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Remphan (also spelled Rephan; ) is a word mentioned by Saint Stephen at the time of his death in the Book of Acts in the New Testament referring to an object of idolatrous worship:
Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon. (Acts 7:43)
It is generally agreed by Biblical scholars to be the same as the Hebrew Kiyyun or Chiun (), mentioned in Amos . Since the words "Kiyyun" ("Chiun") and "Remphan" are each hapax legomenon, there is debate whether they are meant as common or proper nouns. (2025). 9780884142539, SBL Press. ISBN 9780884142539 There is general agreement among bible scholars, however, that both remphan and chiun refer to the planet Saturn.' and the star of your god Remphan figures which ye made to worship them .' This clause differs widely from the Hebrew, which gives, “And Chiun your images, the star of your god which ye made to yourselves.” The LXX. seem to have read the words in a different order. Rephan, which is by them substituted for Chiun, is said to be the Egyptian name for Saturn (see Spencer, de Leg. Heb. p. 667), and may have been used by them as an equivalent for the other name which is found nowhere else but in Amos. The whole idea of the passage seems to be that the stars were being worshipped, and so it is an illustration suited for Stephen’s argument. “To worship them” is an addition not in the LXX.' from Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges.
The context for the admonition is that Amos had been sent to the northern Kingdom of Samaria, where Judaism had become syncretic with foreign idolatry, which he declares unacceptable. It is seen as a prophetic reference to Shalmaneser V's later capture of the Israelites and taking them into the cities of the Medes.
In the 18th century, Christian Gottlieb Wolff referenced the belief that the name actually came from Ancient Egypt, by way of the Ammonites, tying his worship into the period that Diodorus Siculus' history references the king "Remphis", possibly Ramses III, beginning a seven-generation decline of Egyptian civilization.
The August 1862 edition of The Quiver noted, "'The star of your god Remphan' is an expression which causes some difficulty. The star is probably the representation of the star Remphan, which Stephen with cutting reproach calls 'your god'. But who or what was Remphan? … The fact is, we know but little respecting the false gods worshipped in Syria and Palestine at different times, although the names of many of them have come down to us."
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