1 Corinthians 8 · ESV Study Bible

Live as You Are Called

The Unmarried and the Widowed

Food Offered to Idols

1 CORINTHIANS 8 [†]Now concerning [1] m food offered to idols: we know that n “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” o puffs up, p but love builds up. 2 q If anyone imagines that he knows something, r he does not yet know as he ought to know. 3[†]But if anyone loves God, s he is known by God. [2]

4[†]Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that t “an idol has no real existence,” and that u “there is no God but one.” 5For although there may be v so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— 6yet w for us there is one God, the Father, x from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and y one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and z through whom we exist.

7[†]However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, a through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and b their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8[†] c Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. 9[†]But take care d that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block e to the weak. 10[†]For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating [3] in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, [4] if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? 11And so by your knowledge this weak person is f destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. 12Thus, sinning against your brothers [5] and g wounding their conscience when it is weak, h you sin against Christ. 13Therefore, i if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

1 CORINTHIANS—NOTE ON 8:3 known by God. God knows those who belong to him (13:12; John 10:14; Gal. 4:9; 2 Tim. 2:19), and there is a close bond between belonging to God and sharing love for God and neighbor (1 John 3:16; 4:20).

1 CORINTHIANS—NOTE ON 8:9 this right of yours. Paul is speaking from the Corinthians’ perspective. He will later deny that anyone in the Corinthian church has the right to eat meals in pagan temples. To do this is to practice idolatry and so to open oneself to the influence of demons (10:7, 14, 20–22). Even if they had the right to eat in temples they should refrain from using this right out of concern for the spiritual well-being of the person whose conscience is weak (8:7). stumbling block. See Rom. 14:13, 20.

1 CORINTHIANS—NOTE ON 8:10–11 eating in an idol’s temple. See notes on 8:1–11:1; 8:1. Paul elsewhere uses destroyed (Gk. apollymi) to mean eternal destruction (Rom. 2:12; 1 Cor. 1:18; 15:18; 2 Cor. 2:15; 4:3; 2 Thess. 2:10), and some interpreters take Paul’s use of the term here in the same sense. Others see this as a reference to the moral harm done to the weaker brother (his conscience “is defiled,” 1 Cor. 8:7).

1 CORINTHIANS—NOTE ON 8:1–11:1 Food Offered to Idols. Because pagan temples offered parts of animals in sacrifice to the gods, they also often functioned as butcher shops and banqueting halls. Sometimes meals for trade guilds, clubs, and private dinner parties were held in a temple dining room. Often meat from a temple was sold to the public in the marketplace. This section of 1 Corinthians gives clear guidance about the use of such food. Paul first urges the Corinthians not to eat in pagan temples (8:10) because it might lead to the destruction of a weaker brother or sister (ch. 8). He then offers himself as an example of giving up something one is convinced is a right for the spiritual edification of others (ch. 9). He urges the Corinthians not to eat in pagan temples because doing so is idolatry (10:1–22). Finally, he says that eating meat purchased in the marketplace (which may have come from a pagan temple) is not wrong unless it hinders the advancement of the gospel (10:23–11:1).

1 CORINTHIANS—NOTE ON 8:8 Those who had the supposedly superior “knowledge” (vv. 1, 4) that permitted them to participate in dinners held at pagan temples may have thought that this knowledge gave them special standing with God.

1 CORINTHIANS—NOTE ON 8:1 food offered to idols. In Greek, this phrase is one word (eidōlothytos, lit., “something offered to an idol”). Paul is talking about food, however, because he uses the word for “food” (Gk. brōsis) in v. 4. Since only part of an animal was used in sacrifices to pagan gods, much of the animal could still be eaten. Paul speaks later in this chapter of eating such food in a banqueting hall attached to a temple and therefore in an explicitly religious setting (v. 10). Pre-Pauline evidence of such temple banquets at Corinth is found at the Sanctuary of Asklepios and at the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore, and such feasting likely continued during Paul’s day. “all of us possess knowledge.” Quotation marks have been supplied to indicate that this statement probably originated with the Corinthians and that Paul is responding to it (cf. 1:12; 3:4; 6:12, 13; 7:1; 8:4; 10:23). What the Corinthians “know” is explained in 8:4. puffs up. Once again, Corinthian arrogance is seen as a problem (see also 3:21; 4:6, 8, 18–19).