Revelation 9:20, worshiping demons

Revelation 9:20

Revelation 9:20, in every translation this tool compares.

First, in plain English

A puppet show looks harmless until you see who works the strings. Moses' song in Deuteronomy 32 says Israel sacrificed to demons, not to God. Psalm 106 says they gave their own children to demons. John says the same of those who survive the plagues. Their idols are only the front. Behind them stand demons, and that is who gets the worship.

What matches

Demons (daimonia) as the real object of idol worship. The Greek of Deuteronomy 32:17 says they sacrificed to demons (daimoniois) and not to God, and Psalm 106:37 has sons and daughters given to demons.

Why it doesn't match exactly

Moses and the psalmist speak of Israel; John speaks of the rest of humanity. Their verb is sacrificed; John's is worship (proskyneo). John puts demons and idols side by side, joining what Deuteronomy says about demons to Daniel's list of idols. Paul makes the same move in 1 Corinthians 10:20.

What John does with it

The two halves belong together: demons behind, idols in front. Beale says idols are the tools demons use to keep people in the dark. That is why the demonic plagues do not lead to repentance: the demons would lose their hold.

What this echo is not

Not a claim that idols have power of their own. The idol is nothing; the demon behind it is the danger, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:19-20.

Go deeper

Beale prefaces the idol list with the idols' spiritual essence: demonic forces stand behind them, as in Deuteronomy 32:17 in the Septuagint, Psalm 96:5 (95:5 in Greek), Psalm 106:36-37, Jubilees 11:4, 1 Enoch 19:1 and 99:6-7, and 1 Corinthians 10:20. The vault's Septuagint of Deuteronomy 32:17 reads ethysan daimoniois kai ou theo, they sacrificed to demons and not to God; Psalm 106:37 has tois daimoniois. Revelation 9:20 has hina me proskynesousin ta daimonia, with the future after hina, a usage Beale discusses at 9:4. The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible cites Deuteronomy 32:16-17 for the spiritual essence of idols. Keener and the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible note that Jews widely held the gods of the nations to be demons. The grade is drawn here: the idea is uniquely traceable to these texts, though the verb differs.

The ancient world behind this passage

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Read with The Gods of the Bible

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Read with the Divine Council Index

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Sources

G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 9:20
NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 9:20
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 9:20-21
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 9:20
Septuagint, Deuteronomy 32:17 and Psalm 106:37, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 9:20