1 Corinthians 10:19
in 1 Corinthians 10Am I suggesting, then, that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
What say I then? that a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?
KJV
What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?
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This verse in 1 Corinthians 10
Commentary
11 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
What say I then? - This is in the present tense; τί οὖν φημι ti oun phēmi, what do I say? What is my meaning? What follows from this? Do I mean to say that an idol is anything; that it has a real existence? Does my reasoning lead to that conclusion; and am I to be understood as affirming that an idol is of itself of any consequence? It must be recollected that the Corinthian Christians are introduced by Paul 1Co 8:4 as saying that they knew that an idol was nothing in the world.
This site's exposition
partakers of the altar
on 1 Corinthians 10:18-20
Behold Israel after the flesh, are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar: the Levitical system supplies Paul's parallel, eating the sacrifice joined the worshiper to the altar and its meaning, whether the altar served the true God or, as the next verses show, a false one. Paul asks whether an idol or its sacrifice is anything at all, and answers that the things the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God. An idol has no real existence as a god, yet the worship offered before it reaches a real spiritual power, and the site reads Paul's devils, daimonia, at face value, unseen beings using dead images as a point of contact with their worshipers. I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils names the danger plainly, participation in the feast being participation with what stands behind it, not a neutral act toward an empty statue.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
A commentator
Theodoret of CyrusCOMMENTARY ON THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 229 · Written before 458.
proposed
Paul does not want anyone to think that sacrifices as such have any power or that they can corrupt the one who eats them afterward.
But having said that they have "communion with the altar," afterwards fearing lest he should seem to discourse as if the idols had any power and could do some injury, see again how he overthrows them, saying, "What say I then? That an idol is any thing? or that a thing sacrificed to idols is any thing?" As if he had said, "Now these things I affirm, and try to withdraw you from the idols, not as though they could do any injury or had any power: for an idol is nothing; but I wish you to despise them." "And if thou wilt have us despise them," saith one, "wherefore dost thou carefully withdraw us from them?" Because they are not offered to thy Lord.
Would to God that no "heresies had been ever necessary, in order that they which are; approved may be made manifest!" We should then be never required to try our strength in contests about the soul with philosophers, those patriarchs of heretics, as they may be fairly called.
The Medieval Church1 voice
I turn you away from idols not because they have the power to do harm or good, for they are decidedly nothing, but because the sacrifice offered to them does not go to your Master. Therefore he continues.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
What say I then - Do I in saying this allow that an idol is anything divine? I aver, on the contrary, that what the heathens sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils. Such in reality are the gods of the heathens; and with such only can you hold communion in those sacrifices.
4 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
What say I then?....
He lets them yet know that though they must not eat of things sacrificed to idols as such, and out of any regard to the idol, yet they might buy such flesh in the markets, or eat it at the table of heathen acquaintances, without asking any questions; for that the heathens' abuse of them did not render the creatures of God unfit to be the food of his servants.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
This verse guards against such an inference: "What would I say then? that a thing sacrificed to an idol is any real thing (in the sense that the heathen regard it), or that an idol is any real thing?" (The oldest manuscripts read the words in this order. Supply "Nay") "But [I say] that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils (demons)." Paul here introduces a new fact.
What say I then? - A Jewish phrase for, I conclude; and this is his conclusion: that although an idol is nothing, has neither power nor influence, nor are things offered to idols any thing the worse for being thus offered; yet, as the things sacrificed by the Gentiles are sacrificed to demons and not to God, those who partake of them have fellowship with demons: those who profess Christianity cannot have fellowship both with Christ and the devil.
The words behind it
12 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Τί | ti | What | G5101 → | 563 times |
| οὖν | oun | then | G3767 → | 497 times |
| φημι; | phemi | do I mean? | G5346 → | 66 times |
| ὅτι | hoti | That | G3754 → | 1292 times |
| εἰδωλόθυτόν | eidolothuton | an idol-sacrifice | G1494 → | 9 times |
| τί | ti | anything | G5100 → | 528 times |
| ἐστιν | estin | is | G1510 → | 2333 times |
| ἢ | e | or | G2228 → | 342 times |
| ὅτι | hoti | that | G3754 → | 1292 times |
| εἴδωλόν | eidolon | an idol | G1497 → | 11 times |
| τί | ti | anything | G5100 → | 528 times |
| ἐστιν; | estin | is? | G1510 → | 2333 times |
ΤίWhat
tiG5101 →563 times
οὖνthen
ounG3767 →497 times
φημι;do I mean?
phemiG5346 →66 times
ὅτιThat
hotiG3754 →1292 times
εἰδωλόθυτόνan idol-sacrifice
eidolothutonG1494 →9 times
τίanything
tiG5100 →528 times
ἐστινis
estinG1510 →2333 times
ἢor
eG2228 →342 times
ὅτιthat
hotiG3754 →1292 times
εἴδωλόνan idol
eidolonG1497 →11 times
τίanything
tiG5100 →528 times
ἐστιν;is?
estinG1510 →2333 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Deuteronomy 32:21They have provoked My jealousy by that which is not God; they have enraged Me with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous by those who are not a people; I will…
it leads to
- Romans 10:19
I ask instead, did Israel not understand? First, Moses says: “I will make you jealous by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation without understanding.”
- Romans 9:25
As He says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘My People’ who are not My people, and I will call her ‘My Beloved’ who is not My beloved,”
- Romans 11:11–14
I ask then, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Certainly not! However, because of their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous.
- 1 Kings 16:26
For he walked in all the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat and in his sins, which he caused Israel to commit, provoking the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger with their worthless…
- 1 Kings 16:13
This happened because of all the sins Baasha and his son Elah had committed and had caused Israel to commit, provoking the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger with their worthless idols.
- Romans 10:19
Through
Isaiah 40:17All the nations are as nothing before Him; He regards them as nothingness and emptiness.
it leads to
- Psalms 62:9
Lowborn men are but a vapor, the exalted but a lie. Weighed on the scale, they go up; together they are but a vapor.
- Psalms 62:9
Through
1 Corinthians 8:4So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 4:39
Know therefore this day and take to heart that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.
- Deuteronomy 4:39
Through
1 Corinthians 1:28He chose the lowly and despised things of the world, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are,
it leads to
- Job 34:24
He shatters the mighty without inquiry and sets up others in their place.
- Job 34:24
Where this verse is studied
About 1 Corinthians
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, Homily on 1 Corinthians 24; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Tertullian, A Treatise on the Soul; Theodoret of Cyrus, COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 229 and Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on 1 Corinthians.