1 Corinthians 10:1-14. The Example of Israel a Warning to Christians In this chapter the direct argument concerning meats offered to idols is resumed in 1 Corinthians 10:14. The first fourteen verses of this chapter, like chapter 9., are parenthetical. But if we read - _for_" with the best MSS. and... [ Continue Reading ]
_I would not that ye should be ignorant_ A characteristic expression of St Paul. Cf. ch. 1 Corinthians 12:1, and Romans 1:13; Rom 11:25; 2 Corinthians 1:8; 1 Thessalonians 4:13. _all our fathers_ The emphasis on - _all_" here it is repeated five times serves to point out the moral that though all wi... [ Continue Reading ]
_and were all baptized unto Moses_ The passing through the cloud (Exodus 14:19) and the sea was a type of Christian Baptism, in that he who passes through it exchanges a state of bondage for a state of freedom, the hard yoke of a Pharaoh for the fatherly care of God, and this in consequence of his f... [ Continue Reading ]
_and did all eat the same spiritual meat_ The manna (Exodus 16), "inasmuch as it was not like common bread, a product of nature, but came as bread from heaven (Psalms 78:24; Wis 16:20; St John 6:31), the gift of God, Who, by His Spirit, wrought marvellously for His people." Meyer. Cf. also Nehemiah... [ Continue Reading ]
_and did all drink the same spiritual drink_ This miraculous supply of water, vouchsafed on two occasions (Exodus 17:1-6; Numbers 20:1-11) belonged, like the manna, not to the natural, but to the spiritual order of God's Providence, which has its necessary points of contact with the lower and more c... [ Continue Reading ]
_with many of them_ Rather, MOST. The point aimed at is, that in spite of their high privileges and great opportunities, the majority of them were destroyed. Cf. Hebrews 3:17. Joshua and Caleb only, Numbers 14:38, were permitted to enter the promised land. See also Numbers 26:64-65.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Now these things were our examples_ Literally, TYPES OF US. _In figure of us_, Wiclif. The word here used is derived from τύπτω, to strike, and signifies (1) a _mark, stroke_of any kind, impressed or engraven, - _print_," St John 20:25; (2) an _image, figure_, as in Acts 7:43; (3) an _example, patt... [ Continue Reading ]
_Neither be ye idolaters_ Tyndale characteristically renders "_worshippers of images_" See Exodus 32:6. _to play_ Dancing (see Stanley and Alford _in loc_.) was probably included, as it formed part of the worship of the heathen deities. Cf. Horace, "Quam nee ferre pedem dedecuit choris.… sacro Dian... [ Continue Reading ]
_Neither let us commit fornication_ i.e. the natural result of joining in the impure worship of Ashtaroth, or Astarte, the Syrian Venus. The temple of Aphrodite, on the Acro-Corinthus, contained a thousand priestesses devoted to the same licentious worship. See Introduction. The warning in the text... [ Continue Reading ]
_Neither let us tempt Christ_ Whether we read Christ here with the authorized version, or -the Lord" with many MSS. and editors, makes but little difference. In either case Christ is meant, Who, as the Angel of the Covenant (see note on 1 Corinthians 10:4), was the guide of the Israelites throughout... [ Continue Reading ]
_Neither murmur ye_ See Exodus 16:2; Exodus 17:2; Numbers 14:2-29; Numbers 16:41. _of the destroyer_ The angel of death. Cf Exodus 12:23, Wis 18:25, where nearly the same Greek word is used in the Septuagint as here. Cf. also Genesis 19; 2 Samuel 24:16; 1 Chronicles 21:12; 1Ch 21:15-16 [ Continue Reading ]
_ensamples_ Here, as in 1 Corinthians 10:6, the word in the original is _types_, or perhaps with some editors we should read - _typically_." See note on 1 Corinthians 10:6.... [ Continue Reading ]
_let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall_ A warning against the over-confidence too common among the Corinthians. See chapter 1 throughout; ch. 1 Corinthians 3:18; 1 Corinthians 4:8. It is not sufficient to have been admitted into the Christian covenant; we need watchfulness, in ord... [ Continue Reading ]
_There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man Adapted to human powers_(ἀνθρώπινος). A consolation, as the last verse was a warning. These words were intended to meet an objection that it was impossible to walk warily enough impossible to adjust aright the boundaries of our own fre... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry_ A return to the main argument in ch. 8. An idol is nothing, and meats offered to idols are nothing; but idolatry is a deadly sin, and so also is whatever tends to promote it.... [ Continue Reading ]
The danger of eating Meats sacrificed to Idols shewn from the example of Sacrificial Feasts in general 15. _I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say_ Even in the plenitude of his Apostolic authority, he does not forbid the Corinthians the exercise of their reason. They, as well as he, have the u... [ Continue Reading ]
_The cup of blessing which we bless_ Resumption of the argument. First reason against taking part in an idol feast. We communicate together in the Body and Blood of Christ, and we are thereby debarred from communion with any beings alien to Him; a communion into which, by the analogy of all sacrific... [ Continue Reading ]
_For we being many are one bread, and one body_ "As one loaf is made up of many grains, and one body is composed of many members, so the Church of Christ is joined together of many faithful ones, united in the bonds of charity." Augustine. So Chrysostom and Theodoret, and our English bishops Andrewe... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold Israel after the flesh_ Second reason (see 1 Corinthians 10:16). As the Christian sacrificial feasts, so are those of the Jews. _are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?_ "In a strict and peculiar sense the altar having part of the animal, the partaker another part.... [ Continue Reading ]
_What say I then? that the idol is any thing_ St Paul does not mean to say here, any more than in ch. 1 Corinthians 8:4, that an idol, or the god represented by it, has any real objective existence, or that the sacrifices offered to such idols are the property of any such being as that they are inte... [ Continue Reading ]
_they sacrifice to devils, and not to God_ Third reason. The worship of idols is a worship of devils. The words here used are found in Deuteronomy 32:17, and similar ones are found in the Septuagint version of Psalms 96:5; cf. Psalms 106:37. The point of the argument is shewn in the last words of th... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils_ See note on 1 Corinthians 10:18, and for the nature of heathen sacrifices note on 1 Corinthians 8:1. The cup of devils was the libation with which the meal commenced. It was the cup of devils (1) because it was the cup of worship to beings... [ Continue Reading ]
_Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?_ i.e. as the Jews had done to their cost See note on last verse. Cf. also Numbers 14; Deuteronomy 1; Deuteronomy 32:21 (see note on 1 Corinthians 10:19 and observe that it was _idol worship_which provoked God); Psalms 95:8; Hebrews 3:16. The same word is found, w... [ Continue Reading ]
Ch. 1 Corinthians 11:1. Practical directions on the subject of Meats offered in Sacrifice 23. _All things are lawful for me_ A repetition of the words in ch. 1 Corinthians 6:12, with a more emphatic enunciation of the doctrine that the great limiting principle of liberty is our neighbour's edificat... [ Continue Reading ]
_Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth_ Rather, THE PROFIT OF HIS NEIGHBOUR. Cf. Romans 15:1-3; Philippians 2:4. The conclusion is moral, not positive. No rule is laid down about eating or not eating any kind of food as a matter of importance in itself. With such things the Gospel... [ Continue Reading ]
_Whatsoever is sold in the shambles_ This and the two following verses are directed against over-scrupulousness. Some Christians were afraid to buy meat in the public market, lest it might have been offered in sacrifice to an idol. See note on ch. 1 Corinthians 8:1. _asking no question for conscienc... [ Continue Reading ]
_for the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof_ See Psalms 26:1. Cf. Psalms 50:12. It is not the eating of meats that is sinful. -An idol is nothing in the world," and all creatures are made by God, and are therefore fit for food. (Cf. 1 Timothy 4:4.) But knowingly to countenance idolatrous r... [ Continue Reading ]
_If any of them that believe not bid you_ i.e. to a feast in a private house. Although some of the Corinthians had gone so far as to declare that a Christian might innocently sit at meat in the idol temple, confident in his conviction that an idol was -nothing in the world" (ch. 1 Corinthians 8:10),... [ Continue Reading ]
_But if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols_ i.e. if (1) one of your fellow-guests should display scruples of conscience, or (2) a heathen should be likely to draw the inference that you approved of idol worship. The reading ἱερόθυτον confirms the latter, that in the text t... [ Continue Reading ]
_why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience?_ This and the following verse are a little obscure, but the sense appears to be that no man has a right to interfere with the liberty enjoyed by another, save so far as _his own_conduct and conscientious convictions are likely to be affected the... [ Continue Reading ]
_by grace_ Rather, _with gratefulness_.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Whether therefore ye eat, or drink_ The glory of God, _that_is to be the end of all your actions. In themselves, eating and drinking are things indifferent, but there are circumstances in which they may be matters of the highest importance. In our own day, for instance, the question of using or abs... [ Continue Reading ]
_Give none offence_ This verse and the next explain the words, - _I am made all things to all men_," ch. 1 Corinthians 9:22. _neither to the Jews_ This question is dealt with fully in Romans 16, where the question of eating or abstaining from meats regarded by the Jews as unclean, is decided upon p... [ Continue Reading ]