Reference: Remphan
American
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Easton
(Ac 7:43; R.V., "Rephan"). In Am 5:26 the Heb Chiun (q.v.) is rendered by the LXX. "Rephan," and this name is adopted by Luke in his narrative of the Acts. These names represent the star-god Saturn or Moloch.
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Fausets
CHIUN. Am 5:26-27, "ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god which ye made to yourselves." Ac 7:42-43 from the Septuagint of Amos, "ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them." Instead of "Chiun your images" Pusey, deriving Chiun from chun "to fix firmly," translated Amos, "ye did bear the (portable) shrine of your idol king, and the pedestal of your images," etc. Israel secretly carried on idolatry in the wilderness, with a small shrine escaping Moses' observation (Eze 20:7-8,39; 23:3; Jos 24:14).
Ken and Rempu were foreign gods worshipped jointly in Egypt; they became seemingly interchangeable names, so that Chiun in Amos answers to Remphan in Acts; and this god in turn is but another phase of Moloch or Saturn, the "star god". A star was put on the head of the images of the idol representing Saturn; hence "images" answer to "star" in parallelism. The Egyptians represented Rempu as an Asiatic with full board and face of the type given on the monuments to nations E. of Egypt. Ken was represented naked, holding grain in both hands, and standing on a lion; answering to the Syrian goddess or Venus, called also Ketesh (Hebrew qideeshaah "consecrated".) Ken is related to Khem, the Egyptian god of productiveness, Remphan and Chiun answer to the Phoenician Baal and Astarte or Ashtoreth (Mylitta of Babylon).
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Hastings
Morish
Rem'phan
The name of a god in Ac 7:43, which Israel had worshipped (but some of the Greek MSS read REPHAN). Stephen was quoting Am 5:25-26 from the LXX, which has RAEPHAN. In the Hebrew the name of the god is CHIUN, but why the translators changed the name is not known. There have been found among the foreign gods in Egypt one named RENPU, and a goddess KEN, which may have been those referred to.
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Smith
Rem'phan,
and Chi'un,
have been supposed to be names of an idol worshipped secretly by the Israelites in the wilderness, difficulty has been occasioned by this corresponding occurrence of two names so wholly different in sound. The most reasonable opinion seems to be that Chiun was a Hebrew or Semitic name, and Remphan an Egyptian equivalent substituted by the LXX. This idol corresponded probably to Saturn or Molech. The mention of Chiun or Remphan as worshipped in the desert shows that this idolatry was, in part at least that of foreigners, and no doubt of those settled in lower Egypt.
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Watsons
REMPHAN, ???? '?????, signifies an idol, according to the Septuagint. Am 5:26, upbraids the Hebrews with having carried, during their wanderings in the wilderness, the tabernacle of their Moloch and Chiun, their images, the star of their god, which they made to themselves, according to our version of the Bible. St. Stephen, quoting this passage of Amos, says, "Ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan," Ac 7:43, which has given occasion to a variety of conjectures. Grotius thinks it to have been some deity, as Rimmon; and Capellus and Hammond take this Remphan to be a king of Egypt, deified by his subjects; a late writer is of opinion, that God here refers to the idolatries to which in succeeding ages the Jews were gradually given up, after having begun to revolt in the wilderness by the sin of the golden calf.