For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.
//Today’s verse presents a translation of the original Hebrew in Psalm 96. In it, the psalmist claims that the gods of the surrounding nations are all just idols.
But the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, the translation into Greek from Hebrew done in the second century BC, reflects a different opinion. In it, the word “idols” becomes “demons.” All of the competing gods are not idols, but demons.
The apostle Paul embraced this idea. Insisting that the Corinthians avoid anything to do with false gods, he calls these gods demons, not idols.
Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons. -1Corinthians 10:20-21
This makes me wonder. If idolatry has been replaced by demonology, what do the churches of today mean when they caution against idolatry?
