33 Bible Verses about Syncretism

"There shall be for you no other gods before me.

[There] shall not be for you other gods {besides me}.

"You shall fear Yahweh your God, and you shall serve him, and by his name you shall swear. You shall not go after other gods from the gods of the peoples who [are] all around you, for Yahweh your God [is] a jealous god in your midst, {so that the anger of Yahweh your God would be kindled}, and he would destroy you from the face of the earth.

"So now, revere Yahweh and serve him in sincerity and faithfulness; remove the gods that your ancestors served beyond the river and in Egypt, and serve Yahweh. But if it is bad in your eyes to serve Yahweh, choose for yourselves today whom you want to serve, whether it is the gods that your ancestors served beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you [are] living; but as for me and my household, we will serve Yahweh."

Elijah approached to all the people and said, "How long [will] you [go] limping over two opinions? If Yahweh [is] God, go after him; but if Baal, go after him." But the people did not answer him a word.

lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they prostitute [themselves] after their gods, and they sacrifice to their gods, and they invite you, and you eat their sacrifice, and you take from their daughters for your sons, and their daughters prostitute [themselves] after their gods, and they cause your sons to prostitute [themselves] after their gods.

"When Yahweh your God brings you into the land that you [are] about to enter {into it} to take possession of it, and he drives out many nations {before you}, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations mightier and more numerous than you, and Yahweh your God will give them {over to you} and you defeat them, you must {utterly destroy them}; you shall not make a covenant with them, and you shall not show mercy [to them]. And you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughter to their son; and you shall not take his daughter for your son.read more.
For their sons and daughters will cause your son to turn away {from following me}, and [so] they will serve other gods, and {the anger of Yahweh would be kindled} against you, and he would quickly destroy you. But this is what you must do to them: you shall break down their altars, and their stone pillars you shall smash, and their Asherah poles you shall hew down, and you shall burn their idols with fire. For you [are] a holy people for Yahweh your God; Yahweh your God has chosen you to be for him a people, a treasured possession from [among] all the peoples that [are] on the face of the earth.

If you transgress the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he commanded [to] you, and you go and serve other gods and bow down to them, {Yahweh's anger will be kindled} against you, and you will perish quickly from the good land that he has given to you."

And Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, "If with all your heart you [are] turning to Yahweh, remove the foreign gods and Ashtoreths from your midst. Commit your hearts to Yahweh and serve him alone. Then he will deliver you from the hand of [the] Philistines."

Because they have forsaken me, and they have defaced this place, and they have made smoke offerings in it to other gods whom they have not known, they, nor their ancestors, nor the kings of Judah, and they have filled up this place [with the] blood of [the] innocent, and they have built the high places of Baal, to burn their children in the fire, burnt offerings to Baal, which I commanded not, and I ordered not, and it did not come to my {mind}.

Until this day they [are] doing according to their former customs; none of them [are] fearing Yahweh, and none of them [are] doing according to their statutes, to their decisions, to the law, or to the commands that Yahweh commanded the descendants of Jacob [to] which he had given the name Israel. Yahweh had {made} a covenant with them and commanded them, "You shall not fear other gods, nor shall you bow down to them, nor shall you serve them, nor shall you sacrifice to them. Rather, Yahweh, who brought you out from the land of Egypt with great strength and with an outstretched arm--him you shall fear, and to him you shall bow down, and to him you shall sacrifice.read more.
The statutes, the decisions, the law, and the commands that he wrote to you, you shall observe to do always, and you shall not fear other gods. The covenant that I have {made} with you, you shall not forget, and you shall not fear other gods. But Yahweh your God you shall fear, and he will deliver you from the hand of all of your enemies." They did not listen but kept on doing according to their former customs. So these nations were fearing Yahweh, but they were serving their idols, as were their children and their children's children; as their ancestors did, they [are] doing until this day.

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother [was] Hephzibah. He did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, according to the detestable things of the nations that Yahweh had driven out from the presence of the {Israelites}. He returned and rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed. He erected altars for Baal and made a pole of Asherah worship just as Ahab king of Israel had made, and he bowed down to all of the host of heaven and served them.read more.
He built altars in the temple of Yahweh [about] which Yahweh had said, "I will put my name in Jerusalem." He built an altar to all of the host of heaven in the two courtyards of the temple of Yahweh. He made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying and divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He increased the doing of evil in the eyes of Yahweh to provoke him. He put the image of the Asherah that he had made in the temple which Yahweh had said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this temple and in Jerusalem which I have chosen from all of the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.

Manasseh [was] twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. And he did evil in the eyes of Yahweh according to the detestable things of the nations whom Yahweh drove out before the {Israelites}. And {he rebuilt} the high places that Hezekiah his father broke down, and he set up altars for the Baals, made Asherahs, and bowed down to the host of heaven and served them.read more.
And he built altars in the house of Yahweh, [of] which Yahweh had said, "In Jerusalem my name shall be forever." And he built altars to all the host of heaven in the two courtyards of the house of Yahweh. And he himself burned his sons in the fire in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom. And he practiced sorcery and divination, and he engaged in witchcraft and dealt with mediums and spiritists. And he did much evil in the eyes of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger. And he placed the carved image of the idol that he had made in the house of God, [of] which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.

And he said to me, "Come and see the detestable things, the evil that they are doing here. And I came, and I saw, and look, all kinds of creatures and detestable beasts; [and] all of the idols of the house of Israel [were] carved on the wall {all around}. And seventy men from the elders of the house of Israel, and Jaazaniah, the son of Shaphan, [was] standing in the midst of them, [and] [they were] standing {before them}. Each [one] [had] his censer in his hand, and the fragrance of the cloud of the incense [was] going up.read more.
And he said to me, "Have you seen, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel [are] doing in the dark, each in the inner rooms of his idol, for [they are] saying, 'Yahweh [is] not seeing us; Yahweh has abandoned the land.'" And he said to me, "Still {you will see again} greater detestable things that they [are] doing." And he brought me to the doorway of the gate of the house of Yahweh that [is] toward the north, and look! There [were] the women sitting weeping for Tammuz. And he said to me, "Have you seen, son of man? Still {you will see again} greater detestable things than these." And he brought me to the inner courtyard of the house of Yahweh, and look, [at] the doorway of the temple of Yahweh, between the portico and the altar, [there were] about twenty-five men [with] their backs to the temple of Yahweh and their faces toward the east, and they [were] bowing down toward the east before the sun.

Thus says Yahweh: "What injustice did your ancestors find in me that they were far from me, and they went after the vanity, and they became vain?

"When you come to the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you, you must not learn to do like the detestable practices of those nations. [There] shall not be found among you one who makes his son or his daughter go through the fire, [or] {one who practices divination}, [or] an interpreter of signs, or an augur, or sorcerer, or one who casts magic spells, or one who consults spirit of the dead, or spiritist, or one who inquires of the dead.read more.
For everyone doing these [things] [is] detestable to Yahweh, and because of these detestable things Yahweh your God [is] driving them out from {before you}. You must be blameless before Yahweh your God.

They rejected his statutes, his covenant which he {made} with their ancestors, and his warnings which he gave to them; and they went after the idols, became vain, and [went] after all the nations which [were] all around them, which Yahweh had commanded them not to do as they [did]. They abandoned all the commands of Yahweh their God and made for themselves two molten calf-shaped idols; they made a pole of Asherah worship and bowed down to the army of the heavens and served Baal. They made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, they practiced divination and read omens, and they sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of Yahweh to provoke him.

For you have forsaken your people, house of Jacob, because they are full from [the] east, and [of] soothsayers like the Philistines, and {they make alliances} with the offspring of foreigners.

"And I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal, and the name of idolatrous priests with the priests, and those who bow down on the rooftops to the host of heaven, and those who bow down, swearing to Yahweh but [also] swearing by Milkom,

If [there] is found in one of your {towns} that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you a man or a woman that does evil in the eyes of Yahweh your God to transgress his covenant and by going and serving other gods and [so] he bows down to them and to the sun or to the moon or to any [of] the host of heaven {which I have forbidden}, and it is reported to you or you hear [about it] and you enquire [about it] thoroughly and, indeed, [the] trustworthiness of the deed [has] been established, it {has occurred}, this detestable thing, in Israel,read more.
then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this evil thing to your gates; that is, the man or the woman, and you shall stone them with stones {to death}. {On the evidence of} two or three witnesses {the person shall be put to death}. The person shall not be put to death by the mouth of one witness. The hand of the witnesses shall be first against the person to kill the person, and afterward the hands [of] all the people, and [so] you shall purge the evil from your midst.

"Then you shall break the jar before the eyes of the men who go with you. And you shall say to them, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts: "So I will break this people and this city as one breaks the vessel of the potter, [so] that it is not able to be repaired again. And in Topheth they will bury {until there is no room to bury}. Thus will I do to this place," {declares} Yahweh, "and to its inhabitants, to make this city like Topheth.read more.
And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be unclean like the place of Topheth, all the houses where they made smoke offerings upon their roofs to all the host of heaven, and [where] they poured out libations to other gods." '"

Plead with your mother, plead-- because she [is] not my wife, and I [am] not her husband. Let her put away her whoring {from before her}, and her adultery from between her breasts. Lest I strip her naked and expose her like the day when she was born; I will make her like the desert and turn her into parched land; I will kill her with thirst. And I will not have pity on her children, because [they are] children of whoredom.read more.
Because their mother was unfaithful; she who conceived them has acted shamefully, for she said: "I will go after my lovers, the ones who give [me] my bread, my water, my wool, and my flax, my oil, and my drink." Therefore, Look! I [am] going to hedge her path {with thorns}, and I will build a stone wall, a stone wall [against] her, and she will not find her paths. Then she will pursue {her lovers}, but she will not overtake them; she will seek them and not find [them]; and she will say, "I will go and return to my first husband because [it was] better for me then than now." But she did not know that [it was] I who gave her grain, new wine, and oil, and who gave her silver in abundance, and gold which they made into a Baal. Therefore I will take again my grain in its time, and my wine in its season; and I will take away my wool and my flax, [which were] to cover her nakedness. And now I will uncover her nakedness before the eyes of her lovers, and no one will rescue her from my hand. And I will put an end to all her mirth, her festivals, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her appointed festivals; and I will lay waste to her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, "They [are] my payment for prostitution, which my lovers gave to me." I will make them a forest, and the wild animals of the field will devour them. {I will punish her} [for] the days of the Baals, to whom she burns incense, and she decked herself [with] her ornamental ring and jewelry, and she went after her lovers, and forgot me --a declaration of Yahweh.

And [when] the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices in the Lycaonian language, saying, "The gods have become like men [and] have come down to us!" And they began calling Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes, because he was the {principal speaker}. And the priest of the [temple] of Zeus that was just outside the city brought bulls and garlands to the gates [and] was wanting to offer sacrifice, along with the crowds.

Now while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him [when he] observed the city was full of idols. So he was discussing in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing [Gentiles], and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. And even some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him, and some were saying, "What does this babbler want to say?" But [others said], "He appears to be a proclaimer of foreign deities," because he was proclaiming the good news [about] Jesus and the resurrection.read more.
And they took hold of him [and] brought [him] to the Areopagus, saying, "May we learn what [is] this new teaching being proclaimed by you? For you are bringing some astonishing things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what {these things mean}." (Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who stayed there used to spend [their] time in nothing else than telling something or listening to something new.) So Paul stood there in the middle of the Areopagus [and] said, "Men of Athens, I see you [are] very religious {in every respect}. For [as I] was passing through and observing carefully your objects of worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed, 'To an unknown God.' Therefore what you worship without knowing [it], this I proclaim to you--

But some itinerant Jewish exorcists also attempted to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, "I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches!" (Now seven sons of a certain Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.) But the evil spirit answered [and] said to them, "Jesus I know, and Paul I am acquainted with, but who are you?"read more.
And the man {who had the evil spirit} leaped on them, subdued all of them, [and] prevailed against them, so that they ran away from that house naked and wounded.

Do not be carried away by various and strange teachings, for [it is] good [for] the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods by which those who participate have not benefited.

You are not able to drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You are not able to share the table of the Lord and the table of demons.

But now, [because you] have come to know God, or rather have come to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and miserable elemental spirits? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? You carefully observe days and months and seasons and years.

Let no one condemn you, taking pleasure in humility and the worship of angels, going into detail [about] [the things] which he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind,

Thus says Yahweh, the king of Israel, and its redeemer, Yahweh of hosts: "I [am the] first, and I [am the] last, and there is no god besides me.

"Hear, Israel, Yahweh our God, Yahweh is unique. And you shall love Yahweh your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your might.

"You [are] my witnesses," {declares} Yahweh, "and my servant whom I have chosen so that you may know and believe {in} me and understand that I [am] he. No god was formed before {me}, and none shall be after me. I myself [am] Yahweh, and there is no savior besides me! I myself declared and saved, and I {proclaimed}. And there was no {strange god} among you. And you [are] my witnesses," {declares} Yahweh, "and I [am] God.

Therefore, concerning the eating of food sacrificed to idols, we know that "an idol [is] nothing in the world" and that "[there is] no God except one." For even if after all [there] are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, just as [there] are many gods and many lords, yet to us [there is] one God, the Father, from whom [are] all [things], and we [are] for him, and [there is] one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom [are] all [things], and we [are] through him.