and drank nothing because of all the sin you had committed, doing such evil before the LORD as to enrage him.
• Neh 9:18 : 18 even when they made a cast image of a calf for themselves and said,‘This is your God who brought you up from Egypt,’ or when they committed atrocious blasphemies.
• Ps 106:19-21 : 19 They made an image of a calf at Horeb, and worshiped a metal idol. 20 They traded their majestic God for the image of an ox that eats grass. 21 They rejected the God who delivered them, the one who performed great deeds in Egypt,
• Isa 2:8-9 : 8 Their land is full of worthless idols; they worship the product of their own hands, what their own fingers have fashioned. 9 Men bow down to them in homage, they lie flat on the ground in worship. Don’t spare them!
• Isa 44:9-9 : 9 All who form idols are nothing; the things in which they delight are worthless. Their witnesses cannot see; they recognize nothing, so they are put to shame. 10 Who forms a god and casts an idol that will prove worthless? 11 Look, all his associates will be put to shame; the craftsmen are mere humans. Let them all assemble and take their stand! They will panic and be put to shame. 12 A blacksmith works with his tool and forges metal over the coals. He forms it with hammers; he makes it with his strong arm. He gets hungry and loses his energy; he drinks no water and gets tired. 13 A carpenter takes measurements; he marks out an outline of its form; he scrapes it with chisels, and marks it with a compass. He patterns it after the human form, like a well-built human being, and puts it in a shrine. 14 He cuts down cedars and acquires a cypress or an oak. He gets trees from the forest; he plants a cedar and the rain makes it grow. 15 A man uses it to make a fire; he takes some of it and warms himself. Yes, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Then he makes a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. 16 Half of it he burns in the fire– over that half he cooks meat; he roasts a meal and fills himself. Yes, he warms himself and says,‘Ah! I am warm as I look at the fire.’ 17 With the rest of it he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships it. He prays to it, saying,‘Rescue me, for you are my god!’ 18 They do not comprehend or understand, for their eyes are blind and cannot see; their minds do not discern. 19 No one thinks to himself, nor do they comprehend or understand and say to themselves:‘I burned half of it in the fire– yes, I baked bread over the coals; I roasted meat and ate it. With the rest of it should I make a disgusting idol? Should I bow down to dry wood?’ 20 He feeds on ashes; his deceived mind misleads him. He cannot rescue himself, nor does he say,‘Is this not a false god I hold in my right hand?’
• Hos 9:1 : 1 Fertility Cult Festivals Have Intoxicated Israel O Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly like the nations, for you are unfaithful to your God. You love to receive a prostitute’s wages on all the floors where you thresh your grain.
• Hos 9:10 : 10 When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the wilderness. I viewed your ancestors like an early fig on a fig tree in its first season. Then they came to Baal-Peor and they dedicated themselves to shame– they became as detestable as what they loved.
• Hab 2:18-20 : 18 What good is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? Why would its creator place his trust in it and make such mute, worthless things? 19 Woe to the one who says to wood,‘Wake up!’– he who says to speechless stone,‘Awake!’ Can it give reliable guidance? It is overlaid with gold and silver; it has no life’s breath inside it. 20 But the LORD is in his majestic palace. The whole earth is speechless in his presence!”
• Rev 9:20 : 20 The rest of humanity, who had not been killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so that they did not stop worshiping demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood– idols that cannot see or hear or walk about.