1 Corinthianschapter 8
13 verses · Paul · AD 54 or 55 · Paul's letters
Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
Introduction
Paul, Paul's letters, 1 Corinthians Overview.
Paul takes up the next question from the Corinthians' letter, one that touched nearly every meal in their city. Much of the meat sold and served in Corinth had passed through a pagan temple. Some believers knew that idols were nothing and ate freely, while others still felt the pull of their old worship. Paul agrees with the knowledge of the first group and then asks what it is doing to the second. Listen for the two things Paul weighs against each other, what a believer knows and how he treats his brother. Read it as the first part of an argument that runs to the end of chapter 10.
Context
- Who
- Believers with sophisticated theology and clients, colleagues, and relatives who still invited them to temple meals.
- What
- Paul's answer on eating food sacrificed to idols, where he weighs knowledge against love and warns against wounding a weak conscience.
- Where
- Written from Ephesus to Corinth, a city whose temples served as dining halls.
- When
- About AD 53 to 55, in reply to the church's letter.
- Why
- To teach believers to use their freedom for the good of fellow believers for whom Christ died.
Historical context
Temples were not only places of sacrifice; they were the city's banquet halls. Excavations at Corinth have uncovered dining rooms in temple precincts with stone couches around the walls. Guild dinners, family celebrations, and civic occasions were held in them, and the meat served had come from the altar.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
That made refusing a huge social and economic cost. A tradesman who would not attend his guild's dinner lost his network. A client who declined his patron's invitation insulted him. Withdrawing from temple meals meant withdrawing from ordinary life.
The knowledgeable Corinthians had a defensible argument: an idol is nothing, there is one God, so the meat is just meat. Paul agrees with the theology outright, which is what makes his answer so striking.
But not everyone experienced it that way. A believer who had spent his whole life treating those meals as real worship could not switch the association off, and eating there could pull him back into what he had left.
Significance
The first hearers were told that knowledge puffs up but love builds up, that being right about the theology did not settle the question of what to do.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The standard Paul gives is the weaker brother's ruin, not the stronger brother's freedom. He ends by saying that if food causes his brother to stumble, he will never eat meat again, a sacrifice of his own rights that sets up the whole of the next chapter.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Knowledge Puffs Up, Love Builds Up
1 Corinthians 8:1-3
Now about food sacrificed to idols: Paul answers the boast We know that we all have knowledge with Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The puffing word is the one he has used since 4:6.
1 Corinthians 8:1
“Now as touching - In regard to; in answer to your inquiry whether it is right or not to partake of those things. Things offered unto idols - Sacrifices unto idols. Meat that had been offered in sacrifice, and then either exposed to sale in the market, or served up at the feasts held in honor of idols, at their temples, or at the houses of their devotees.”
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
1 Corinthians 8:1
“It is therefore better and more profitable to belong to the simple and unlettered class, and by means of love to attain to nearness to God, than, by imagining ourselves learned and skilful, to be found [among those who are] blasphemous against their own God, inasmuch as they conjure up another God as the Father.”
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies Book IIpatristic
1 Corinthians 8:1
“Paul replies, "We are aware that we all have [speaking generally, and so far as Christian theory goes; for in 1Co 8:7 he speaks of some who practically have not] this knowledge." Knowledge puffeth up--when without "love." Here a parenthesis begins; and the main subject is resumed in the same words, 1Co 8:4.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
as he ought to know: Paul turns the Corinthians' boast of knowledge back on them. Chrysostom calls the verse a mortal blow, for even knowledge joined to love remains imperfect here.
1 Corinthians 8:2
" That they likewise (remember), what was written to the Corinthians, that they "were yet carnal," who "required to be fed with milk," being as yet "unable to bear strong meat; " who also "thought that they knew somewhat, whereas they knew not yet anything, as they ought to know."
Tertullian · written before 220 · The Prescription Against Hereticspatristic
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 8:2
“He knoweth nothing yet, etc. - The person who acts in this rash, unfeeling way, from the general knowledge which he has of the vanity of idolatry and the liberty which the Gospel affords from Jewish rites, with all his knowledge does not know this, that though the first and greatest commandment says, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, etc., yet the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Corinthians 8:2
The first step to knowledge is to know our own ignorance. Without love there is only the appearance of knowledge. knoweth--The oldest manuscripts read a Greek word implying personal experimental acquaintance, not merely knowledge of a fact, which the Greek of "we know" or are aware (1Co 8:1) means. as he ought to know--experimentally and in the way of "love."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
is known by God: Paul speaks of being known by God where a reader expects him to say the man knows God, as Augustine and Chrysostom both notice. The believer's standing rests on God's prior knowledge of him.
1 Corinthians 8:3
“But if any man love God - If any man is truly attached to God; if he seeks to serve him, and to promote his glory. The sense seems to be this. “There is no true and real knowledge which is not connected with love to God. This will prompt a man also to love his brethren, and will lead him to promote their happiness. A man’s course, therefore, is not to be regulated by mere knowledge, but the grand principle is love to God and love to man.”
1 Corinthians 8:4-6
So about eating food sacrificed to idols: Verse 6 confesses one God, the Father, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, words drawn from the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4. One Lord stands beside one God without division, the Father as source and the Son as agent.
1 Corinthians 8:4
“Things that are offered in sacrifice - See on the first verse, (1Co 8:1 (note)). An idol is nothing in the world - Dr. Lightfoot translates this, We know that there is no idol in the world; which he explains thus: Ειδωλον, idol, is ὁμοιωμα, εικων, σημειον, χαρακτηριον, σκιοειδες, a likeness, an image, a sign, a character, a shadow: now ουδεν ειδωλον signifies there is no idol, no representation of God, in the world. Images there are of stone, wood and metal; but none of these is any representation of the infinite Spirit.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 8:4
“And the Apostle Paul also, saying, "For though ye have served them which are no gods; ye now know God, or rather, are known of God," has made a separation between those that were not [gods] and Him who is God. And again, speaking of Antichrist, he says, "who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped." He points out here those who are called gods, by such as know not God, that is, idols.”
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies Book IIIpatristic
1 Corinthians 8:4
“This does not contradict 1Co 10:20, which states that they who worship idols, worship devils; for here it is the GODS believed by the worshippers to be represented by the idols which are denied to have any existence, not the devils which really under the idols delude the worshippers. none other God--The oldest manuscripts omit the word "other"; which gives a clearer sense.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
many so-called gods and lords): Paul grants the name and withholds the reality. Theodore of Mopsuestia and Tertullian read so-called as a denial that such gods exist, for they bear the title of deity without its nature.
1 Corinthians 8:5
“Assuredly also, when (the apostle) rules that marriage should be "only in the Lord," that no Christian should intermarry with a heathen, he maintains a law of the Creator, who everywhere prohibits marriage with strangers. But when he says, "although there be that are called gods, whether in l heaven or in earth," the meaning of his words is clear-not as if there were gods in reality, but as if there were some who are called gods, without being truly so.”
Tertullian · written before 220 · Against Marcion Book Vpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 8:5
“That are called gods - Gods so called. The pagans everywhere worshipped multitudes, and gave to them the name of gods. Whether in heaven - Residing in heaven, as a part of the gods were supposed to do.”
but one God, the Father: Paul answers the many gods with one God and one Lord. Ambrosiaster and Severian of Gabala hold that naming the Son Lord takes nothing from the Father, for Father and Son share one divine rule.
1 Corinthians 8:6
“But to us there is but one God, the Father - Who produced all things, himself uncreated and unoriginated. And we in him, και ἡμεις εις αυτον, and we For him; all intelligent beings having been created for the purpose of manifesting his glory, by receiving and reflecting his wisdom, goodness, and truth. And one Lord Jesus - Only one visible Governor of the world and the Church, by whom are all things: who was the Creator, as he is the Upholder of the universe.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 8:6
“There is to us but one Lord, one Mediator between God and men, even Jesus Christ. Not many mediators, as the heathen imagined, but one only, by whom all things were created and do consist, and to whom all our hope and happiness are owing--the man Christ Jesus; but a man in personal union with the divine Word, or God the Son.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Corinthians 8:6
Who, then, would dare to deny the oneness of Name, when he sees the oneness of the working. But why should I maintain the unity of the Name by arguments, when there is the plain testimony of the Divine Voice that the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is one? For it is written: "Go, baptize all nations in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." He said, "in the Name," not "in the Names."
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On the Holy Spirit, Book 1, 132patristic
1 Corinthians 8:6
“From whom are all things - By creation, providence, and grace. And we for him - The end of all we are, have, and do. And one Lord - Equally the object of divine worship.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
I Will Never Eat Meat Again If It Trips My Brother
1 Corinthians 8:7-8
But not everyone has this knowledge: Some believers, probably recent converts from idolatry, eat such food as if it were sacrificed to an idol, and their weak conscience is defiled. Food does not bring us closer to God, so the question is one of conscience and love.
1 Corinthians 8:7
“Some eat, with consciousness of the idol - That is, fancying it is something, and that it makes the meat unlawful to be eaten. And their conscience, being weak - Not rightly informed. Is defiled - contracts guilt by doing it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 8:7
“But conscious of what it was, and not having such knowledge as other Corinthians boasted of, namely, that an idol is nothing and can therefore neither pollute nor sanctify meats, they by eating them sin against conscience (compare Ro 14:15-23).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
food does not bring us closer: Barnes hears in this verse the argument of the Corinthians who ate, while Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read it as Paul's own admission. Either way, food leaves a person's standing before God unchanged.
1 Corinthians 8:8
“Other old manuscripts read, "Neither if we do not eat, are we the better: neither if we eat are we the worse": the language of the eaters who justified their eating thus [LACHMANN]. In English Version Paul admits that "meat neither presents [so the Greek for 'commendeth'] us as commended nor as disapproved before God": it does not affect our standing before God (Ro 14:6).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Corinthians 8:9-10
Be careful, however, that your freedom does not become a stumbling block: Freedom can become a stumbling block to the weak. Corinth's temples held dining rooms for meals in the god's honour. A weak brother who sees him eating there may be drawn back into an act his conscience still calls worship.
1 Corinthians 8:9
“But take heed - This is the reply of Paul to the argument of the Corinthians in 1Co 8:8. “Though all that you say should be admitted to be true, as it must be; though a man is neither morally better nor worse for partaking of meat or abstaining from it; yet the grand principle to be observed is, so to act as not to injure your brethren.”
someone with a weak conscience: The danger lies in example. Chrysostom and Barnes note that the weak brother looks to the one with knowledge as a pattern and takes courage to eat.
1 Corinthians 8:10
“For if any one see thee who hast knowledge - Whom he believes to have more knowledge than himself, and who really hast this knowledge, that an idol is nothing-sitting down to an entertainment in an idol temple. The heathens frequently made entertainments in their temples, on what hath been sacrificed to their idols. Will not the conscience of him that is weak - Scrupulous.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 8:10
“If any man see thee which hast knowledge - Of the true God, and who art reputed for thy skill in Divine things. Sit at meat in the idol’s temple - Is it not strange that any professing the knowledge of the true God should even enter one of those temples? And is it not more surprising that any Christian should be found to feast there? But by all this we may see that the boasted knowledge of the Corinthians had very little depth in things purely spiritual.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Corinthians 8:10
“Nay, feasts, as Athenæus informs us, were always accounted, among the heathen, sacred and religious things, so that they were wont to sacrifice before all their feasts; and it was accounted a very profane thing among them, athyta esthiein, to eat at their private tables any meat whereof they had not first sacrificed on such occasions.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Corinthians 8:11-12
So this weak brother, for whom Christ died: The stronger believer's correct doctrine is weighed against the price Christ paid for the brother it may destroy. Wounding a weak conscience is sin against Christ, the logic of Acts 9:4, where the risen Lord asks Saul why he persecutes him.
1 Corinthians 8:11
“And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? - And for whom thou wilt not lose a meal's meat, so far from dying for him! We see, Christ died even for them that perish.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 8:11
“And through thy knowledge - Because you knew that an idol was nothing, and that there could be really no danger of falling into idolatry from partaking of these entertainments. You will thus be the means of deceiving and destroying him. The argument of the apostle here is, that if This was to be the result, the duty of those who had this knowledge was plain. Shall the weak brother - The uninformed and ignorant Christian. That it means real Christian there can be no doubt.”
1 Corinthians 8:11
“Scripture is our rule, not our suppositions as to consequences. More is involved in redemption than the salvation of man: the character of God as at once just and loving is vindicated even in the case of the lost for they might have been saved, and so even in their case Christ has not died in vain.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
you sin against Christ: Paul moves the offence from a brother to Christ Himself. Matthew Henry and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown ground the last step in Christ's bond with His members, as at Matthew 25:40.
1 Corinthians 8:12
“But when ye sin so against the brethren - Against Christians, who are called by the Gospel to abhor and detest all such abominations. Ye sin against Christ - By sending to perdition, through your bad example, a soul for whom he shed his blood; and so far defeating the gracious intentions of his sacrificial death. This is a farther intimation, that a person for whom Christ died may perish; and this is the drift of the apostle’s argument.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 8:12
“Note, Injuries done to Christians are injuries to Christ, especially to babes in Christ, to weak Christians; and most of all, involving them in guilt: wounding their consciences is wounding him.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Corinthians 8:12
“Consequently, either when something is done which is intrinsically evil and scandal results, or if the performance of a licit act and one within our sphere of competence causes scandal to one who is weak in faith or knowledge, then the penalty is clear and unescapable.… "It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck.".”
Basil of Caesarea · written before 379 · Concerning Baptism 10patristic
Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to stumble: Paul applies the argument to himself first: if what I eat causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again. The resolve is his own example, and chapter 9 develops the same pattern through the rights he gave up as an apostle.
1 Corinthians 8:13
“When it is certainly foreseen that my doing what I may forbear will occasion a fellow-christian to do what he ought to forbear, I shall offend, scandalize, or lay a stumbling-block in his way, which to do is a sin, however lawful the thing itself be which is done. And, if we must be so careful not to occasion other men's sins, how careful should we be to avoid sin ourselves!”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The form: The next question from the church's letter, whether it was lawful to eat things sacrificed to idols, opening an answer that runs to the end of chapter 10, as Gill classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The subject named twice | Verse 1 names the subject with Now about food sacrificed to idols, and verse 4 names it again with So about eating food sacrificed to idols. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown mark the words between as a parenthesis on knowledge and love, and hold that the main subject is taken up again in the same words at verse 4.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on 1 Corinthians 8:1. | 1 Corinthians 8:1, 1 Corinthians 8:4 |
| Knowledge set against love | Verse 1 sets knowledge that puffs up against love that builds up, and verses 2 and 3 turn from the one who thinks he knows to the one who is known by God. Augustine of Hippo marks that Paul says the one who loves is known by God, and reads the other wording as a dangerous presumption.Augustine of Hippo, On the Trinity 9.1, 430, on 1 Corinthians 8:3. | 1 Corinthians 8:1, 1 Corinthians 8:2, 1 Corinthians 8:3 |
| The church's claims stated | The sentences that open with We know at verses 1 and 4, and the claim about food at verse 8, state what the Corinthians held. Albert Barnes reads verses 4 to 6 as the argument of the Corinthians and verse 8 as the view of those who ate. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown record an older reading of verse 8 as the language of the eaters.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on 1 Corinthians 8:8. | 1 Corinthians 8:1, 1 Corinthians 8:4, 1 Corinthians 8:8 |
| One God, one Lord | Verse 6 sets two lines side by side, one God, the Father, from whom all things came, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came. Each line closes on the believer's own existence. Cyril of Alexandria states the pairing in the same order.Cyril of Alexandria, Letter 50.26, 444, on 1 Corinthians 8:6. | 1 Corinthians 8:6 |
Where the chapter stands
11 more paragraphs on the patterns
Chapter 7 answered the church's first question and chapter 8 takes up the next. John Gill records that the eating of things sacrificed to idols was a controversy already raised in the church. The chapter opens an answer that runs from 8:1 to 10:33. Its last verse, the resolve never to eat meat again, is the point where chapter 9 begins. John Chrysostom reads 9:1 as Paul showing that he had already given up things allowed him.
Who speaks
Two voices share the chapter. The Corinthians are heard in the claims that open with We know, and in the claim about food at verse 8. Paul answers them with what their knowledge leaves out. John Chrysostom holds that Paul speaks first to the strong and leaves the weak aside.
The units
Verses 1 to 3 weigh knowledge against love. Verses 4 to 6 state the confession of one God and one Lord. Verses 7 to 13 turn to the brother whose conscience is weak.
The Old Testament behind it
Verse 4 and verse 6 echo the confession of Deuteronomy 6:4, as the site's published exposition records. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown set the gods and lords of verse 5 beside Deuteronomy 10:17.
The debated readings
An idol is nothing. Origen of Alexandria holds that one who makes an idol makes what is not, a form the mind imagines. Augustine of Hippo holds that idol worship draws a man into fellowship with demons. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown hold that this chapter denies the gods and 10:20 names the demons behind them, so the two agree.
The knowledge of verse 7. John Chrysostom asks whether Paul means knowledge of God or knowledge about the food, and weighs both. Theophylact of Ohrid takes it as knowing that God is one and that idols are nothing.
Eating in the temple. Matthew Henry argues on the supposition that such eating was lawful in itself. Clement of Alexandria urges abstaining for the sake of conscience and out of detestation of the demons. The Didache warns against such food as the service of dead gods, and Ambrosiaster holds that meat sacrificed to idols is to be refused.
Keep studying
Studies8
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 1 Corinthians 8:1; John Chrysostom, Homily on 1 Corinthians 20, 407, on 1 Corinthians 8:1 and John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament, 1746 to 1748, on 1 Corinthians 8:1.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Ambrosiaster, COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES; Augustine of Hippo, On the Trinity 9.1; Charles Hodge, An Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians; Frederic Godet, Commentary on First Corinthians; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, Homily on 1 Corinthians 20; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Severian of Gabala, PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH; Tertullian, Against Marcion Book V; Theodore of Mopsuestia, PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH and Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on 1 Corinthians.