Gregory Beale writes ( We Become What We Worship ) that by the first century, Judaism had turned its own tradition into an idol. Citing Paul’s claim that demons are behind the idols, he asks whether Israel too was incited to worship of tradition by demons, and rightly answers Yes:
“The upshot of this evidence and the presence of the devil and his demons in the Gospels shows that they were active in Jesus’ day as in Isaiah’s, though the idols that they were influencing Israel to worship this time were not molten statue but dead tradition. The presence of these demons even in the synagogues shows that they were active in the religious establishment of the day and in influencing the religious leaders to focus on dead tradition and not on God and his word.”
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