1 Corinthians 11:21

By the way in which they act, they change the sacred feast into an ordinary supper, which has no longer anything in common with the sacred feast which it should recall. It is on the προ, before, in the verb προλαμβάνειν, that the emphasis lies: “You make haste to take the provisions you have brought before it has become possible to make a general distribution of them, and without sharing them with your neighbours.” The epithet ἴδιον, his own, expresses the right in virtue of which the owner thinks he can act thus.

The words ἐν τῷ φάγειν indicate the moment when the feast begins, following the act of worship which had certainly preceded: when the feasting is reached, including the supper, and then the holy sacrament.

The words: one is hungry, refer to the poor who are present.

The verb μεθύειν usually signifies to be intoxicated; but it may also be applied to eating, in the sense in which we say to eat his fill, and so to form a contrast, as is the case in this passage, to πεινᾷν, to be hungry. The word μεθύειν certainly shows that the pleasure of good cheer and drinking went the length of intemperance, just as in those friendly feasts at which Greek gaiety and frivolity took free course. Now follow the rebukes which such conduct deserves.