The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible

by Michael S. Heiser

A good scholarly resource on this point is Guy Waters, The End of Deuteronomy in the Epistles of Paul (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 221; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2006). See especially footnote 12 on page 134, where the Waters provides a list of commentators that argue Paul has Deut 32:17 explicitly in view in 1 Cor 10:20. Proving that the elohim/shedim of Deut 32:17 are not merely idols does not depend on 1 Cor 10:20. Their spiritual identity is evident after a trip through Deuteronomy. In Deut 32:8–9 (reading v. 8 with the Dead Sea Scrolls, as do the ESV and NRSV), when the nations were divided at the tower of Babel incident, the nations were placed by God under the authority of lesser elohim, the “sons of God” (see chapter 14 of this book for more detail). The parallel passage to that text is Deut 4:19–20. There the gods “allotted” to the other nations while Yahweh took Israel are called the “host of heaven.” Worshiping them is forbidden. This is the same language as in 1 Kgs 22:13–23, where the prophet Micaiah has a vision of a divine council meeting (see chapter 7 of this book). These members of the “host of heaven” are called elohim in Deut 17:2–5, where Israel is again warned to not worship them. Unfortunately, Deut 29:25 informs us that Israelites did worship elohim that were not “allotted” to them. These passages, along with Deut 32:17, interchange the following terms or phrases: host of heaven, gods (elohim), and demons (shedim). This is whe...