1 Corinthians 10:19,20 – demons versus the óne GOD

What, then, am I averring? That an idol sacrifice is anything? Or that an idol is anything? But that that which the nations are sacrificing, they are sacrificing to demons and not to God. Now I do not want you to become participants with demons.

Did Paul mean by his earlier exhortation to flee idolatry (:14) that one should be afraid of an idol? Or that meat devoted to an idol would be ‘contaminated’ among other things? No, quite the contrary. No because idols are mere inventions of humans. An idol is nothing. An idol is therefore not dangerous, but… the service to idols ís dangerous. Because an idol distracts from the one GOD.

When the nations sacrifice in their temples, it is not to the one GOD but to demons. Not like the common translations read: to “evil spirits” of “devils”. Paul   uses the word ‘demons’ and that is not an accusation or value judgement. No Greek could blame him for this assertion. For the word ‘demons’ was also the name they used for their gods (Acts 17:18). Demons are the gods of the nations (Ps. 96:5). Demons are opposite the one GOD. They are as darkness and light and are incompatible (2 Cor. 6:16).

Delen: