Paul’s Reference to
Deuteronomy 32:17
In 1 Cor 10:21–22, Paul is having
a discussion about sacrificing to idols and eating the meat sacrificed to
idols. He warns the believers there in Corinth in these two verses to avoid all
of this, to avoid this meat. Why? Because you have to be careful, because if
you partake of it, you enter into fellowship with demons.
Now, Paul believed demons were
real. He’s quoting Deut 32:17 and assigning reality to the shedim, to the other elohim
from these other nations that the Israelites fell into idolatry with.
So, let’s put all that together.
We have a person under inspiration, the apostle Paul, quoting this passage in
Deut 32, affirming that the elohim
here were real; they’re real beings. Paul refers to them as demons. These
beings were allotted to the other nations. These elohim allotted to the other nations are called the host of heaven,
the sun, moon, and stars in Deut 4.
So Deuteronomy, all through the
whole book (chapter 4 all the way to 32), assumes the existence, the reality,
of these other gods. But it’s in that same chapter, Deut 4, where all of this
starts, where this thread starts, where we have this phrase that “there is none
beside me.”
Yahweh’s Incomparability Negates Contradiction
Now, if such statements like that
were to telegraph the idea that these entities don’t really exist, then either
Deut 32 is wrong or Paul is wrong, or both. We don’t have that problem though
if we just say, “Look, statements like ‘there is none besides me’ just mean
that Yahweh is incomparable. These other elohim
exist; they are inferior. They are not like Yahweh. He is species unique.”
There is no problem theologically if we take the verse—and not just this verse,
but the whole statement found in other verses and similar statements found in
many places in the Old Testament—if we just take them as statements of
incomparability, we don’t have a theological contradiction. (Michael
S. Heiser, Sons and Daughters of God: The Believer’s Identity, Calling, and
Destiny, [Logos Mobile Education; Bellingham, Wash.: Lexham Press, 2019],
Logos Bible Software Edition)
Paul on Deuteronomy 32:17
The apostle Paul quotes Deut
32:17, which calls these real spirit beings “demons.” He quotes that passage in
1 Cor 10:21–22, when he warns the Corinthians not to eat meat sacrificed to
idols because they would be in fellowship with demons. “Outside the temple
context,” Paul says in 1 Cor 8, “it’s okay, but when it’s connected to a temple
complex, you do this, you are in fellowship with demons.” Paul took these
beings, the gods of these nations, who are called shedim, translated “demons” in the OT—he took them as real
entities.
This is part of the OT rationale
for how to view reality, how to view the world. Israel was alone against the
nations in part because all those nations had other gods. Initially it was
because they were punished with them, because of what happened at Babel, but
eventually those beings seduced the Israelites into moving away from the true
God, worshiping them, and that really frames the entirety of the rest of the OT.
This is why there is such
spiritual conflict. This is why we have apostasy. This is ultimately why we
have the exile. There was a spiritual warfare going on in the OT, and it all
starts with Deut 32:8–9. It is the introduction to what scholars call “cosmic
geography.” Israel is Yahweh’s domain. All the other nations are under dominion
of other real spiritual entities. (Michael S. Heiser, B161 Problems
in the Bible Interpretation: Difficult Passages I [Logos Mobile Edition;
Bellingham, Wash.: Lexham Press, 2016], Logos Bible Software edition)
