How comes the word 偶像 is related to worship? As I read the Bible, 偶像 means the idols made by man and being worshiped. As I know there are 3 meaning of the word 偶像:

木偶 &amp; 雕像, used in different proposes such as decoration art performance
the items made and worshiped by man
the celebrities followed by fans

The 3rd meaning is definitely an extension of the 2nd meaning, but the 1st meaning seems to have no relation with the 2nd one: I don't see the direct causal relationship in art and worship. Because the 1st meaning is the closest to the literal meaning, I guess it is the original meaning.
The reason makes me more curious about this word is that the English word &quot;idol&quot; has exactly these 3 meanings. Is that coincident? But the English language is influenced a lot by the Bible, so I guess it makes sense the English word &quot;idol&quot; has these 3 meanings. However, I don't think the Chinese Language has such an influence.
My hypotheses:

There are some intrinsic relations between the 1st meaning and the 2nd meaning, so the English word and the Chinese evolved in the same way.
Some ancient Christian like 景教 in the Tang dynasty created the relation between statues and worship.
The English language directly influenced the Chinese language, so the result is the Chinese word 偶像 just copied all the meanings from the English word “idol”.

I think the key to this question is when the word 偶像 began to have worship related meaning. However, that is something I failed to find after searching online.
My understanding is, early people made wooden or stone figures/statues to represent the gods they worshiped.
The meaning of 偶像 (木偶 &amp; 雕像) extended from [figures/ statues] --&gt; [item for worshiping]  --&gt; [individual to be worshiped]
The difference between '神像' and '雕像' is '雕像' is just a  statue but '神像' is a statue that represents a god (2.the items made and worshiped by man)