John Chrysostom on Divine plurality & the unseen realm
Never posed as a question in these terms
Now these things I affirm, and try to withdraw you from the idols, not as though they could do any injury or had any power: for an idol is nothing... For that which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God... For verily these too are servants who have offended; dishonored, condemned, prisoners reserved for intolerable punishment.
THE POSITION
He never poses the question about the elohim of the Hebrew Bible. The nearest he comes is 1 Corinthians 10, where he holds two things together: an idol "is nothing" and can do no injury, and yet what the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons — whom he describes as fallen fellow-servants, "dishonored, condemned, prisoners reserved for intolerable punishment." Real spiritual beings stand behind pagan worship on his account, but they are convicts awaiting sentence rather than a council holding delegated rule, and he never connects them to the Old Testament gods of the nations.
19 Am I suggesting, then, that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons.
3 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Archbishop of Constantinople and the most prolific preacher of the patristic era — the largest surviving body of Greek expository preaching is his. This entry rests on the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers translations of his homilies on Romans, 1 Corinthians, John, Hebrews and 2 Thessalonians, together with the Instructions to Catechumens.
Cite this page
"John Chrysostom on Divine plurality & the unseen realm", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/chrysostom/divine-plurality (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/chrysostom/divine-plurality).