1 Corinthians 10:20Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"But what the heathen sacrifice," he says, "they sacrifice to demons and not to God" (1 Cor 10:20). Do not turn, then, to what is contrary to God. If you were a king’s son and, while sharing in your father’s table, wished to leave it and share in the table of criminals and imprisoned convicts, would your father allow it? On the contrary, he would strictly forbid it, not because that table could harm you, but because it dishonors your nobility and the royal table. So also these who sacrifice to idols are low slaves, criminals, and condemned prisoners, kept for severe punishment and worthy of a thousand penalties. How, then, are you not ashamed to rush, like gluttons and slaves, toward the table offered by these criminals and to share in what is offered? This is why I turn you away from it.

No, but what the pagans sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. Therefore do not run to the enemies of your Master. If you left the king’s table and went over to the table of the condemned, you would undoubtedly sin. This would not be because that table harmed or benefited you, but because your action would appear as an insult to the king’s table. “But I do not want you to be in communion with demons.” For if those who partake of the mystical table become sharers with Christ, then those who take part in a demonic table plainly enter into communion with demons.

From the fact that man made gods, it by no means follows that the maker himself did not fall under their power when, through worship, he entered into communion with them. I mean communion, I think, not with senseless idols, but with wicked demons. For what are idols, except what the same Scripture says: "They have eyes, but they do not see" (Ps 135:16)? The same must be said of everything similar, however skillfully made, which is without life and sense. But unclean spirits, attached to these same idols through criminal art, bring the souls of their worshipers into communion with themselves. In this way they truly lay upon them the miserable chains of slavery. Therefore the Apostle says: "An idol is nothing in the world. The heathen sacrifice to demons and not to God. But I do not want you to have communion with demons" (1 Cor 8:4; 10:20).

For I know that what the pagans sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons. For this reason I exhort you to avoid them, since your communion with demons removes you from communion with our Lord.

Paul first shows them what is visible in the pagan temple, and then the hidden crookedness of the mystery, since Satan comes in order to destroy faith in the one God.

But let no one think that I am saying things sacrificed to idols have some power and by their nature can defile the one who eats. I do not mean this, but that those who serve this superstition offer sacrifices to demons. “I do not want you to become sharers with demons.” Then the Apostle inspires greater fear.

Before the holy invocation of the worshiped Trinity, the bread and wine of the Eucharist were simple bread and wine. After the invocation has been completed, the bread becomes the Body of Christ and the wine the Blood of Christ. In exactly the same way, these foods of Satan’s retinue, simple by nature, become defiled through the invocations of demons.

“They sacrifice to demons,” δαιμονίοις. Earlier the Apostle said that an idol is nothing, because it represents no real power. Yet the very service of idols has a deep meaning. According to its unclean source, it is called service to demons. The Apostle takes this name from the Old Testament (Deut 32:17; Ps 95:5). This, of course, was the view by which the Apostles were guided at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15), when they forbade Christians from among the Gentiles to eat things sacrificed to idols. “To become sharers with demons.” Through eating things sacrificed to idols, people become sharers with demons. “For if among men the communion of salt and table becomes an occasion and sign of friendship, the same can also be true in relation to demons” (Chrysostom).

After this the Apostle teaches that eating things sacrificed to idols is, in its own way, communion with demons and participation in a demonic table. "I speak as to sensible men" (1 Cor 10:15). "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the Blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the Body of Christ?" (1 Cor 10:16). But "are not those who eat the sacrifices participants of the altar?" (1 Cor 10:18). And since "what the heathen sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God," then "I do not want you," consciously and voluntarily, "to have communion with demons" (1 Cor 10:20). "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons" (1 Cor 10:21).

At first glance there seems to be some difference between the Apostle’s earlier teaching about idols and sacrifices to them and his present view. In fact, there is none. Chrysostom presents the Apostle as speaking in this place in this way: "I turn you away from idols, not because they can cause any harm or have any power. They are nothing. But I want you to despise them. The sacrifices are not offered to your Lord. For what the heathen sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. Do not turn to what is contrary to God. The aim of those who offer sacrifices and the character of the persons receiving them, that is, the demons, make what is offered unclean.

The course of the discourse is this: I am not saying that an idol is anything, or that what is offered to idols is anything. No. Rather, I say that what the heathen sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons. Consequently, those who eat from these sacrifices have communion with demons. But I do not want you to be sharers with demons. "I say this and turn you away from idols, not because they can cause any harm or have any power. They are nothing. But I want you to despise them. If he wants us to despise them, you will say, why does he turn us away from them with such intensity? Because their sacrifices are not offered to your Lord. 'For what the heathen sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God.' Do not turn to what is contrary to God.