the Greeks had a god for it. In addition to the famous Olympian gods like Apollo
and Zeus there were many 'smaller' gods, such as Nyx, goddess of the night, ...
Exposition
Superstition and demons (2) Richard Morgan
The Bible is a book set apart from a world of pagan idolatry. In both the Old and New Testaments, the writers had to deal with people living in a world which fully believed in, and worshipped, demons. In this second this article we’ll explore some of the language of the Old Testament that helps take the myth out of demons.
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ET’S BEGIN our Old Testament survey by first joining Paul in Athens. “Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols” (Acts 17:16).* Perhaps doing a little sightseeing, Paul saw idols on every street corner, exemplifying the extreme idolatry of the Greek world. The Greeks had gods for everything—sea deities, sky deities, rustic deities . . . You name it; the Greeks had a god for it. In addition to the famous Olympian gods like Apollo and Zeus there were many ‘smaller’ gods, such as Nyx, goddess of the night, Glaucus, god of fishermen, and Comus, god of revelry, merrymaking and The Testimony, March 2012
festivity. Whatever happened in life, there was a god to suit. But that Paul’s spirit was “provoked” by this is in fact a Bible echo of the Deuteronomy passage which we looked at in the previous article that spoke of people sacrificing to demons. The Deuteronomy verse immediately before the one quoted by Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:20 reads as follows: “They stirred Him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger” (Deut. 32:16) Paul’s reaction was therefore God’s reaction; but the way Paul followed up, by his preaching in Athens, was distinct from the way the God of the Universe judged the idolatry referred to in Deuteronomy. Let’s have a look at how Yahweh dealt with those who sacrificed to demons in this chapter, because it is most instructive: *
Scripture quotations from the ESV.
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“They have made Me jealous with what is no god; they have provoked Me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are no people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. For a fire is kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol, devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains. “‘And I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend My arrows on them; they shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured by plague and poisonous pestilence; I will send the teeth of beasts against them, with the venom of things that crawl in the dust . . .’” (vv. 21-24). God says He will judge the people for sacrificing to demons (called “idols” in verse 21) by means of disasters, hunger and plague. What is noteworthy about the language here is that the terms employed for several of these judgements (perhaps all of them) are also the names of pagan deities in the world of that time. For instance, the word translated “plague” in verse 24 is the Hebrew word resheph; and Resheph was the name of a demon in the ancient world—he was a Canaanite deity of plague and war. The word translated “pestilence” (Heb. qeteb) in the same verse is also thought to be the name of a pagan deity. Explanations What’s going on here? This is not the only time that this phenomenon occurs in the Bible. Psalm 91 lists a number of things that might make one scared: “the deadly pestilence” (v. 3), “the terror of the night” (v. 5) and so on. It seems that there, too, the Hebrew words employed are also the names of ancient pagan gods. What the Bible cannot be doing is supporting the notion of the real existence of these small gods; the Bible is emphatic that there is only one God, a doctrine strongly asserted by Deuteronomy 32, in fact. What we have here is ‘demythologisation’—getting rid of mythological elements in order to discover the underlying meaning. This is what God is doing in Deuteronomy 32: He is taking the myth out of demons and the pagan deities of Canaan. The pagans of the day had gods of plague and pestilence, but Yahweh uses the very things they ascribed to their deities against themselves. He is saying, ‘I created these things, and I am in control of these things. There is only one God!’ As a result, at the very least those who read God’s words would learn to put their trust in Him instead of in those other deities, understanding
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The Canaanite god Resheph, the deity of plague and war, was a well-known god in ancient Near Eastern culture. He is depicted here in his Egyptian guise. Picture: Rama/Wikimedia Commons
now that He was mightier than all other gods. This was also the method used by Jesus when he cast out demons: showing that the Holy Spirit was more powerful than those demons. That’s the first step towards full demythologisation, and Paul completes the process in passages such as 1 Corinthians 10 and, as we shall see, Acts 17. There is another occurrence of the names of pagan deities in the prophecy of Habakkuk: “What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols! Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it. But the LORD is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him” (2:18-20). Here is the folly of false gods, a well-known Bible theme. However, look at what the prophet writes in the very next chapter: “God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His splendour covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise. His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from His hand; and there He veiled His power. Before Him went pestilence, and plague followed at His heels” (3:3-5). The Hebrew words translated “pestilence” and “plague” in verse 5 are respectively dabir and resheph (as mentioned before), both of them names of small pagan gods. The NET Bible has the The Testimony, March 2012
f ollowing note: “There are mythological echoes here, for in Canaanite literature the god Resheph aids Baal in his battles. See J. Day, ‘New Light on the Mythological Background of the Allusion to Resheph in Habakkuk III 5,’ VT 29 (1979): 353-55.” This is supported by the Wikipedia entry for the god Resheph: “The Hebrew of Habakkuk 3:5 names Dabir and Resheph marching defeated before El’s parade from Teman and Mount Paran. Dabir and Resheph are normally translated as Pestilence and Plague.”1 The Hebrew Bible, it should not be forgotten, attests to the non-existence of these divinities; but that doesn’t stop it using contemporary literature to demythologise (and also dramatise) its prophetic utterances. Paul does just the same in Acts 17:28 when he quotes from the poem Phaenomena written by the Greek poet Aratus. In the opening of that poem, Aratus insists upon mankind’s total dependence on Zeus, but Paul turns things round and ascribes this to the God of Israel. This too is the message of Deuteronomy 32: “Then He will say, ‘Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge, who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you; let them be your protection! “‘See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god beside Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of My hand’” (vv. 37-39).
“There is no god beside Me,” says Yahweh. The God of Israel is Sovereign! Whereas the pagan ascribed everything to no end of different gods, the Bible is emphatic that there is only one God Who does all things. We will see how Paul picks up on these things in his speech in Athens, but first let us note what is said at the beginning of the Song of Moses: “Do you thus repay the LORD, you foolish and senseless people? Is not He your father, Who created you, Who made you and established you? Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you” (vv. 6,7). Paul picks up on this teaching, that God is a Father through His creative acts. We will see, too, that he also alludes to the next verse in Deuteronomy: “When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when He divided mankind, He fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God” (v. 8). God is the Creator of all mankind, the Creator of human history, and supremely sovereign in all things. That is the emphatic answer to the “new gods” invented by the pagans and to which, from time to time, even His people Israel made sacrifices. 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resheph#In_Hebrew_Bible, accessed 2 Feb. 2011.
(To be concluded)
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