Although often overlooked today, whether or not to eat food that had been sacrificed to idols was a major issue in first-century Christianity, especially in urban centers like Corinth. The city was teeming with temples, idols, and smaller shrines. Divinities abounded and devotees made offerings regularly from a little wine poured out at a home shrine to full animal sacrifices amid the pomp and circumstance of a city-funded celebration in the main forum. It’s hard for us to imagine the immense social pressure, especially on elite Christians, to attend state sacrifices, eat meals at temple dining rooms, and accept invitations to banquets at which meats from animals sacrificed to the gods would be served. Join me to see what the idolatry landscape was like in Corinth and how Paul instructed the Christians there to navigate the situation with fidelity and grace.
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2 thoughts on “592 1 Corinthians in Context 9: Food Sacrificed to Idols”
Hi there, I am enjoying your corinthians context series. Very good to have so much tightly packed information which gives us an idea about how different the roman world was from our own.
I did want to comment a little on this one, about taking part in ceremonies which were dedicated to idols. You make the argument that it was to be avoided because there really are evil entities that lay behind the idols which are worshipped. The weakness in that position is that it doesn’t really apply in the case of dead members of the royal Roman family. These specific idols are merely objects, since I think you don’t believe in immortal souls, they are just like our statues of heroes etc.
When God punished the people for worshipping the golden calf, it wasn’t because they were worshipping an evil Egyptian spirit. They made it clear that their worship was of Yahweh who brought them out of Egypt.
Our father speaks against any form of worship of anything which is not himself, or instructed by himself, Planets, animals, bits of stick or clay. Because it’s all a denial of Yahweh being the one and only God. One therefore shouldn’t participate in the worship rituals associated with things that are bowed to instead of the one God. (I could do some verses if you’d like, but just now I’m on my mobile). In other words, it’s not because there really was a Baal/Thor god, but because acceptance or participation in the veneration of such an idol is a personal denial of the total power of Yahweh himself.
Hey there, it’s me again. Thanks for reacting to my comment on your podcast, it’s kind of a shame we didnt get to chat properly when we met in the UK a few months ago.
Thanks for your honesty about not knowing how ‘demons’ get to inhabit or associate themselves with idols. It’s the sort of thing that intrigues me about the belief in supernatural demons. And no, I’m not suggesting any sort of pattern from the golden calf. Just that in that case they proclaimed the name Yahweh, while worshipping an object. A form of worship God was very angry with, because it fits the pattern of worshipping creation rather than the creator.
Your closing remarks, worth mentioning here, is again on that link between the idol and demon, taking scripture as reinforcement.
Psalm 106:37-38 ESV
[37] They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; [38] they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.
Sacrificing to idols is identified as the same as sacrificing to demons.
My stance is that since so much effort and ridicule is aimed at those who sacrifice and pray to bits of wood, then this suggests that a demon is nothing too.
But that leads to a more complex discussion on those texts, and where the ancients thought demons came from, what power they were supposed to have etc.
Thanks for responding.
All the best in your efforts to recover truth and live it out today.
David
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Hi there, I am enjoying your corinthians context series. Very good to have so much tightly packed information which gives us an idea about how different the roman world was from our own.
I did want to comment a little on this one, about taking part in ceremonies which were dedicated to idols. You make the argument that it was to be avoided because there really are evil entities that lay behind the idols which are worshipped. The weakness in that position is that it doesn’t really apply in the case of dead members of the royal Roman family. These specific idols are merely objects, since I think you don’t believe in immortal souls, they are just like our statues of heroes etc.
When God punished the people for worshipping the golden calf, it wasn’t because they were worshipping an evil Egyptian spirit. They made it clear that their worship was of Yahweh who brought them out of Egypt.
Our father speaks against any form of worship of anything which is not himself, or instructed by himself, Planets, animals, bits of stick or clay. Because it’s all a denial of Yahweh being the one and only God. One therefore shouldn’t participate in the worship rituals associated with things that are bowed to instead of the one God. (I could do some verses if you’d like, but just now I’m on my mobile). In other words, it’s not because there really was a Baal/Thor god, but because acceptance or participation in the veneration of such an idol is a personal denial of the total power of Yahweh himself.
Hey there, it’s me again. Thanks for reacting to my comment on your podcast, it’s kind of a shame we didnt get to chat properly when we met in the UK a few months ago.
Thanks for your honesty about not knowing how ‘demons’ get to inhabit or associate themselves with idols. It’s the sort of thing that intrigues me about the belief in supernatural demons. And no, I’m not suggesting any sort of pattern from the golden calf. Just that in that case they proclaimed the name Yahweh, while worshipping an object. A form of worship God was very angry with, because it fits the pattern of worshipping creation rather than the creator.
Your closing remarks, worth mentioning here, is again on that link between the idol and demon, taking scripture as reinforcement.
Psalm 106:37-38 ESV
[37] They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; [38] they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.
Sacrificing to idols is identified as the same as sacrificing to demons.
My stance is that since so much effort and ridicule is aimed at those who sacrifice and pray to bits of wood, then this suggests that a demon is nothing too.
But that leads to a more complex discussion on those texts, and where the ancients thought demons came from, what power they were supposed to have etc.
Thanks for responding.
All the best in your efforts to recover truth and live it out today.
David