Deuteronomy 23

Deuteronomy 23:17-18 The Hebrew word translated here as ritual harlot is a form of the word meaning "holy" or "separate." The ritual harlot was regarded by the Canaanites as one "set apart" for the worship of gods and goddesses of fertility. In Canaanite religious fertility rites, men lay with cultic prostitutes. The Canaanites believed that this act would bring fertility to their families, fruitful fields, and growth of their herds. This debased system of worship was evidently one of the reasons God brought such strong judgment against the Canaanites. The perverted one was a male prostitute. Harlot here (v18) describes a common prostitute.

Earl D. Radmacher, general editor; Ronald B. Allen, Old Testament editor, Nelson Study Bible [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997.

Deuteronomy 23:17-18 Male or female prostitution was not to be tolerated in the land, and money derived from such immoral traffic should never be brought to the house of the Lord in payment of a vow. A "dog" means a male prostitute.

William MacDonald; edited with introductions by Arthur Farstad, Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, © 1995 by William MacDonald.

Deuteronomy 23:15–18 Slaves who escaped from a foreign country and sought refuge in Israel were allowed to dwell in the land. On the other hand, male and female prostitutes of Israelite descent were not tolerated. This command also excluded foreign prostitutes. Specifically, the use of prostitutes was prohibited as an act of worship in the house of the Lord. The phrase the price of a dog does not refer to the sale price of a dog, but to the dog-like manner in which a man debased himself when he fulfilled his lust with a prostitute.

Jerry Falwell, executive editor; Edward E. Hinson and Michael Kroll Woodrow, general editors, KJV Bible Commentary [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, ©1994.

Deuteronomy 23:17-18 The land of Israel must be no shelter for the unclean; no whore, no Sodomite, must be suffered to live among them (v. 17, 18), neither a whore nor a whoremonger. No houses of uncleanness must be kept either by men or women. Here is, 1. A good reason intimated why there should be no such wickedness tolerated among them: they were Israelites. This seems to have an emphasis laid upon it. For a daughter of Israel to be a whore, or a son of Israel a whoremaster, is to reproach the stock they are come of, the people they belong to, and the God they worship. It is bad in any, but worst in Israelites, a holy nation, II Samuel 13:12. 2. A just mark of displeasure put upon this wickedness, that the hire of a whore, that is, the money she gets by her whoring, and the price of a dog, that is, of the Sodomite, pimp, or whoremaster (so I incline to understand it, for such are called dogs, Revelation 22:15), the money he gets by his lewd and villainous practices, no part of it shall be brought into the house of the Lord (as the hire of prostitutes among the Gentiles was into their temples) for any vow. This intimates, (1.) That God would not accept of any offering at all from such wicked people; they had nothing to bring an offering of but what they got by their wickedness, and therefore their sacrifice could not but be an abomination to the Lord, Proverbs 15:8. (2.) That they should not think, by making and paying vows, and bringing offerings to the Lord, to obtain leave to go on in this sin, as (it should seem) some that followed that trade suggested to themselves, when their offerings were admitted. Proverbs 7:14, 15, This day have I paid my vows, therefore came I forth to meet thee. Nothing should be accepted in commutation of penance. (3.) That we cannot honour God with our substance unless it be honestly and honourably come by. It must not only be considered what we give, but how we got it; God hates robbery for burnt-offerings, and uncleanness too.

Henry, Matthew, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Bible, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers) 1997.

Deuteronomy 23:17-18 God said there were not to be harlots or sodomites among His people. God says that under no circumstance will He accept income from that which is illegal or from that which is immoral or wrong. He does not want any of it.

Now I am going to say something that I know is not popular to say. I do not believe that any Christian organization should receive money from any industry that is illegal or immoral. I thank God for the two schools that turned down a gift from a large brewery. Many questionable businesses try to gain respectability by giving to charity, as you know.

Deuteronomy 23:17-18 Even the source of our money is God’s concern (vv. 17–18). The pagan temples had religious prostitutes, male ("dogs") and female, and God would not accept their money earned by abominable means.

Deuteronomy 23:17-18 The term "dog" refers to a male cult prostitute.

Deuteronomy 23:17-18 The seventh subsection: laws about cult prostitutes. The first law prohibited Israelite men and women from becoming cult prostitutes. The second law prohibited the payment of a vow to God with "dirty money." The price of a dog refers to the wages acquired from male prostitution. Since the activities that provided these funds were an abomination, the money could not be brought into the house of God.

Deuteronomy 23:17-18 ritual harlot … perverted one Ritual prostitution, involving both male and female prostitutes, was characteristic of the Canaanite fertility religions.

Luder Whitlock, Jr., executive director; R. C. Sproul, general editor, New Geneva Study Bible [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, ©1995 by Foundation for Reformation.

Deuteronomy 23:17-18 Women and men of Israel were not to become prostitutes with the heathen cult fertility gods. A female prostitute is identified as a harlot and a male prostitute as a dog. Legislation prohibited money obtained by sinful means to be given as a vowed offering to God.

Jack W. Hayford, general editor; consulting editors, Sam Middlebrook…[et.al.], Spirit Filled Life Study Bible [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, © 1991.

Deuteronomy 23:18 The term dog refers to a male cultic prostitute. Money that had been procured through evil practices was not to be presented to the Lord.

Dorothy Kelley Patterson, general editor; Rhonda Harrington Kelley, managing editor, Woman’s Study Bible [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, © 1995.

Deuteronomy 23:17–18 The religions of the Canaanite tribes and the other nations surrounding Canaan were largely fertility cults. The gods were implored to help women reproduce and to make land fertile, and ritualized sexual intercourse played a major role in these pagan religions. Both male ("perverted one," or "dog") and female prostitutes were employed by these religious systems.

Recent years have seen an increase in occult practices and Satanic rituals. But these things are nothing new. Somewhat similar rites were taking place in Canaan at the time when Israel left Egypt. God referred to the Canaanite practices as "abominations" for which "the land vomits out its inhabitants" (Leviticus 18:25–26).

The historical context of Leviticus 18 shows that God’s concern had to do with religious as well as sexual purity. The chapter opens and closes with warnings to avoid the ways of the Canaanites (Leviticus 18:3, 30).

The practices mentioned—incest, adultery, fornication, intercourse during a woman’s menstrual flow, child sacrifice, sodomy, bestiality—were all acts committed as part of the Canaanite religion. That religion was essentially a fertility cult. Worshipers appealed to their gods to help their women reproduce and to make their lands fertile. Thus sexual intercourse played a major role in the worship.

There were other "abominations" involved, such as idolatry and the use of mediums and witchcraft. For all of these things, the Lord promised to drive the Canaanites out of the land. In their place He planned to install His people living according to His ways and worshiping according to His holy practices.

Sodom (burning), one of the most ancient cities of Syria. It is commonly mentioned in connection with Gomorrah, but also with Admah and Zeboim, and on one occasion—Genesis 14—with Bela or Zoar. Sodom was evidently the chief town in the settlement. The four are first named in the ethnological records of Genesis 10:19 as belonging to the Canaanites. The next mention of the name of Sodom, Genesis 13:10–13, gives more certain indication of the position of the city. Abram and Lot are standing together between Bethel and Ai, verse 3, taking a survey of the land around and below them. Eastward of them, and absolutely at their feet, lay the "circle of Jordan." The whole circle was one great oasis—"a garden of Jehovah." verse 10. In the midst of the garden the four cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim appear to have been situated. It is necessary to notice how absolutely the cities are identified with the district. In the subsequent account of their destruction, Genesis 19, the topographical terms are employed with all the precision which is characteristic of such early times. The mention of the Jordan is conclusive as to the situation of the district, for the Jordan ceases where it enters the Dead Sea, and can have no existence south of that point. The catastrophe by which they were destroyed is described in Gen. 19 as a shower of brimstone and fire from Jehovah. However we may interpret the words of the earliest narrative, one thing is certain—that the lake was not one of the agents in the catastrophe. From all these passages, though much is obscure, two things seem clear:

1. That Sodom and the rest of the cities of the plain of Jordan stood on the north of the Dead Sea; 2. That neither the cities nor the district were submerged by the lake, but that the cities were overthrown and the land spoiled, and that it may still be seen in its desolate condition. When, however, we turn to more modern views, we discover a remarkable variance from these conclusions.

1. The opinion long current that the five cities were submerged in the lake, and that their remains—walls, columns, and capitals—might be still discerned below the water, hardly needs refutation after the distinct statement and the constant implication of Scripture. But, 2. A more serious departure from the terms of the ancient history is exhibited in the prevalent opinion that the cities stood at the south end of the lake. This appears to have been the belief of Josephus and Jerome. It seems to have been universally held by the mediæval historians and pilgrims, and it is adopted by modern topographers probably without exception. There are several grounds for this belief; but the main point on which Dr. Robinson rests his argument is the situation of Zoar. (a) "Lot," says he, "fled to Zoar, which was near to Sodom; and Zoar lay almost at the southern end of the present sea, probably in the mouth of Wady Kerak." (b) Another consideration in favor of placing the cities at the southern end of the lake is the existence of similar names in that direction. (c) A third argument, and perhaps the weightiest of the three, is the existence of the salt mountain at the south of the lake, and its tendency to split off in columnar masses presenting a rude resemblance to the human form. But it is by no means certain that salt does not exist at other spots round the lake. (d) (A fourth and yet stronger argument is drawn from the fact that Abraham saw the smoke of the burning cities from Hebron. (e) A fifth argument is found in the numerous lime-pits found at the southern end of the Dead Sea. Robinson, Schaff, Baedeker, Lieutenant Lynch, and others favor this view.—Ed.) It thus appears that on the situation of Sodom no satisfactory conclusion can at present be reached. On the one hand, the narrative of Genesis seems to state positively that it lay at the northern end of the Dead Sea. On the other hand, long-continued tradition and the names of the existing spots seem to pronounce with almost equal positiveness that it was at its southern end. Of the catastrophe which destroyed the city and the district of Sodom we can hardly hope ever to form a satisfactory conception. Some catastrophe there undoubtedly was; but what secondary agencies, besides fire, were employed in the accomplishment of the punishment cannot be safely determined in the almost total absence of exact scientific description of the natural features of the ground round the lake. We may suppose, however, that the actual agent in the ignition and destruction of the cities had been of the nature of a tremendous thunder-storm accompanied by a discharge of meteoric stones, (and that these set on fire the bitumen with which the soil was saturated, and which was used in building the city. And it may be that this burning out of the soil caused the plain to sink below the level of the Dead Sea, and the waters to flow over it—if indeed Sodom and its sister cities are really under the water.—Ed.) The miserable fate of Sodom and Gomorrah is held up as a warning in numerous passages of the Old and New Testaments. Mark 6:11; II Peter 2:6; Jude 4-7.

William Smith; revised and edited by F. N. and M.A. Peloubet, Smith’s Bible Dictionary [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997.

Sex, Idolatry, Sorcery, and Witchcraft

Leviticus 18:21–23. This section deals with a warning against Canaanite deviations. The Canaanites freely engaged in human sacrifice, profanation, homosexuality, and bestiality. Child sacrifice was continually condemned (20:2–5; I Kings 11:7; II Kings 23:10; Jeremiah 32:35). Finally Josiah ordered the Molech installation razed, and the place was later renamed Gehenna, the awful symbol of hell.

Homosexuality was known and practiced in the ancient Near East from very early times. It was condemned as "an abomination" in 20:13. The punishment was death. The term dog appears to have been applied in Deuteronomy 23:18 to male cultic prostitutes or to homosexuality in general, and this may also be the sense of the allusion to "dogs" in Revelation 22:15 (note the labeling in this chapter, 22, 26, 27, 29, 30). Bestiality was also practiced intermittently among the Hittites, Babylonians, Egyptians, and Canaanites. For a man to indulge in such behavior was defiling, but for a woman it was regarded as confusion, from the verb "to mix" (cf. 20:12). The penalty was death in Exodus 22:19 and Leviticus 20:15, 16. See also Numbers 35:16–21; Deuteronomy 27:21.

Leviticus 18:24–30. To violate these prohibitions would entail being "vomited out" of the land, which happened when they were led into their captivities.

Thomas Nelson, Inc., King James Version Study Bible [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, Ó 1988 by Liberty University.

⁶Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? ⁷Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? ⁸He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Micah 6

The prophet Micah asks what sacrifice is required, is it the sacrifice of rams or oil, one's own children? The sacrifice is to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God. This is quite a different answer than the one given in fertility religions. Along with animal sacrifice that was often cruel, children were sacrificed, virgins were sacrificed, and cultic prostitution was practiced. Idolatry and sorcery mixed with witchcraft were part of the practices of the worship of Bel.

Child sacrifice was forbidden by the LORD. Children were placed on a brass slab that was heated to consume them as a sacrifice. Sometimes children were made to walk into a fire or thrown into a fire. Children that were born as a result of prostitution were thrown into a valley now well known as Gehenna were garbage and rotting corpses piled up with smoldering fires.

^{1The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to
heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the
righteous is taken away from the evil to come. ²He shall enter
into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his
uprightness.
^{3But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the
adulterer and the whore. ⁴Against whom do ye sport yourselves?
against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? are ye
not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood, ⁵Enflaming
yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the
valleys under the clifts of the rocks? ⁶Among the smooth stones
of the stream is thy portion; they, they are thy lot: even to them
hast thou poured a drink offering, thou hast offered a meat offering. Should I
receive comfort in these? ⁷Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou
set thy bed: even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice. ⁸Behind
the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance: for thou hast
discovered thyself to another than me, and art gone up; thou hast
enlarged thy bed, and made thee a covenant with them; thou lovedst their
bed where thou sawest it. ⁹And thou wentest to the king with
ointment, and didst increase thy perfumes, and didst send thy messengers far
off, and didst debase thyself even unto hell. ¹⁰Thou art
wearied in the greatness of thy way; yet saidst thou not, There is no
hope: thou hast found the life of thine hand; therefore thou wast not grieved.
Isaiah 57

Slaying the children refers to the practice of child sacrifice.

³¹Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every
abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for
even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.

Deuteronomy 12

Fertility religions such as Ugarit’s place great emphasis on
reproduction in the land, in crops, and in the womb. This emphasis helps explain
their stress on sexual unions.
The Bible and the Canaanite texts at Ugarit use the words qadesh
and qedesha, which mean "holy
one"—the first masculine, the second feminine. At Ugarit these "holy
ones" were homosexual priests and priestesses who acted as prostitutes.
We find strong Hebrew reaction against this "cultic prostitution"
in passages such as Leviticus 19:29, "Do not prostitute thy daughter, to
cause her to be a whore," and Deuteronomy 23:17, "There shall be no
whore (qedesha) of the daughters of
Israel, nor a sodomite (qadesh) of the
sons of Israel." One of Josiah’s reforms was "to break down the
houses of the sodomites" (II Kings 23:7).

James I. Packer, Merrill C. Tenney and William White, Jr.,
editors, Nelson’s Illustrated Manners and Customs of the Bible
[computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas
Nelson) 1997, © 1995.
High places refers to the places where the Canaanites worshiped Baal
and other fertility gods. Carved images were fertility symbols from
Canaanite cults.
"Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk." (Deuteronomy
14:21b) refers to the Canaanites who boiled young goats alive in the milk of
their mothers as a sacrifice to fertility gods, Israel was to practice a more
humane method of animal sacrifice. Israel was to be different from its neighbors—that
is, holy.

Earl D. Radmacher, general editor; Ronald B. Allen, Old Testament editor, Nelson
Study Bible [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System,
(Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997.
Fertility Gods and Idolatry practiced by the the Children of
God

Jeremiah 7:18. The queen of heaven probably relates to Ashtoreth.

Judges 2:11–15. Baal was the chief deity of ancient Canaan. His
exploits and licentious worship practices are well documented in the
literature of ancient Ugarit. The son of El, Baal was both a heroic figure
as a storm god, and a fertility deity who was worshiped in many cult centers
under various forms and emphases, hence, Baalim (pl. of Baal).
Ashtaroth (or Ashtoreth, I Kings 11:5), known also from the literature
of Ugarit and of Phoenicia, was a goddess of erotic love and war. She was
known elsewhere in the ancient Near East as Ishtar or Astarte (cf. I Kings
11:5, 33; II Kings 23:13). The veneration of this goddess entered the
Mediterranean world under the name Astarte, and the practices associated
with her cult became associated with the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite.
She was called Atargatis at Ashkelon. The Canaanite worship rites were
carried out not only in temples (II Kings 10:21–27) but on "every
high hill, and under every green tree" (II Kings 17:10, 11). These
rites were accompanied by such things as frenzied dances (1 Kin. 18:26–28),
cult prostitution (both male and female), and, at times, even by human
sacrifice (cf. Jeremiah 19:5–7 with II Kings 23:10; Jeremiah 7:30–32;
32:30–35). Israel’s attraction to the debased fertility rites and
idolatrous worship practices, as well as the loathsome life-style of Canaan,
was to be a long one, despite repeated divine warnings and chastisements.
Compare to Leviticus 20; Numbers 25:1–9; Deuteronomy 18:9–14; 23:17,
18; I Kings 21:25, 26; II Kings 17:7–18; Jeremiah 2:1–3:5; Ezekiel 8:5–18;
16; 23; Hosea 4:6–19; etc.)

Jeremiah 7:21–23. These verses do not minimize the importance of the
Old Testament sacrifices, but call attention to the necessity of the believer
living a life of total obedience and devotion to God. The Scriptures
consistently teach that religious observances devoid of spiritual reality are
worthless (cf. I Samuel 15:22, 23; Psalm 40:6–8; Isaiah 1:10–20; Micah 6:8).

Jeremiah 7:31, 32. The full scriptural picture concerning this Canaanite
abomination makes it clear that Tophet was a sacred enclosure in the
valley of the son of Hinnom, where the heinous child sacrifice (known as a
Molech) to Baal (Bel) was carried out (cf. 19:5, 6; 32:35; II Kings 23:10; and
see the notes at II Kings 16:3, 4 and II Chronicles 28:3). Archaeological
confirmation concerning the nature of the sacrifices carried out in a Tophet
comes from the excavations at the Phoenician colony of Carthage.

Jeremiah 8:8, 9. Judah’s wise men show the shallowness of their
misdirected wisdom by rejecting their basic commitment to the word of
the Lord (cf. 9:12–14 with Psalms 119:9–16, 89–112; Proverbs 1:7;
15:33). The office held by the scribes was an old one by Jeremiah’s
day. It must have existed early in Israel, but seems to be little noted as a
particular profession before the time of Hezekiah (II Kings 18:18; cf. Proverbs
25:1). In Judah scribes appear to have been organized into distinct families or
guilds (I Chronicles 2:55) and were certainly active by Jeremiah’s time (II
Chronicles 34:13). Unfortunately, the mere handling of God’s Word is no
guarantee of spiritual fidelity. The Word must master its readers and become
part of their lives. In New Testament times the scribes were condemned by Jesus
for partaking of a corrupt society (cf. Matthew 23:13–36).
Thomas Nelson, Inc., King James Version Study Bible
[computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas
Nelson) 1997, Ó 1988 by Liberty University.

Jeremiah 7:30, 31 The basis of God’s anger is twofold: (1) they
have set "abominations" in the temple and polluted it; and (2) they
have committed child sacrifice in the Valley of Hinnom (v. 31).

Jeremiah 7:32 This valley was the site of the worship of Molech,
the pagan deity to which children were sacrificed (cf. Leviticus 18:21; Ezekiel
16:20, 21). It will one day be called the "Valley of Slaughter"
because of the destruction of the people by war, famine, and pestilence. This
will be God’s judgment upon His people for defiling the covenant land with the
abominations of idolatry.

Jeremiah 7:33 So massive will the destruction be that bodies will
go unburied and become food for the fowls and beasts. This was an unthinkable
fate, for even the body of a criminal was to be buried (cf. Deuteronomy 21:22,
23).

Jeremiah 8:6 The incorrigible nature of the people is exemplified
here. Although the prophet listened intently, no man repented.
"Repented" is naham (Heb.) and
can mean "to be sorry." Instead of being sorry, like a horse charging
into battle they "rushed" along on their own course of rebellion.

Jeremiah 8:8 The question here poses a greater question: whose
message will you believe, the scribes who lie and tell you what you want to hear
or Jeremiah’s message of repentance? The "scribes" were a group of
men who copied, studied, and expounded the Law. They claimed to be the
legitimate interpreters of some written portion of the Law. While the scribes
are mentioned in I Chronicles 2:55, this verse may be the first reference to the
scribes as a special class.

Jeremiah 8:11 The false prophets used the promise of peace to
deceive the people by satisfying their natural instinctive desire for rest and
tranquility in the land. "Peace" (shalom,
Heb., "completeness," "soundness,"
"welfare") is one of the deepest desires of man. Actually, their
promises pushed the nation toward war and destruction and left them in their
ignorance, completely unprepared for the coming calamity. Though the wicked
prophets promised the people peace for no price, God’s prophet continued to
proclaim that peace would only come through patient endurance of their
punishment and genuine repentance in turning again to the Lord.

Zephaniah 1:4 Zephaniah’s general announcement of
universal judgment is now directed specifically to the nation of Judah.
"Baal," which means "owner," "master,"
"lord," or "husband," is a general name for the Canaanite
deity believed to control fertility in agriculture, beasts, and mankind.
Sculptures depict him in a human figure with a helmet adorned with the horns of
a bull, the symbol of strength and fertility. Through intermarriage and the
adoption of pagan practices, Israel’s worship of Yahweh became adulterated
with extreme forms of the Baal cult, including those of ritual prostitution (cf.
Judges 2:17; Jeremiah 7:9; Amos 2:7) and child sacrifice (Jer. 19:5). Several
major reforms were attempted to eliminate idolatry in Israel (cf. II Kings 18:4–6;
23:4–15; II Chronicles 34:3), but it took no less than the national collapse
brought by the Babylonian Exile of 586 b.c. to rid the Jews of the last vestiges
of Baal worship. The expression "pagan priests" probably refers to the
hypocritical priests of Yahweh who presided over false syncretistic worship.

Zephaniah 1:5 Another form of idolatry introduced
into Jewish religion was astral worship or Sabaism, which was the worship of
heavenly bodies and was one of the essential forms of Babylonian and Assyrian
religion. Manasseh introduced the cult to Judah (II Kings 21:3, 5; 23:4ff.;
compare the "queen of heaven" in Jeremiah 7:18; 44:17). Flat housetops
in the East provided the choice vantage point and sanctuary for Sabaist worship.
Sabaism was one of the sins which caused the collapse of the northern kingdom
(II Kings 17:16). Moses had much earlier warned against worshiping the stars
(Deuteronomy 4:19); the Mosaic Law actually prescribed death for those who
engaged in such practices (Deuteronomy 17:2ff.).

Zephaniah 1:6 Those referred to here are the ones who originally
set out to follow the Lord, but for reasons not given, decided to "turn
back." They do not seek to worship the Lord, thus demonstrating their
apostate natures. Theirs is a "functional humanism," for by being
deliberately indifferent to God, they demonstrate that they ultimately trust
only in themselves for their existence and well-being.

W. A. Criswell, Believer’s Study Bible [computer file],
electronic ed. , Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, ©
1991 by the Criswell Center for Biblical Studies.

It is impossible to find any approval by God of idolatry,
sorcery, or witchcraft in the Bible.
¹⁸What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath
graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work
trusteth therein, to make dumb idols? ¹⁹Woe unto him that saith to
the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is
laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the
midst of it. ²⁰But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all
the earth keep silence before him.
Habakkuk 2
¹⁶And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou
shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali. ¹⁷For I will
take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be
remembered by their name.
Hosea 2
⁴They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes,
and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them
idols, that they may be cut off. ⁵Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee
off; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they
attain to innocency? ⁶For from Israel was it also: the
workman made it; therefore it is not God: but the calf of Samaria shall
be broken in pieces. ⁷For they have sown the wind, and they shall
reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it
yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.
Hosea 8
¹When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but
when he offended in Baal, he died. ²And now they sin more and more,
and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according
to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of
them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves. ³Therefore they
shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the
chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the
smoke out of the chimney. ⁴Yet I am the LORD thy God from
the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no
saviour beside me.
Hosea 13

In the 2nd century b.c., the Seleucid rulers of Palestine
attempted to revive the worship of the local fertility gods and the Helenistic
deities. Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175–164 b.c.) issued an edict establishing
one religion for all his subjects. He erected an altar to Zeus over the altar
of burnt offering in the Temple at Jerusalem. He required the Jews to take
part in the heathen festivals or be slain. His oppressive measures brought
about the Maccabean revolt that resulted in a brief period of religious and
political freedom for the Jews.

Garber comments, "Never again were Jews to take idolatry
seriously. Rather, idol worship became for them a matter of semi-humorous satire
and ridicule (cf. Bel and Dragon)."

Idolatry in the New Testament

The entire New Testament world was engulfed in idolatry and its
accompanying sexual immorality. Temple prostitution was rampant. Some of the
pagan religious rites were even more immoral than those of the Old Testament
pagan nations including the Canaanites. Rome ruled the world, but the Greek
culture dominated. Greece had its pantheon of high gods and its innumerable
lower gods and spirits. Rome took the Greek pantheon as its own and added its
own maze of lower gods and spirits and those of all the peoples it conquered.
To this was added the cult of the emperor and the later mystery
cults. Gods, goddesses, and spirits both bad and good were everywhere and
indwelt everything. Religion ranged from polytheism and henotheism to animism
and pantheism. As long as people also honored the gods of the Greco-Roman
pantheon and venerated and later worshiped the emperor, people could believe
what they wanted and do what they wanted in worship except perform human
sacrifice. The Romans often killed whom and when they willed, but direct human
sacrifice was not a part of their religious world view.
Coming as it did out of the fierce monotheism of post-exile
Israel, the early Christian church, though born in such an idolatrous world, had
strong monotheistic and anti-idolatrous roots. Therefore idolatry, though it
existed and was always a threat, was not the threat that it had been to Israel
before the Exile.
Church members living in heathen communities received their
first warnings about compromise with idols from the early Christian leaders who
met at the great church council of Acts 15 (vv. 26,29). Luke describes Paul’s
encounter with idolatry and paganism in Acts 13–20.
Paul had to address the problem of Gentile converts eating meat
which had been sacrificed to idols in 1 Corinthians 8:1–13 and 10:14–22.
While he denied that idols had any real existence in themselves (I Corinthians
12:2; Galatians 4:8; I Thessalonians 1:9), he knew that participation in their
worship even in ignorance meant participating with demons (1 Cor. 10:20–21).
Therefore he fully recognized the demonic spiritual warfare dimensions of
idolatry.
The apostle John, too, warned believers against idolatry (I John
5:21). The Book of Revelation has much to say about idolatry, both in reference
to the churches and the unbelievers.
Revelation 2–3 speaks about idolatry and Satan’s dwelling
among the churches of Asia. Revelation 9:20 says all unbelievers in one way or
another are involved in the worship of "demons," and "the idols
of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither
see nor hear nor walk," quoting Psalm 115:4–7. The same book warns
against the worship of the image of the beast and promises glory to those who
refuse to worship the beast or its image (Revelation 13:14–15; 14:9–11;
20:4).
As a final word, I quote F. B. Huey’s Why Idolatry Is
Condemned in the Bible.

[Idolatry] denies the existence of the true God who created
the world and mankind, and whose glory cannot be adequately captured in any
tangible form. It is absurd that a person could carve an idol with his own
hands and then be afraid of what he has made, or use it as an object of
worship. . . . A visible representation of the deity tends to restrict a
person’s concept of God, for he will base his concept of God, consciously or
unconsciously, upon the image or picture.
Finally, man becomes like that which he worships (Hosea 9:10).
If his god is lifeless and cold, it can bring him no real hope or comfort.
Only the true and living God can fulfill the hope of eternal life.

WITCHCRAFT OR SORCERY

Now we must look at the second type of religious sin Paul warns
against and against which we war. The Greek word is a strange one. It is pharmakeia,
translated "witchcraft" or "sorcery" in the nas. Fung says
originally it "meant the medical use of drugs." Our English word pharmacy
comes from this word. Vine says that "pharmakeia
in English is pharmacy. It primarily signified the use of medicine, drugs,
spells, then poisoning, then sorcery (or) witchcraft."
Vine then makes another observation. After stating that the word
was later applied to witchcraft and sorcery, he says:

In sorcery, the use of drugs, whether simple or potent, was
generally accompanied by incantations and appeals to occult powers with the
provision of various charms, amulets, etc., professedly designed to keep the
applicant or patient from the attention and power of demons, but actually to
impress the applicant with the mysterious resources and powers of the
sorcerer.

Ronald Fung parallels Vine’s insightful words. He adds that
the value of the books of magic arts that the Ephesian Christians burned
"bore eloquent witness to the prevalence of such practices in those times
(Acts 19:19; cf. 8:9–11; 13:8–10) in spite of the fact that sorcery was a
serious offense in Roman law."
It is difficult to find the best word for the practice Paul is
condemning here. Most translations fluctuate between "witchcraft" and
"sorcery" with the majority opting for sorcery. Perhaps the broader
term "occultism" would be best as the practice in New Testament times
covered most of what is done in the different branches of occultism today:
sorcery, witchcraft, spiritism, divination, magic, spells, curses, and the
mediumistic practices of contacting the spirits of the dead and astral or spirit
projection.
This activity of the flesh in the spirit realm covers at least
nine areas:

1. Any form of spiritual practice which has as its goal
making contact with the spirit world (with angels, spirits, the spirits
[ghosts] of the dead, etc.) for selfish purposes, such as the
"channeling" rage made popular by actress Shirley MacLaine.
2. To attempt the above even only out of curiosity.
3. To attempt to manipulate the spirit world to do one’s
bidding.
4. To attempt to gain knowledge from the spirit world
outside of or beyond what God has revealed in His Word.
5. To gain power from the spirit world over one’s own
life, the lives of others, and/or over circumstances and events in this
world.
6. To gain power from the spirit world to do good for one’s
self or for others such as healing, finances, or pleasures, or to do harm to
others who stand in the way of the desired good one seeks.
7. To gain protection from good spirits against malevolent,
evil spirits.
8. To contact the spirits ("ghosts") of the dead.
9. To contact or to serve Satan as over against the true God
or the Lord Jesus Christ, whatever one’s motive may be or whatever one’s
view of Satan’s person and activity may be.

Sorcery includes the realm of magic (not sleight of hand); that
is, the use of drugs, chants, and ceremonies which in themselves possess power
to produce desired results or changes in people, circumstances or events, both
black and white "magic."
If sincere believers break biblical norms in seeking spiritual experiences,
even if they sincerely seek them from the Holy Spirit, they can become deceived
by spirits who counterfeit the Spirit of God and the gifts of the Spirit (II
Corinthians 11:4; Galatians 1:8; I John 4:1–4).
Edward F. Murphy, Handbook for Spiritual Warfare [computer
file], electronic ed. of the revised and updated edition, Logos Library System,
(Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, © 1996 by Edward F. Murphy.}}