Friday, July 21, 2023

Victor Paul Furnish: the Gods and Lords of 1 Corinthians 8:5 having ontological existence

  

Elsewhere Paul speaks of “the rulers [hai archontai] of this age” (1 Cor 2:6, 8; cf. Eph 2:2, “the ruler [ho archon] of the dominion of the air”), powers which he perhaps has in mind when he refers to “so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth,” and to the “many gods and many lords” (1 Cor 8:5). Compare, as well, the references in the Fourth Gospel to “the ruler [ho archon] of this [or: the] world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11) . . . (Victor Paul Furnish, II Corinthians [AB 32a; Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1984], 220--how how this means that the Gods and Lords in 1 Cor 8:5 have ontological existence in light of Furnish's comments)