1 Corinthians 8

1 Corinthians 8:1

Now for that other part of your letter which inquires of the lawfulness of eating things offered to idols, (on occasion again of the Gnostics’ infusions,) and accordingly speaks of the knowledge that you have, (from whence the word Gnostic comes, see note [c] ch. i., and note [b] 2 Pet. i., and Rev. ii. 6, that is, knowing men), that an idol is nothing, and so that that which hath been offered to idols may as freely and indifferently be offered to idols as any thing else; I shall now tell you, first, that we orthodox Christians have knowledge too, to wit, that knowledge of our Christian liberty, and therefore need not be despised by those among you who separate yourselves from us, in the pride of your hearts calling yourselves Gnostics, which supposes all others ignorant but yourselves; but our care is to join charity, or the love of God, with our knowledge, and that will incline us to suffer any thing for Christ’s sake, and so we shall not need to go to their idol-feasts to save us from persecution, as the Gnostics do; and a little of this courage and love of Christ is much better, tends more to our profit, than all that pretended deep knowledge of their liberty which the Gnostics pretend to, and by that choose to go to the idol-feasts rather than confess and suffer for Christ: (see note [b] Rev. ii.)

CORINTHIANS VII. 35.—VIII. 12.

is so; which certainly is an erroneous, and so an idolatrous, sinful conscience, though it be in one that hath embraced Christianity. So ver. 9, it is used again for these same men of those erroneous consciences, leading them into that heathen sin, to whom a Christian’s going to (or being present at, and eating of) their idol feasts, though he eat it but as ordinary meat, will yet be a means of scandal, that is, an occasion of confirming them in their sin. Thus again, ver. 10, 11, where they are called brethren, which notes that this heathen error was yet, ἕως ἄρτι, ver. 7, continued among some Christians at Corinth, not the Gnostics, (for they pretended to know that an idol was nothing, and so professed not to eat of those feasts as idol-feasts, but only as of ordinary meat, who therefore are here warned to take heed that they do not confirm these others in their sin,) but some more rude, ignorant, heathen Christians, that through the customariness of their former practice, συνηθεία τοῦ εἰδώλου ἕως ἄρτι, the custom of the idol until now; and secondly through their νησιότης, ch. iii. 1, their infancy or rawness in Christianity, (which made St. Paul look upon them not as spiritual, but as carnal men, not as Christians, but heathens still;) and thirdly, through the infusions of corrupt false teachers, (mentioned in the following chapter, the wood, and the hay, and the stubble, ver. 12, that must be fired out of the church;) and fourthly, through fear of losing all that they had by the heathen persecutors, (which seems to be mentioned ch. x. 13, and which occasioned many to offer sacrifice in after-times, when Christianity had taken deeper root than it had yet at Corinth,) were still in these dregs and lees of heathenism, after their embracing of Christianity; which will be no wonder to any that observes in this very Epistle, that they thought all kinds of fornication, and even incest, no sins, ch. v. and ch. vi. 15, suing one another at heathen tribunals, no sin, ch. vi, yea and believed not the resurrection, ch. xv. And the villainies that were under pretence of Christian liberty practised by the Gnostics, who took themselves to be persons of far deeper knowledge, at the beginning of this chapter, were yet as gross and as heathenish and abominable as could be imagined, setting Christians at liberty from all their former obligations toward husband, master, prince, and engulfing themselves in all the filthiness in the world, 1 Tim. vi. Jude 8. From this explication of ἀσθενεῖ will appear also the notion of it, Rom. xiv. 21, where being placed also with προσ-κόπτειν, stumbling, and σκανδαλίζεσθαι, being scandalized, it must needs signify to sin also.

1 Corinthians 8:2

And therefore if any man please himself with an opinion of his knowledge from such subtitles as these, and so come to despise other men, and not to consider what tends to their good and edification, this man (let him call himself Gnostic or what he will) is far enough from the true Christian knowledge, or from directing his knowledge to the right end, for that is charity, or the edification of his brethren.

1 Corinthians 8:3

If any man love God sincerely, and so adhere to him in time of danger or temptation, he truly knows God, and consequently is known and acknowledged by God.

1 Corinthians 8:4

Having premised thus much concerning the name and sect of the Gnostics, who are such assertors of their liberty to do all things, and particularly in this matter think they have argued so subtitely for

[a] an idol is nothing] The meaning of this assertion of the Gnostics, and concession of St. Paul’s, that εἰδωλον οὐδὲν ἐν κόσμῳ, an idol is nothing in the world, must be fetched from the notation of the Hebrew word אֵלַי, from אֵל, that signifies nothing, that which hath no existence, Job xiii. 4. Jer. xiv. 14. Zach. xi. 17; and from thence comes אֱלִילִים, idols, that is, so many nothings, so far from being gods, that they are οὐδὲν ἐν κόσμῳ, nothing in the world, no parts of God’s first creation, only inventions and fancies of men, creatures of men’s own creating, Πονηροὶ πονηρῶν δαιμόνων καὶ πλασταὶ καὶ μυσταγωγοὶ, saith Greg. Nazianzen, “Wicked men are the formers first, and then the worshippers of their wicked deities.”

1 Corinthians 8:5

For though there be many called by that title, whether the celestial and supreme deities so esteemed among the heathen, or inferior, of a second order, called Baalim or lords, agents and mediators between the gods and men; or whether the sun and stars of heaven, or men of the earth deified; (Theophyl.)

1 Corinthians 8:6

Yet we Christians know and are assured that there is but one true God, the Creator of all things, to whom all men’s prayers must be addressed, as to the supreme, from whom as we had our being, so we are to think ourselves obliged to be his servants, and to make all our applications to him; and so likewise but one Mediator, but one Lord, by whom all things were created, and by whom, as the only Mediator betwixt God and us, all our prayers are addressed to heaven, viz. Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 8:7

But all men do not know or think this, that these idols or heathen gods are nothing, (for sure they that are accustomed to worship them think they are something,) nay, it is clear that some men that are of opinion that idols are something, and who fear them as able to hurt, (and so that must confess, that the eating of those feasts pollutes those that have cast off the worship of them,) and that continue their custom and former heathen course to this very time, though they have received Christianity do still go to idol-feasts as such, even now that they have received the faith of Christ; and their sick, that is, wounded, sinful consciences (see note [b]) (that is, they that go on still in this old heathen practice not yet laid down) are defiled or polluted by doing so. This is certainly a sin in them.

[b] weak] That ἀσθενεῖν signifies being sick, in the New Testament, hath been formerly made clear, note [m] on Rom. viii. And being applied to the soul or conscience, as here, it must needs signify the disease or wound or sickness of the soul or conscience, which is sin or error. Thus in the Greek of the Old Testament, Nahum ii. 5, where we read out of the Hebrew, they shall stumble in their walk, there it is, ἀσθενήσουσιν ἐν ταῖς πορείας, they shall be weak. And so generally the Hebrew כשל, impingere and cespitare, “to stumble or fall on gall-traps,” or any other mischief by the way, is rendered by the LXX. ἀσθενεῖν, being weak, because they are wounded and galled by these means, and so made unable to go forward. So Rom. xiv. 21, we have together in the same sense σκανδαλίζεσθαι and ἀσθενεῖν, being offended (or galled) and being made weak. So Rom. v. 6, ἡμῶν ἀσθενῶν, when we were weak, signifies when we were in a wounded, mortally wounded state, noted by when we were enemies in other places, and there by ἁμαρτωλῶν ὄντων ἡμῶν, ver. 8, when we were sinners, and by ἀσεβῶν, ver. 6, impious or ungodly. So saith * Theophylact, Ἀσθενῶν, τουτέστιν ἁμαρτωλῶν, ἀσθένεια γὰρ ἡ ἁμαρτία, ὥσπερ ἡ δικαιοσύνη ὑγεία, “weak, that is, sinners, for weakness is sin, as righteousness is health.” And thus it is clear it signifies in this place, the discourse being of those who take the idol gods to be true gods, and consequently that the eating or partaking of their sacrifices, which is a part of the worship of those idols, will stand them in stead, prove beneficial to them, and therefore go on purpose to those feasts, and eat the idol sacrifice, ὡς εἰδωλόθυτον, as or because (or under that very notion, or upon that reason that) it

• In Rom. 5. 6.

1 Corinthians 8:10

For if any man that through an erroneous conscience goes to those idol-feasts shall see a Gnostic (who within himself knows an idol to be nothing, and therefore eats this but as ordinary meat) be at an idol-feast, and partake of it, will not he by this means be confirmed to go on in his erroneous course?

1 Corinthians 8:11

And that Christian of an erroneous conscience (see note [b]) shall be confirmed in his error and sin, and consequent ruin, by occasion of this practice of thine; all which, through confidence of thine own knowledge, without care of thy brother’s heathenish errors remaining in him, thou hast been guilty of; which is a sin in thee, not only of uncharitableness to him, but of injury or robbery against Christ, in betraying a soul to ruin, for the saving of which Christ died.

1 Corinthians 8:12

And though it should be granted that your presence at idol-feasts were no impiety against God, yet sure this uncharitableness against thy brother, bringing him to a confirmation in his sinful practice, who through error is already in it, must be looked upon as an impiety and sin against God himself, who is concerned in him.

[c] wound] Τύπτειν, signifying to strike or give any blow, and being here applied to the weak or sick, that is, erroneous, sinful conscience, and being parallel to σκανδαλίζεσθαι, scandalize, ver. 13, must be understood in a notion which will be common to that other. Thus he that lays a stumblingblock in any man’s way, at which he falls or breaks his shins, or otherwise hurts himself, is said τύπτειν, to strike, or hurt, or wound him; and so it best agrees with this place, noting the confirming that man in sin, betraying him to all his after-commissions, whose conscience was before erroneous, and his practices sinful, which is as if instead of curing a sick man, which sure stands in need of that charity, I should wound and hurt him more.

1 Corinthians 8:13

If therefore this my eating in an idol-temple of that feast (or any use of my liberty in the same kind) be an occasion of confirming any Christian in an erroneous sinful practice, or bringing him to do any thing which is unlawful, I will sure deny myself the use of that liberty, be it supposed to be such as by the laws of Christ truly belongs to me, when it shall prove of so dangerous consequence to my fellow Christians.

⁵ being weak, ἀσθενεῖς ὕντος. ⁶ confirmed, οἰκοδομηθήσεται. ⁷ Or, Thy brother therefore for whom Christ died, growing sick through thy knowledge, is destroyed: for the King’s MS. reads, Ἀπόλλυται οὖν ὁ ἀσθενῶν ἐν τῇ γνώσει σου ἀδελφὸς δι’. ⁸ scandalize my brother, σκανδαλίξει.

1 Corinthians 8:35

[i] that you may attend—] This rendering of πρὸς τὸ εὐσχημον καὶ εὐπρόσεδρον τῷ Κυρίῳ ἀπερισπιάστως, that you may decently wait upon the Lord without distraction, is avowed by the Syriac, and the figure of ἐν διὰ δυοῖν, expressing one thing by two words, in the εὐσχημον καὶ εὐπρόσεδρον, will bear it very well.