1 Corinthians 8:7

“Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge. Some, through the habit which they have to this hour of [believing in] the idol, eat the meats as offered to the idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled.”

The strong contrast indicated by the ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ, but not, and by the place given at the opening of the sentence to the ἐν πᾶσιν, in all (opposed to ἡμῖν, to us, 1 Corinthians 8:6), may be paraphrased as follows: “But this monotheistic knowledge possessed by us all has not yet unfolded in the consciousness of all its full consequences.” At the first glance the opening words of this verse seem to contradict the assertion of 1 Corinthians 8:1 (“we know that we all have knowledge”), and it was this supposed contradiction which led several critics to refer the words of 1 Corinthians 8:1 only to the enlightened Christians of Corinth (Beza, Flatt, etc.), or to these with the addition of the apostle (Meyer). 1 Corinthians 8:7 in this case would refer to the weak Christians only, and would agree without difficulty with 1 Corinthians 8:1. But in thus escaping from one contradiction, we fall into another. How, on this view, can we explain the πάντες, all, of 1 Corinthians 8:1, having regard to the οὐκ ἐν πᾶσιν, not in all, of 1 Corinthians 8:7 ? The all of 1 Corinthians 8:1 would necessarily require to have been qualified by some restriction. Besides this, as de Wette observes, the apostle has just unfolded in 1 Corinthians 8:6 the contents of the knowledge, and he has done so as speaking not in the name of some, but of all Christians (we, in opposition to the heathen). The apparent contradiction between 1 Corinthians 8:1; 1 Corinthians 8:7 must therefore be resolved differently. Account must be taken of two differences of expression. In 1 Corinthians 8:1: we all have; here: in all there is not; in 1 Corinthians 8:1: [some] knowledge, a certain knowledge (γνῶσις without article); in 1 Corinthians 8:7, [the] knowledge (γνῶσις with the article): “All have the monotheistie knowledge in general (a certain knowledge, 1 Corinthians 8:1); but the precise knowledge which is in question here (to wit, that heathen deities do not exist, and consequently cannot contaminate either the meats offered to them or those who eat them), this knowledge is not in all, has not yet penetrated the conscience of all to the quick, so as to free them from every scruple.” How many truths do we possess, from having learned our catechism, the practical conclusions of which we are yet far from having drawn! How many people ridicule belief in ghosts, whom the fear of spirits terrifies when they find themselves alone in the night! The idolatrous superstitions are numerous which still exercise their influence on our monotheistic Christendom.

The strong among the Corinthians did not make this distinction between theoretic knowledge and its practical application; and hence it was that they thought themselves entitled to set aside all consideration for the weak: “Freedom to eat meats offered to idols follows logically from the monotheistic principle common to all; so much the worse for those of us who want logic! We are not called to put ourselves about for a brother who reasons badly.” This was strong in logic, but weak in ἀγάπη (love). And hence it was that the apostle had introduced at the beginning of this chapter the short digression on the emptiness of knowledge without love.

There is room for hesitating between the reading of the T. R.: τῇ συνειδήσει, through conscience, after the Byz. and Greco-Lat.'s, the Itala and the Peschito, and that of the Alex. and of a later Syriac translation: τῇ συνηθείᾳ, through habit. Meyer, Heinrici, Holsten have returned, contrary to Tischendorf's authority (8th edition), to the received reading. They allege its difficulty. But is it not very improbable that the word συνήθεια, so rare in the New Testament (it is found only twice), has been substituted for the term συνείδησις, which occurs in this same verse and twice besides in this chapter? (1 Corinthians 8:10; 1 Corinthians 8:12). As to the sense. συνείδησις, conscience, would denote the inward conviction of the reality of the idol, which in such persons has survived their conversion. The term συνήθεια denotes the habit which they have of regarding the idol as a real being. The words ἕως ἄρτι, till now, especially placed, as they are in most Mjj., before τοῦ εἰδώλου, apply naturally, not to the verb, but to the substantive which precedes, and agree perfectly with the notion of habit: a habit (which lasts) till now even after the new faith should have put an end to it. If this is the true reading, the conclusion is almost necessary that the persons in question were of heathen origin. The old prejudice, under the dominion of which they had lived, resisted logic. They could not imagine that the powers they had so long revered under the names of Zeus, Mars, Minerva, etc., had not some reality. Hence the meats offered on their altar could no longer be simple meats; they must have taken something of the malignant character of those beings themselves. And therefore the Christian who eats them in this character (ὡς εἰδωλόθυτον, as sacrificed) is ipso facto polluted.

What does the apostle mean by the expression weak conscience? The term συνείδησις, conscience, strictly denotes the knowledge which the Ego has of itself, as willing and doing good or evil (the moral conscience), and of itself in what it thinks and knows (the theoretical conscience). It is the moral conscience which is here in question. It is weak, because a religious scruple, from which the gospel should have set it free, still binds it to beings which have no existence and hinders it from acting normally. Probably those former heathen, while adhering to belief in one God, still regarded their deities of other days, if not as gods, at least as terrible powers. The apostle adds that this conscience will be defiled, if the person eats of those meats in this state. In fact, this act remains upon it as a stain which separates from the holy God the man who has committed it while himself disapproving of it.