Summary of 1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Paul speaks forcefully: He does not want them to be ignorant that their spiritual ancestors, the Hebrews all went under the cloud, and all went through the sea, and all were "baptized" in Moses in the cloud and sea. All ate the same spiritual food, the manna, and all drank the same spiritual drink, from the spiritual rock that followed them, but the rock was Christ.

Yet, God was not pleased with the majority of them, and they were laid low in the desert. What happened to them were prophecies by actions, foreshadowings of what we have, so we might not desire evil things as they did, or go into idol worship, as some of them did, for: "The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to take their pleasure."

So Paul urges them: Do not be sexually immoral as some of them were. Twenty-three thousands of them fell in one day. And they must not tempt the Lord as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Some of them murmured. We must not do that. They were destroyed.

These things that happened to them were types, prophecies by actions. Scripture tells us these things to bring us to our senses: the final age has come to us.

So if someone thinks he is standing, he must look out for a fall. No temptation has struck them yet except the kind that people in general have. However, God is faithful to His promise, and will not allow them to be tempted more than they can bear. He will provide also along with the temptation, a way out, so they can bear it.

Comments on 10:1-13

We need to keep in mind that Paul is still working hard to persuade them not to give scandal, to give up meat at times to avoid scandal, to avoid ruining a soul for which Christ died. In this section he gives a number of Old Testament incidents. He calls them types, that is, foreshadowings. That means that the actions were prophecies of what was to come. The Fathers of the Church were fond of looking for types, e.g., the ark was a type of the Church, Isaac carrying the wood on which to be sacrificed was a type of Christ.

The ancient Hebrews were the People of God, but that did not mean they had it made. They fell into sin and were destroyed for it. Paul clearly does not have in mind that they had it made if they were part of the people of God -- a foreshadowing of the new people of God, which, according to Luther would be those who "take Christ as their personal Savior" and then need not worry if they do sin. But Paul indicates here that the ancient people of God did not have it made. Neither should the Corinthians think they are secure because they are the people of God, and so could sin by scandal without being punished. They could be destroyed too. According to Luther that would not be possible.

They were all "baptized" by being under the cloud and passing through the sea. This foreshadowed Baptism. The cloud was that spoken of in Exodus 13:21. God went before them in a column of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night.

They had as spiritual food the manna that fell daily in the desert, and which prefigured the Eucharist. And they drank from the spiritual rock. It was called spiritual because of the spiritual origin of the water thatt came from it, and because it was a "type" or foreshadowing. There was a rabbinic legend that the rock actually followed them. Paul can make use of it without endorsing it, much as we can quote from Alice in Wonderland to illustrate something without thinking the story of Alice was true. A similar usage appears in the Epistle of Jude 9. But further, God is often called the Rock in the Old Testament²³ and He was always present with them. In Exodus 17:6 God said He would be standing there in front of them on the rock from which the waters came. Deuteronomy 8:16 says it was God who brought the water out of the rock for them. Paul calls the rock Christ -- he applies the property of God to Christ.

There were several rebellious actions by the Hebrews in the desert. Psalm 78:30-31 tells of their being laid low in the desert for their murmuring.

"The people sat down to eat and drink and rose to take their pleasure." This line is from Exodus 32:6, the incident of the golden calf. The people got tired of waiting for Moses who went up onto Sinai for 40 days and nights, and finally they prevailed on Aaron to make them a golden calf, which they worshipped. The pleasure may well have been sexual.

The incident in which 23,000 fell was that in which they sinned with the daughters of Moab, who also got them into idolatry: Numbers 25:1-9. This was right after the marvelous prophecy of Balaam in the preceding chapter! Paul gives the number as 23,000 even though Numbers 25:9 reports 24,000. The answer is that Semites were not precise about numbers. Hence Pius XII, in Divino afflante spiritu²⁴ speaks of semitic approximation and hyperbole as normal for them. (Consider also the fact that their day was divided into 12 hours for the daylight period, even though the length of an hour would vary constantly throughout the year).

The incident of the serpents to which Paul refers seems to be that of Numbers 21:6-9. After the people murmured, God sent saraph serpents that bit and killed them. When they begged Moses for help, God told him to put up a bronze serpent on a pole. Anyone who was bitten and looked at it, would be healed. This of course was a type of the cross. Incidentally, though God had prohibited making images (Exodus 20:4-5), He ordered this. This shows that the prohibition was not against making all images, just things to worship.

The next incident of murmuring to which Paul alludes without being precise is probably that of the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiron against Moses, in Numbers 16.

After recalling these things, Paul draws his conclusion: these things were prophecies by actions. They show us that to be a member of the people of God is not enough. One must avoid sin too. So they cannot get away with giving scandal by leading others into sin over meat sacrificed to idols.

He says the ends of the ages have come upon them. It means that the Christian regime is the last period of God's dealing with the human race. There is to be no other regime to supplant it.²⁵ So Paul goes on warning them: they have not had any extraordinary temptation yet. Was he perhaps thinking of persecutions which were coming? But in any case, God is faithful to His promises, and He will give them the strength needed. We think here of the promises of the grace of final perseverance which Paul gave in 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24; Philippians 1:6; 1 Corinthians 1:8-9.

Summary of 1 Corinthians 10:14-33 and 11:1

He urges his beloved Christians to flee from idol worship. He speaks to them inasmuch as they are sensible people. He asks them to see for themselves. Their cup of blessing is a sharing in the blood of Christ. The bread they break is a sharing of the body of Christ. For they all, though they are many, are one bread and one body, for they all share in the one bread. Similarly, the racial Jews who eat of the sacrificed victims share in that altar.

Turning again to the pagan temples, he says that he does not mean that something is changed by being sacrificed to idols, or that an idol is something. No, but what the pagans sacrifice, they, in effect, sacrifice to the demons and not to God. So the Christians should not want to be sharers with demons. They cannot drink of the cup of the Lord and of the cup of the demons too. They cannot share in the table of the Lord and the table of demons. They should not want to provoke the Lord to jealous anger. They are not stronger than He is, are they?

[Someone might object, quoting Paul against Paul]: "Everything is permitted, for we are free from the law." The reply: Not all things are good for us. [Objection returns] "Everything is permitted" Reply: But not all things are spiritually helpful. So, we should not seek our own interests, but be concerned about the other person.

[Conclusion] They can eat everything sold in the market, asking no questions because of conscience. So, if some pagan invites a Christian out to eat, and he goes, he may eat whatever is served, asking no questions because of conscience. However -- if someone at table says: "This was sacrificed to idols," then, they must not eat, because of the conscience of the one who said that. [Objection] "Why should our freedom be destroyed because of the conscience of someone else? Why should anyone speak ill of us because of food over which we have said grace?"

[Reply] Whether we eat or drink or do anything whatsoever -- we should do all for the glory of God, and avoid giving scandal to Jews, to Greeks, and to Christians. Paul accommodates himself to all in everything, he is all things to all men. He does not look out for what is useful for him, but for the others so they may be saved. So they should imitate him. He imitates Christ.

Comments on 10-14:33 and 11:1

Paul now returns to the main topic: May they eat food sacrificed to idols, which he began at the start of chapter 8. In between he devoted a long fervent discourse to urging them not to give scandal in eating meat sacrificed to idols. Then they would ruin a soul, for a piece of meat, a soul for whom Christ died.

Now, even though Paul has said that an idol is nothing and nothing changes nothing, he has something to add. He opens by saying that the blessed cup ("cup of blessing" is a Hebraism) they drink means sharing in the blood of Christ, and the bread is a sharing in the body of Christ. Even though they are many, they are one by sharing in the one bread. Then he makes a parallel to the racial Jews: those who eat from the victims that have been sacrificed share in the altar. It is implied that those who share in the victims sacrificed to idols share in the idol's altar. But: What of the fact he has said the idol is nothing and the food is not changed? He does not deny that. But he adds that behind idol worship are the demons. In that sense, to eat the food sacrificed to idols in the temple ritual would be sharing with demons. They cannot share both with the Lord and with demons! They cannot drink the Lord's cup and the cup of demons too, or share in the table of the Lord and the table of demons.

He says they must not provoke the Lord to jealous anger -- comparing Him to a lover jealous of his beloved.

Paul may have confused readers by this time. At one moment he speaks of taking part in the temple ritual; at another moment he is thinking of scandal given outside that ritual, at a private dinner. It still remains true, and he does not deny it that to eat it outside of temple ritual is harmless, unless there is scandal. But Paul is thinking of the kind of case we mentioned earlier: when eating would pressure someone with weak conscience into eating when he would think it sinful to eat.

We should notice too the implication of the above. He compares the Eucharist to the sacrifices of Jews and of pagans, clearly implying that the Eucharist is basically a sacrifice, in which those who take part are given part of the victim after it is offered. The Eucharist is a sacrifice, because a sacrifice in our theology has two parts (We can gather this from Isaiah 29:13: "This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." We notice the two parts, lips, that is externals, and heart, that is, interior dispositions). In the Eucharist the outward sign on Holy Thursday was the seeming separation of body and blood, by having the two species. This stood for death, and expressed His willingness to die in obedience, the interior disposition of His heart. (The picture is the same in the Mass, same outward sign, same interior disposition. On Friday the outward sign changed to the actual separation of body and blood. But the interior, His obedience to the Father, was the same, was really continuous from Thursday, in fact, from His entry into the world when He said: "Behold, I come to do your will, O God" [Hebrews 10:7]. In the Mass, His disposition is continuous from Thursday and Friday: death makes permanent the attitude of soul with which one leaves this world.).

Paul next imagines an objector who still does not want to have to give up meat anytime to avoid scandal. The objector invokes Paul's principle that they are free from the law. Paul replies in the same way as what we saw in 1 Corinthians 6:12, where they also quoted Paul against Paul, and he replied that such things are not good for them, do not help spiritually.

He sums up: You may eat things sacrificed to idols, except when there is scandal.

Then the objector returns: "Why should my freedom be taken away because of someone else's conscience?" Paul replies with a very general principle: Whatever we do, it must be for the glory of God. To give scandal and thereby ruin a soul for whom Christ died, is not for the glory of God. Paul, as he said before, becomes all things to all, so they may be saved. So they should imitate him, as he imitates Christ.

It is interesting to notice this final thought is the same as that in the Rabbinic document, Tosefta, Berakoth 4.1, in which we read: "No one should use his face, his hands, or his feet, except for the glory of the Creator." It means: To use a pleasure without reference to God, merely pleasure for pleasure's sake, would be wrong.

About the heading of this section: Paul of course did not make divisions into chapters and verses. The division here was made very badly, putting the start of a new chapter in the middle of a sentence.