Feast of Tabernacles 2025: Comparing 1 Cor 8-10 and Avodah Zarah

 At the Feast of Tabernacles, we look forward to the time when all nations worship the true God, as pictured in Zechariah 14.  

In the first century the Gospel began to be proclaimed to the nations.  Former pagans who joined the Christian movement faced some big challenges negotiating the polytheistic environment of the Greco-Roman world.  Here their Jewish brethren in the Diaspora could provide help based on generations of experience.  We see the apostle Paul providing this kind of help in his epistles---for example, in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10.  

In a lecture at Church of the Messiah on October 11, 2025, Kyle Kettering explained that the guidance Paul gave to his congregations has important parallels with the cases discussed in tractate Avodah Zarah ("works of idolaters") in the Mishnah, Tosefta, and Talmuds.  This is not surprising, since Paul 

• was a Pharisee (not an "ex-Pharisee"), as we see in Acts 23:6;
• was a follower of the Torah, as in Acts 18:8; 21:21-24;
• was a teacher of Torah principles.

Both Paul and Avodah Zarah took into account three considerations in navigating the idol-saturated world of the Roman Empire:

1. How a particular thing appeared to others.
2. The significance given to the thing in its setting.
3. How a particular thing was being used.

In regard to appearances, one case discussed by the rabbis involves a coin that is lying on the ground in front of an idol shrine.  Is it OK to pick up the coin?  The sages say no in a situation where doing so would make it appear that one is worshiping the god of the shrine.  Similarly, Paul in 1 Corinthians 8 says that meat that has been offered to an idol should not be eaten if this action would do spiritual harm to a brother---e.g., a Gentile believer who is still struggling with whether to continue in pagan practices that previously were part of his life.  

1 Thessalonians 5:22 as it is translated in the KJV ("abstain from all appearance of evil") may be relevant here, although there is some question about the meaning of this verse.  For example, ESV has "abstain from every form of evil."   

Significance given to an object arose, for example, in the question of the possible use of stones that had been part of an image of a god.  Are these stones still being seen and treated as representing the god?   If so, they should not be reused.  If not, it is OK to recycle them for another purpose. 

The question about how a thing was being used arose, for example, in the question of whether one should go to a Roman bathhouse in which there were idolatrous images.  In one famous ruling, Rabban Gamaliel II said that it was not a problem to go to a bathhouse in which there was an image of Aphrodite.  Gamaliel reasoned that people went to a bathhouse to bathe, not to worship idols.   The idol at the bathhouse was just a decoration, not an object of worship. 

Kyle gave some current examples in which these principles can be applied.  For example, the image on a Starbucks cup is not a part of pagan worship, so there is no reason to abstain from Starbucks coffee.  Similarly, there is no reason to avoid the use of Christmas trees; the people who use them do not do so to follow a false god.  There is no reason to worry about the origins or past use of the "Star of David;" the current intended use of the star has nothing to do with paganism.