Greek word · G1496

εἰδωλολάτρης

eidōlolatrēs

idolater

'One who serves or worships an image/idol.' It is built from eidōlon ('image, phantom, likeness', and in Jewish usage 'false god, idol') and latris/latreia ('hired servant', 'service', and in religious use 'cultic worship').

Appears 7 times in 7 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

εἰδωλολάτρης, -ου, ὁ

(εἴδωλου + λάτρις, a hireling),

an idolator: 1 Corinthians 5:10, 11 6:9 10:7 Ephesians 5:5 Revelation 21:8 22:15 (Cremer, 709).†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of 1 Corinthians 10:7

Range of meaning

'One who serves or worships an image/idol.' It is built from eidōlon ('image, phantom, likeness', and in Jewish usage 'false god, idol') and latris/latreia ('hired servant', 'service', and in religious use 'cultic worship'). It means someone who takes part in the worship of gods other than Israel's God, by sacrifice, prayer, festival, or sharing the god's meal.

Against the English

English 'idolater' is a fair rendering. But modern ears tend to hear one of two things: either a primitive person bowing to a statue, or, in sermons, a metaphor for 'anyone who puts something before God'. In this verse Paul means something concrete and social: Christians taking part in the sacred meals and festivals of Corinth's gods.

How it drifted

The metaphorical use has some basis in Paul himself (he calls greed 'idolatry' in Col 3:5; compare Eph 5:5). But that broad sense has come to crowd out the concrete, cultic sense that drives 1 Corinthians 8–10.

Used elsewhere in the period

The word does not appear in any surviving Greek text before the New Testament. BDAG treats it as a Jewish-Christian coinage. Pagans did not call their cult statues eidōla. They said agalma ('glory, ornament') or xoanon, and sacrificial meat was hierothyton, 'sacred-offered'. Paul himself has a pagan host use that word in 10:28, against his own eidōlothyton, 'idol-offered', in 8:1. In the Greek Old Testament eidōlon translates Hebrew words for foreign images and 'nothings' (e.g. elilim). Paul lists 'idolaters' in his vice catalogues (1 Cor 5:10–11; 6:9) and concludes this section with 'flee from idolatry' (10:14).

From the study of Ephesians 5:5

Range of meaning

'Idol-worshipper', a compound of εἴδωλον ('image, idol') and λατρεύω ('serve, worship'). The word appears to be a Jewish or Christian coinage and is not found in pagan Greek. It carries the full weight of Jewish polemic: idolatry is the root sin of the nations, and the other vices grow out of it.

Against the English

'Idolater' is accurate. A modern reader may hear only 'worships statues' or only a metaphor. Paul's hearers would have heard both together: the person who serves possessions has really changed gods.

Used elsewhere in the period

1 Cor 5:10–11; 6:9; 10:7; Rev 21:8; 22:15. Background: Wisdom 14:12, 27 (idolatry 'the beginning and cause and end of every evil'); Testament of Judah 19:1 ('love of money leads to idolatry'); Jesus' saying on God and Mammon (Matt 6:24). B. Rosner, Greed as Idolatry, collects the Jewish evidence.

From the study of 1 Corinthians 5:10

Range of meaning

'Idol-worshipper': someone who serves εἴδωλα, which is the LXX's dismissive word for images of gods (literally 'phantoms, mere images').

Against the English

'Idolater' is accurate. A modern reader may still not grasp how common such people were in Corinth. The word described almost everyone outside the synagogue and the church.

Used elsewhere in the period

The compound is not attested before the NT. 1 Cor 5:10 may be its earliest surviving use. It comes from Jewish-Greek polemical vocabulary (εἴδωλον, λατρεία) and later appears in Eph 5:5, Rev 21:8 and 22:15.

Similar words

Where it appears

1 Corinthians · 4

  1. 1 Corinthians 5:10 εἰδωλολάτραις, with idolaters —

    I was not including the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.

    Here: People who worship images of gods. In Corinth that was nearly every non-Jewish neighbour, colleague and civic official.

  2. 1 Corinthians 5:11 εἰδωλολάτρης an idolater

    But now I am writing you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a verbal abuser, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

    Here: One who worships images and other gods. In Corinth this meant taking part in temple sacrifice and cult meals (compare 8:10; 10:14–22).

  3. 1 Corinthians 6:9 εἰδωλολάτραι idolaters

    Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,

    Here: Those who worship images or other gods. In Corinth this meant taking part in temple meals and sacrifices, a live issue in chs. 8–10. Jewish moral teaching often paired idolatry with sexual immorality, as here.

  4. 1 Corinthians 10:7 εἰδωλολάτραι idolaters

    Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.”

    Here: People who take part in the worship of other gods. In Corinth that meant above all taking part in the sacred meals of those gods. The word is a Jewish-Christian insult, not a neutral description.

Ephesians · 1

  1. Ephesians 5:5 εἰδωλολάτρης, an idolater,

    For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person (that is, an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

    Here: A worshipper of idols, which for Jews was the defining sin of the pagan world. Calling the greedy person this says his possessions have become his god.

Revelation · 2

  1. Revelation 21:8 εἰδωλολάτραις to idolaters

    But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”

    Here: "Idolaters." These are people who serve images and false gods. In the cities of Asia Minor that included the emperor cult and sacrificial meals held by trade guilds (2:14, 2:20).

  2. Revelation 22:15 εἰδωλολάτραι idolaters

    But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

    Here: Literally "image-servers": those who worship gods through images. For the churches of Asia this meant pagan temples, trade-guild feasts and the cult of the emperor, which included worshipping the beast's image in Revelation's picture (13:14–15).

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.