Chapter Eight

The question of food sacrificed to idols from the standpoint of a general Christian view of idols (1–7). However, the understanding of idols is not the same for all Christians, and on this must be based certain obligations of one Christian toward another (8–13).

1 Cor 8:1-7. The position of Christians in Corinth and other Greek cities in relation to their pagan fellow-citizens was quite difficult. On the one hand they could not break off all family and friendly relations with them — this was not in the interests of the Gospel either. On the other, by maintaining these relations, Christians were exposed to various kinds of temptation and might prove unfaithful to Christian principles of life. Thus they were often invited to dinners given by pagans, and these dinners consisted of foods consecrated in pagan temples, or were arranged directly at these temples immediately after the offering of a sacrifice on the occasion of some family celebration. From the remnants of the sacrifice a feast was arranged for those who brought it. Sometimes these remnants were sold directly in the market and could, through ignorance, be purchased by Christians as well. — How did Christians relate to this situation? Some, the most free from superstition, said that the pagan gods are only a product of human imagination and that therefore one could eat such foods without any harm to one’s spiritual state; others avoided such feasts and such foods, fearing that by means of them they might fall under a harmful demonic influence. If the former undoubtedly belonged to the school of the Apostle Paul, the latter could also be his disciples, but they had not yet succeeded in freeing themselves from the conception of idols with which they had grown up since childhood, that is, they still looked upon idols as gods, as certain real beings. — The Apostle, in view of what has been said above, considers it necessary first of all to point out that the question of whether or not to eat food sacrificed to idols must be decided not only on the basis of knowledge about the nature of the pagan gods, but also on the basis of love for one’s neighbor. The Corinthians at any rate — those strong in faith — do not recognize in idols any real beings and believe only in the one Creator-God. But unfortunately not all have such understanding: there are among them those whose conscience is troubled when they have to eat meat sacrificed to idols — and those strong in faith must reckon with this fact.

1 Corinthians 8:1. Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that all of us possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. After the expression ‘concerning food sacrificed to idols’ it is better to add: ‘I will say the following:’ — ‘We know.’ ‘We’ refers to Paul and Sosthenes (1 Cor 1:1), and then also to those Corinthians who think as they do. — ‘Because’ (ότι) — more correctly: ‘that.’ It is in just this sense that the said Greek particle is used in verse 4, which properly represents a repetition and continuation of the first phrase of verse 1. — ‘All,’ that is, all Corinthian Christians who, by accepting baptism, thereby renounced the errors of polytheism and accepted the faith in the one God — they ‘know’ only Him. — ‘But knowledge....’ From this phrase through verse 4, there is an interpolated remark by the Apostle about the insufficiency of ‘knowledge’ for the proper development of Christian life. — ‘Puffs up,’ that is, makes a person presumptuous, vain, and frivolous. — ‘Love builds up.’ Only knowledge that is combined with love is highly beneficial, since it is precisely love that understands and is able to appreciate in a neighbor everything truly worthy of attention.

1 Corinthians 8:2. If anyone thinks he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. This expression of the Apostle recalls the ancient saying of a Greek sage: ‘I know only that I know nothing!’ — A person who lacks love is incapable of penetrating into the essence of a thing or phenomenon, because love brings the knower closer to the known, establishing between the two a close inner connection. Love is thus a necessary condition for all true knowledge.

1 Corinthians 8:3. But if anyone loves God, he is known by Him. The Apostle has just said that where there is no love, there is no knowledge either. Now he clothes the same thought in the form of a positive statement: where there is love, there is also true knowledge! — ‘Whoever loves God’ — the Apostle thus has in mind knowledge about God, about His decrees, and therefore speaks here specifically about love for God. A person who loves God receives ‘knowledge’ from God and becomes capable of understanding and feeling the needs of his brothers. — However, the majority of ancient codices reads the second half of verse 3 as: ‘he is known by Him’ (έγνωσται), as it stands in the Slavonic translation. This reading gives a thought about the greatness of the person who loves God: God Himself — the King of the universe — knows him, just as an earthly king knows certain of his most distinguished subjects. ‘To know’ here has the meaning: to recognize, to value, to love (cf. Gal 4:9).

1 Corinthians 8:4. Therefore, concerning the eating of food sacrificed to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one. After the digression (vv. 1b–3), the Apostle returns again to the thought he expressed at the beginning of verse 1. In doing so he makes a certain change: instead of pointing to what the Christians know — that all of them have knowledge — he says that what is known to them is the worthlessness of idols. Thus, instead of the fact of knowledge, the object of knowledge is indicated. — ‘An idol is nothing in the world.’ Since pagans saw in an idol-image the bearer and fully empowered representative of a particular deity, the Apostle says that nowhere in all the world is there a being that would correspond to the image and personage of Jupiter, Apollos, and other gods.

1 Corinthians 8:5. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth — as indeed there are many gods and many lords — 1 Corinthians 8:6. yet for us there is one God the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. Here the Apostle somewhat qualifies his thought about the worthlessness of paganism. ‘There are so-called gods.’ The imagination of the pagans peopled heaven and earth — with its mountains, seas, springs, and forests — with divine beings. But these gods are gods only in name, in title; their existence is illusory! They exist (‘there are’) — only in the imagination of their worshippers. — ‘As indeed there are many gods and many lords.’ Here the Apostle wishes to say that if individual mythological deities are nothing other than images created by human imagination, nevertheless behind these images stand genuinely existing forces with which one must reckon. What are these forces? The Apostle regards paganism in general as the work of evil spirits, who turned humanity away from God and filled with worthless and impure images of fantasy the void that formed in human hearts as a result. He therefore says that the pagans offer their sacrifices to demons (1 Cor 10:20), that demons are world-rulers of the darkness of this age (Eph 6:12), and that Satan is the god of this world (2 Cor 4:4). Thus, the expression ‘many gods’ may designate in the Apostle’s usage the higher spirits of the kingdom of darkness, while the expression ‘many lords’ designates spirits of a lower order who are at the disposal of the former. Does the view of the origin of paganism expressed here by the Apostle contradict the theory we find in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans? No, there is no contradiction here, but rather a supplement to that theory. There the Apostle explains the origin of paganism purely psychologically, without mentioning the influence of evil spirits in this matter. He does this in order to clarify the sinfulness of humanity itself, which was entirely permeated with sin and therefore created such a sinful thing as idolatry. Here, however, in order to give the Corinthians certain practical instructions, he points first of all to demonic influence in the formation of paganism. ‘But for us’ — to these gods and lords, who exist only in the imagination yet have behind them a certain reality, the Apostle contrasts the one God and the one Lord. — ‘Father’ — in relation to Christ and to believers. — ‘From whom are all things,’ that is, everything proceeds only from God. — ‘And for whom we exist’ (εις αυτόν), that is, in Him we have the goal of our existence. The Apostle wishes to show here not the greatness and perfection of God, but to clarify that nothing can defile believers (even meat offered in sacrifice to idols, cf. ch. 10). Indeed, how can anything that has proceeded from God prevent a person from fulfilling his calling, his service to God? — ‘And one Lord.’ Just as God is contrasted to the principal pagan deities, so Christ is contrasted to the deities of the second rank, who serve as intermediaries between these higher deities and the world. — ‘Through whom are all things.’ Of God it was said ‘from whom’ (εξ αυτοῦ) all things, of Christ — ‘through whom’ (δι οῦ). But both in the one case and in the other, the subject is the creation of the world, where God was the First Cause and the Son of God the instrument, the executor (cf. John 1:3; Col 1:15-17). — ‘And through whom we exist.’ Here the word ‘we’ is contrasted with the word ‘all.’ The Apostle here points to spiritual creation or to redemption (cf. Col 1:18-22). Thus, in his conception, in the physical realm we are ‘from’ God and ‘through’ Christ, and in the spiritual realm — ‘through’ Christ and ‘for’ God. — This passage is important as evidence that the Apostle already at an early period held the same view of Christ as he expresses in his later epistles (Colossians, Ephesians, Philippians).

1 Corinthians 8:7. But not all have this knowledge. Some, through former association with idols, eat food sacrificed to idols as if it were truly offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. Not all, however, are so consistent in faith. Some, while believing in the one God, still cannot free themselves from the thought that idols exist and that they do indeed exercise a defiling influence on the foods offered to them. — ‘But not all have this knowledge.’ Does this expression contradict what was said in verse 1: ‘all of us have knowledge’? No, it does not. There the reference is to ‘some’ knowledge (γνῶσις — without the article), and here to a definite, firm, and complete knowledge (γνῶσις with the article). The latter is not possessed by all — not all are free from every doubt and wavering in ‘particular’ cases of life, while ‘in general’ they acknowledge the basic dogma of Christianity. — ‘With a conscience’ (συιειδήσει), that is, being inwardly convinced of the reality of idols. Some ancient codices put the word ‘habit’ (συνήθεια) in place of the word ‘conscience,’ but the meaning of the passage is not altered by this; it only adds the supplementary thought that the Apostle is referring here to Christians from paganism who, out of old habit, regard idols as real beings. — ‘And their conscience, being weak,’ that is, their moral consciousness is feeble. They cannot regard themselves as beings sufficiently free and insured against demonic influence. Therefore, when eating meat sacrificed to idols, such people defile themselves in their own eyes, appearing to themselves as truly stained and having sinned before God. 1 Cor 8:8-13. In view of the existence of such Christians, those strong in faith must not display their freedom too openly. They must not eat food sacrificed to idols in a pagan temple, because this might compel the one weak in faith likewise to eat this meat, only then, in private, to bitterly repent such an action. In order not to sin against a brother — a weak Christian — and through this against Christ Himself, the Apostle is willing to abstain entirely from eating meat.

1 Corinthians 8:8. Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do eat. 1 Corinthians 8:9. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. Here the Apostle addresses the Christians who are strong in faith. There is no reason for them to strive to eat meat sacrificed to idols! If they think this will bring them closer to God, they are mistaken: we do not become better by eating certain food, and we lose nothing by not eating it. Yet in this eating there is the danger of causing offense to a weak brother. — ‘Your right.’ This is an allusion to the principle held by many Corinthian Christians: ‘all things are lawful for me!’ (1 Cor 6:12).

1 Corinthians 8:10. For if anyone sees you, who have knowledge, sitting at table in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, since his conscience is weak, to eat food sacrificed to idols? 1 Corinthians 8:11. And so by your knowledge this weak brother is ruined, the one for whom Christ died. The Apostle here makes a practical application of the general principles set forth above (in vv. 7–9). — ‘Someone’ — of course from among those spoken of in verse 7. — ‘Idol’s temple’ — from the Old Slavonic expression: кап — image, idol. Such was the name for the place in which an idol or image (ειδωλεῖον) was placed. — ‘Will he not be encouraged.’ The bold appearance of a Christian in a pagan temple and his fearless consumption of food prepared from the remains of an idol sacrifice will not leave the weak Christian without effect — the one who had at first declined to participate in such a feast. But of course he will participate in this feast not out of conviction, but only out of imitation of Christians stronger in faith. His inner attitude toward idols will not change through this. The unfaithfulness to the Lord that he has, in his own estimation, committed here will, the Apostle believes, separate him from the Lord, and with this his spiritual dying will begin, which can lead a person to eternal perdition (cf. Rom 14:15). Thus the one strong in faith will display his strength in what? In destroying his brother! He will destroy his brother by his ‘knowledge,’ that is, by his high Christian development, which he so eagerly sought to attain! He will destroy a person for whom Christ suffered death! Is it not strange then that the one strong in faith insists on proving his faith and his free view of paganism?

1 Corinthians 8:12. When you thus sin against the brothers and wound their weak conscience, you are sinning against Christ. 1 Corinthians 8:13. Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble. The Apostle particularly emphasizes the criminal nature of the behavior of the strong toward Christ. To offend Christ, to hinder His work — this is a great sin! The Apostle is so penetrated by the seriousness of the question he has raised that he even makes a kind of vow not to eat not only meat sacrificed to idols, but meat in general (κρέας), if the eating of it gives a neighbor occasion for stumbling. * * * Ph. Bachmann sees here a reference to good angels who truly dwell in heaven, and to personal gods — emperors and judges — in the sense of Ps 133. But the reasons he gives for his opinion are quite unconvincing.