1 Corinthians 8:4-6 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

As, &c. To proceed, therefore, to the question in debate; concerning the eating of those things that are offered unto idols Meats of whatever kind sacrificed to them. We know that an idol Or the supposed deity residing therein; is nothing A mere nominal god, having no real divinity, virtue, or power; and that there is none other God but one Jehovah, the self-existent, independent, infinite, and eternal Being, to whom the Scripture in general, and the gospel in particular, hath taught us to appropriate our worship. “The Greek word ειδωλον, translated idol, signifies an image formed in the mind, and which exists nowhere else. Wherefore, to show that the gods of the heathen were mere creatures of the human imagination, the Jews, who used the Greek language, termed them ειδωλα, idols. By this word, likewise, they signified the pictures and statues which the heathen set up in their temples, as representations of their gods; and by giving them the appellation of idols, they declared their persuasion that the things of which they were the representations had no existence. Nevertheless, as the apostle knew that some of the heathen worshipped their dead ancestors, legislators, kings, &c., others of them the heavenly bodies, others certain kinds of brute animals, he cannot be understood to say that an idol is nothing, in the sense of its having no existence as a being, but of its having no existence as a god, and no share in the government of the world.” For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth Or even under the earth; for the heathen had not only their celestial and terrestrial, but likewise their infernal deities: as there be gods many, and lords many Who are in their various subordinations adored by the Gentiles, and have great, though very absurd worship paid to them. But to us Christians; there is In the whole universe; but one God One supreme essence; the Father Of angels and men. This is exclusive not of the Word which was in the beginning with God, and was God, termed the one Lord, in the next clause, any more than of the Holy Spirit, but only of the idols, to which the one God is opposed. Of Or from; whom are all things By creation, providence, and grace; and we in him Living, moving, and having our being; or we are, εις αυτον, for him, for his glory, the end of all we are, have, and do. And one Lord The Word and Son of the eternal Father, equally the object of divine worship; by whom are all things Created, sustained, and governed; and we by him Thankfully acknowledging ourselves obliged to his agency and care for all we are, have, or hope for, and by whom, as the only Mediator between God and man, we have access to the Father and all spiritual blessings.