What did pagans do to make meat safe from demons?
Pagans took their meat to pagan priests, who placed some kind of blessing on it. This blessing was intended to keep demons off the meat so it could be eaten safely. They believed demons could enter the body through meat and used priestly blessing as protection.
Les explains that these idolatrous pagans in Corinth were steeped in superstition and were scared to death of the power of their gods, knowing the powers of demons in the air around them. Their superstitious minds reasoned that if a demon was going to enter the body, the easiest way was to get on the meat and then be inside. So to contradict that fear, they would take their meat to their pagan priests, and the priests would put some kind of blessing on it that would keep the demons off their meat, so they could eat it safely. Les notes demonism is real, was present at Christ’s time and Paul’s time, is rampant in other areas of the world, and that in America Christianity has held demon powers at bay, though it is coming.