1 Corinthians 8

Now about food that has been offered to idols. We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes a person proud, but love builds people up.

1Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.

NoteMost meat sold in Corinth's markets, and nearly all meat served at public festivals and private banquets, came from animals killed in a temple sacrifice; only part of the animal was burned, and the rest was eaten on the spot or sold on. So a question about "things offered unto idols" was a question about ordinary shopping and ordinary dinner invitations. Where the King James says "charity" it means love, not giving to the poor. "Edifieth" is a building word: to build a person up, as one builds a house.

2Anyone who thinks he knows something does not yet know it the way he ought to know it.

2And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.

3But the person who loves God is known by God.

3But if any man love God, the same is known of him.

Note"Known of him" is older English for "known by him." The King James regularly uses "of" where we would say "by."

4So, about eating food that has been offered as a sacrifice to idols: we know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.

4As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.

NoteAn idol is the carved or cast image of a god that stood in its temple and received the sacrifices. Saying it "is nothing in the world" is a claim about what stands behind the image, not about whether the statue exists.

5Even if there are beings that are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, and there are many such gods and many such lords,

5For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,)

NoteIn the Greek and Roman world both words were in everyday use. "Lord" was a title given to the gods of the mystery cults, and also to the Roman emperor. Anyone in Corinth who called Jesus "one Lord" was using a word his neighbors applied to many others.

6yet for us there is only one God, the Father. Everything comes from him, and we exist for him. And there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ. Everything comes through him, and we exist through him.

6But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

NoteThe wording reworks the sentence Jewish people recited daily, from Deuteronomy 6:4: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD." The two terms of that confession, "God" and "Lord," are kept, with "one God" attached to the Father and "one Lord" to Jesus Christ.

7But not everyone has this knowledge. Some people are so used to idols that, even now, when they eat such food they eat it as food offered to an idol. Their conscience is weak, and it is stained.

7Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.

Note"Conscience" translates a Greek word for a person's inner awareness of his own conduct, the faculty that passes judgment on what he has just done. "Defiled" comes from the vocabulary of ritual purity: stained, made unclean, so that the person is unfit to approach a god.

8But food does not bring us any closer to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat it, and no better off if we do.

8But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse.

Note"Meat" in 1611 English meant food of any kind, not flesh in particular. The Greek word here is the general word for food.

9But be careful. Your freedom must not become something that trips up those who are weak.

9But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.

Note"Liberty" is the right or freedom to act as one chooses, here the freedom to eat anything. A "stumblingblock" is an obstruction left in a path so that a traveler trips over it; the Greek word can also mean the baited trigger of a trap.

10For if someone sees you, who have this knowledge, sitting down to a meal in an idol's temple, will his weak conscience not be encouraged to eat food offered to idols?

10For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols;

NoteTemples commonly had dining rooms attached, and a great deal of a city's social life took place in them: trade guild dinners, family celebrations, business entertaining. To "sit at meat" is to recline at such a meal. "Emboldened" is the same Greek verb translated "edifieth," built up, in verse 1, so the word for strengthening someone is here used of pushing him into what harms him.

11And so the weak believer, the very one Christ died for, is destroyed by your knowledge.

11And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?

Note"Brother" was the ordinary term members of these congregations used for one another, women included; it marks membership in the group, not male sex or blood relation. "Perish" translates a strong verb meaning ruined or destroyed, the opposite of the "building up" of verse 1.

12When you sin against fellow believers this way and wound their weak conscience, you are sinning against Christ.

12But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.

13So if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat again as long as the world lasts, so that I do not make him stumble.

13Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.

Note"Meat" here again means food of any kind, but "flesh" later in the same verse is the specific word for animal meat: if food trips my brother up, I will give up meat altogether. "While the world standeth" renders a Greek phrase meaning "for ever," literally "to the age."