8:5
Paul clarifies what it means that “idols do not exist” (8:5) and that
“there is no God but one” (8:6). The εἴπερ (eiper) is not concessive, “Even though there may be …,
yet for us …” (NRSV, NIV, ESV). Instead, it implies that the supposition
agrees with the fact (cf. Rom. 3:20; 2 Thess. 1:6), and the ὥσπερ (hōsper) introduces the statement that the supposition is indeed
a fact: “then, in that sense, there are …” (Smit 1996: 585n27; cf. Weiss
1910: 220–21). The indicative mood, “there are” (εἰσίν), presents the picture of a world
chock-full of gods that are real rivals to the one God (Denaux 1996: 600). The
phrase “the so-called gods” (λεγόμενοι θεοί, legomenoi
theoi; cf. 2 Thess. 2:4) defers to popular parlance that identifies
them as gods but insinuates that they are not deities (Winter 1991b: 130–31;
1995: 174; Smit 1996: 585). That they are not divine does not mean that Paul
denies their presence, activity, and power as a spiritual reality. They are not
simply figments “in the minds of those who have given them a pseudo-reality by
believing in them,” as Fee (2014: 409) contends. In Gal. 4:8, Paul writes that
the Galatians are in bondage to beings that are by nature not gods, but these
“no gods” still have the power to enslave. In 1 Cor. 10:14–22, he again
insists that idols are nothing but maintains that they embody a demonic reality
that is far more threatening than a subjective reality in the mind of a worshiper
(cf. Isa. 63:3; 65:11). He says that sacrifices to idols are sacrifices to
demons, and partaking of these sacrifices to idols bonds the worshiper to
demons (1 Cor. 10:19–20). N. Wright (1992: 128) states, “The pagan
pantheon cannot be dismissed as metaphysically nonexistent and therefore
morally irrelevant. It signals an actual phenomenon within the surrounding
culture that must be faced and dealt with, not simply sidestepped” (cf. Héring
1962: 68–69).
The various deities worshiped in the Greco-Roman world were so diverse
and numerous that it is difficult to pinpoint exactly what Paul may have meant
by the reference to “many gods and many lords.” The “gods” may represent the
traditional pantheon of gods, and the “lords” the figures venerated as lords in
the mystery cults (Fee 2014: 412; Hays 1997: 139). The dichotomy between gods
in heaven and those on earth (εἴτε ἐν οὐρανῷ εἴτε ἐπὶ γῆς, eite en ouranō eite epi gēs) may
signify a distinction between the gods presumed to operate in the upperworld
and those in the underworld. The gods on the earth may represent the deified
emperors and family members given homage in the imperial cult (Winter 1990:
211–13; 1995: 175; against this, see Héring 1962: 69). (David E. Garland,
1 Corinthians [2d ed.; Baker Exegetical Commentary on the
New Testament; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2025], 347-48)
