Skip to content
mannafest.faith

1 Corinthians 11:21

in 1 Corinthians 11

For as you eat, each of you goes ahead without sharing his meal. While one remains hungry, another gets drunk.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

for in your eating each one taketh before other his own supper; and one is hungry, and another is drunken.

KJV

For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken.

This verse in 1 Corinthians 11

Commentary

13 notes on this verse

A commentator

Clement of Alexandria

The Instructor Book 2 · Written before 215.

The apostle, checking those who transgress in their conduct at entertainments, says: "For every one taketh beforehand in eating his own supper; and one is hungry, and another drunken. Have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God, and shame those who have not?"

This site's exposition

it is not the Lord’s Supper

on 1 Corinthians 11:20-22

The meal, most likely the agape feast that held the bread and cup, had lost its shape. The wealthier went ahead with their own food, and while one remains hungry, another gets drunk.

This site's exposition

goes ahead without sharing his meal

Goes ahead is prolambano, eating one's meal first. Chrysostom describes the custom behind it: richer members brought food and drink to share with the poor at a common supper. At Corinth the rich ate and got drunk while the poor remained hungry.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers2 voices

A commentator

John Chrysostom

Homily on 1 Corinthians 27 · Written in the 5th century.

proposed

"For in your eating, each one taketh before other his own supper," saith he, "and one is hungry, and another is drunken." Perceivest thou how he intimates that they were disgracing themselves rather? For that which is the Lord's, they make a private matter: so that themselves are the first to suffer indignity, depriving their own table of its greatest prerogative. How and in what manner? Because the Lord's Supper, i.e., the Master's, ought to be common. For the property of the master belongs not to this servant without belonging to that, but in common to all. So that by "the Lord's" Supper he expresses this, the "community" of the feast. As if he had said, "If it be thy master's, as assuredly it is, thou oughtest not to withdraw it as private, but as belonging to thy Lord and Master to set it in common before all. For this is the meaning of, 'the Lord's.' But now thou dost not suffer it to be the Lord's, not suffering it to be common but feasting by thyself." Wherefore also he goes on to say, "For each one taketh before other his own supper." And he said not, "cutteth off," but "taketh before," tacitly censuring them both for greediness and for precipitancy. This at least the sequel also shows. For having said this, he added again, "and one is hungry, and another is drunken," each of which showed a want of moderation, both the craving and the excess. See also a second fault again whereby those same persons are injured: the first, that they dishonor their supper: the second, that they are greedy and drunken; and what is yet worse, even when the poor are hungry. For what was intended to be set before all in common, that these men fed on alone, and proceeded both to surfeiting and to drunkenness. […]

A commentator

Clement of Alexandria

The Instructor Book 2 · Written before 215.

proposed

And among those who have, they, who eat shamelessly and are insatiable, shame themselves. And both act badly; the one by paining those who have not, the other by exposing their own greed in the presence of those who have.

The Medieval Church2 voices

A commentator

Theophylact of Ohrid

Commentary on 1 Corinthians · Written before 1107.

proposed

You have turned this Lord's Supper into your own private one. For as long as it was common, it was also called the Lord's Supper; for the Master's goods are common to all servants. But since each one hastens to eat his own supper, not …

A commentator

Thomas Aquinas

Commentary on 1 Corinthians · Written before 1274.

proposed

Then when he says, For each one, he mentions the fault: first, insofar as they sinned against God; secondly, insofar as they sinned against their neighbor (v. 21b). He says, therefore, first: The reason I say that it is not lawful for you to eat …

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)

For in eating what ye call the Lord's supper, instead of all partaking of one bread, each person brings his own supper, and eats it without staying for the rest. And hereby the poor, who cannot provide for themselves, have nothing; while the rich eat and drink to the full just as the heathens use to do at the feasts on their sacrifices.
5 more voices on this verse

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

This was profaning a sacred institution, and corrupting a divine ordinance, to the last degree. What was appointed to feed the soul was employed to feed their lusts and passions.
For in eating,....

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

For in eating - When you eat, having professedly come together to observe this ordinance. In order to understand this, it seems necessary to suppose that they had in some way made the Lord’s supper either connected with a common feast, or that they regarded it as a mere common festival to be observed in a way similar to the festivals among the Greeks. Many have supposed that this was done by making the observance of the supper follow a festival, or what were afterward called “love feasts” ἀγάπαι agapai - “Agapae”).

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

one taketh before other--the rich "before" the poor, who had no supper of their own. Instead of "tarrying for one another" (1Co 11:33); hence the precept (1Co 12:21, 25). his own supper--"His own" belly is his God (Php 3:19); "the Lord's Supper," the spiritual feast, never enters his thoughts. drunken--The one has more than is good for him, the other less [BENGEL].

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

Every one taketh before - his own supper - They had a grand feast, though the different sects kept in parties by themselves; but all took as ample a supper as they could provide, (each bringing his own provisions with him), before they took what was called the Lord’s Supper. See on 1Co 11:17 (note).

The words behind it

16 Greek words

Every 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.

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each 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

    Jude 1:12

    These men are hidden reefs in your love feasts, shamelessly feasting with you but shepherding only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried along by the wind; fruitless trees in autumn, twice dead after…

    it leads to

    • Philippians 3:19

      Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Matthew 15:13

      But Jesus replied, “Every plant that My heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by its roots.

    • 2 Peter 2:17–20

      These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.

    • Ezekiel 34:8

      ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, because My flock lacks a shepherd and has become prey and food for every wild beast, and because My shepherds did not search for My…

    • Proverbs 25:14

      Like clouds and wind without rain is the man who boasts of gifts never given.

  • Through

    2 Peter 2:13

    The harm they will suffer is the wages of their wickedness. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deception as they feast with…

    it leads to

    • Romans 13:13

      Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.

    • Romans 2:8–9

      But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow wickedness, there will be wrath and anger.

    • Hebrews 2:2–3

      For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every transgression and disobedience received its just punishment,

Where this verse is studied

About 1 Corinthians

The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci, 1495 to 1498. Public domain.
The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci, 1495 to 1498. Public domain.
This page draws on 12 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the First Epistle to the Corinthians; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor Book 2; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Corinthians; John Chrysostom, Homily on 1 Corinthians 27; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on 1 Corinthians and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on 1 Corinthians.