1 Corinthians 11:29

damnation Rather judgment, as in the margin. Wiclif, dome(as in ch. 1 Corinthians 6:4). Luther, gericht. Vulgate, judicium, "The mistranslation in our version has, says Dean Alford, "done infinite mischief." Olshausen reminds us how in Germany a translation (see above) less strong than this, yet interpreted to mean the same thing, drove Goethe from "Church and altar." Of what kind the judgmentis the next verse explains. That it is not finalcondemnation that is threatened, 1 Corinthians 11:33 clearly shews (Alford, De Wette). Some MSS. and editors omit "unworthily" here. It may have been introduced from 1 Corinthians 11:27. If it be omitted, the sense is that he who eats and drinks without discerning (see next note) the Body of Christ, invites judgment on himself. If it be retained, we are to understand that he who partakes unworthily, invites God's judgment on him because he does not discern the Lord's Body. The latter is the reading of the ancient versions.

discerning Dijudicans, Vulgate. Discernens, Calvin. Dass er nicht unterscheidet, Luther. Wiseli demynge, Wiclif. Because he maketh no difference of, Tyndale (after Luther). The word discernproperly signifies to perceive distinctions, to distinguish. Thus Shakspeare,

"No discernerdurst wag his tongue in censure,"

Henry VIII. Act i. Sc. 1,

i.e. no one who might have been inclined to exalt one king at the expense of the other. So the word discreetoriginally meant one who had the power of rightly distinguishing. The Greek word sometimes means to distinguish, or even to cause to differ(ch. 1 Corinthians 4:7). In the passive, in which it most frequently occurs in the N. T., it signifies to be made to differ, to doubt. Here, however, the word is used in its primary signification (cf. St Matthew 16:3, where the same word is used with the same translation), and means to decide after a thorough inquiry(search out, Chrysostom) to pierce through the impediments opposed by sense, and thus to come to a right conclusion of what is actually offered to faith in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, rather than with some, to discriminate betweenthe Body of the Lord and other kinds of food.

the Lord's body Some MSS. and editors read the body.