quote from justin martyr

[Guest]

Hi Emmet,


I wrote:

Quote:
Whatever counterfeits may have existed before or after Jesus are just that, demonic counterfeits.

You wrote:

Justin lives!

Was Justin the first to assume that false gods were demons?

Leviticus 17:7
17:7 They shall no more offer their sacrifices to demons, after whom they have played the harlot. This shall be a statute forever for them throughout their generations." '

Deuteronomy 32:16-17
32:16 They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; With abominations they provoked Him to anger.
32:17 They sacrificed to demons, not to God, To gods they did not know, To new gods, new arrivals That your fathers did not fear.

Psalms 106:36-38
106:36 They served their idols, Which became a snare to them.
106:37 They even sacrificed their sons And their daughters to demons,
106:38 And shed innocent blood, The blood of their sons and daughters, Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; And the land was polluted with blood.

1 Corinthians 10:20
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.

Revelation 9:20
But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship Demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.

Robin

[Guest]

Hello, Robin,

Thank you for your response.

Your usage of the quotation from Leviticus is strongly dependent upon translation. With an eye to the Hebrew, it is not necessary to understand the statement as a citation of demons in the Christian sense, nor as an expression of the understanding that such were masquerading as gods, nor even as an indication that these beings actually existed in any real sense outside of the imagination of the sacrificers.

Likewise for the passages from Deuteronomy and Psalms.

As for your citation from Revelation, it does not claim that "Whatever counterfeits may have existed before or after Jesus are just that, demonic counterfeits," as you have said. Rather, there is mention of demons, and of dumb idols. These latter could be mere products of human theological imagination, as I have commented: "I can imagine more mundane origins for conceptual parallels than demonic activity. Quite often, human minds simply think alike."

Leaving us with Paul. Of course, in verse 19 he states that this is his own declaration, and he does not state that this is God's understanding. And beyond this, his thought that Gentile sacrifices were of benefit to demons does not necessarily predicate that he understood all Gentile mythology to be demonic in origin. Some in the early church believed that demons fed upon the blood of sacrifices, so the connection in Paul's mind may have been coincidental, and not direct. His understanding may have been that the Gentiles were in effect sacrificing to demons, because demons delighted in the victims' blood; this would not necessarily carry over to an understanding that all of the Gentile gods were really demons, nor that their mythological adventures were demonic in their genesis.


Shlamaa,
Emmet