Remphan

Remphan (hrem-'fan) was an ancient Egyptian deity worshiped through its idol. St. Stephen mentions Remphan as "the star of your god whose images you made to worship" in Acts 7:43 (King James version).

Remphan is a rendering of the ancient Greek Ancient Greek: ρεμφαν. Various manuscripts offer other transliterations, e.g. Ancient Greek: Ῥομφά, Ῥεμφάν, Ῥεμφάμ, Ῥαιφάν, and Ῥεφάν. It is part of a reference to Amos 5:26, which reads in Hebrew as "Chiun", "Kewan", or "Kijun". The Septuagint's reading of Amos is "raiphan" or "rephan". The Greek forms may be based on a transliteration of the Hebrew, k (qoppa) having been replaced by r (resh) and ph substituted for v (yod).

"Kewan" is probably the Old Babylonian "Kayawanu", the planet Saturn; another (the Akkadian) name for the planet is "Sakkut", which appears as "Siccuth" in the earlier part of the verse. The Star of Remphan as mentioned in Acts 7 was invoked as a part of ritual child sacrifice.

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Remphan". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 82.